Sig Sautelle

From the list of elephant persons Family: Satterlee

Sig Sautelle

Personal details

Spouse(s)	1876 - 1916 Ida Satterlee

Country	United States

Locations
Title	owner 1905-1907
Location	at Sig Sautelle-Welsh Bros. Circus in United States

Title	owner -
Location	at Sig Sautelle Circus in United States

Biography details

George C. Satterlee , circus director in United States

Born 1848-09-22 in United States dead 1928-06-21 in United States .

George C. Satterlee, better known as Sig Sautelle, founded a circus with 225 people on the payroll; boasted two elephants, 14 cages of animals and 150 horses, and ponies (according to John C. Kunzog’s book Tan Bark and Tinsel, 1970). The surname “Satterlee” didn’t have quite the requisite theatrical ring to satisfy George, so he adopted a more exotic name, Signor Sautelle. The public soon dubbed him "Sig."

Sig reorganized his original small rolling wagon circus and planned a new itinerary using the canal as his route. After all, floating the show along smooth Erie waters offered certain advantages over endless wagon rides over bumpy, rugged country roads.

Sig and Ida chose Syracuse as their base of operations. Their troupe loaded necessary equipment and animals aboard several canal boats and set out to entertain and delight the local citizenry in burgs along the Erie.

1900: Leaving Syracuse, and after a brief sojourn in the village of DeRuyter, Sautelle moved his base of operations to Homer, New York, in 1900. Homer welcomed Sig, who immediately purchased a hotel to house his circus folk.

1901-1904: At the clove of the 1901 season Mr. Sautelle and the late Frank A. Robbins, who had been identified with Sig Sautelle Circus and the Sautelle shows for many years, spent the greater part of a month going over railroad show plans and the result was a decision by the circus owner to take to the road in 1902 as a railroad show. The success of his rail venture was instant and in 1903 he made additions, and also in 1904, during which season his outfit attracted James McCaddon of the Barnum & Bailey show, who was looking for a circus outfit to take to France. McCaddon made an offer for the oufit and it was turned over to him at the close of the 1904 season and shipped to France as MacCaddon Circus.

1905: Merged with Welsh Bros. Circus and toured as Sig Sautelle-Welsh Bros. Circus.

George Satterly and his ailing wife, Ida Belle, took up residence in 1915 on a small farm outside of Homer. That was about the time, according to the late Homer historian R. Curtis Harris, that the Wharton Moving Picture Company of Ithaca (the Hollywood of the silent film era) came to Homer to film a segment with the famous actress Pearl White. Extras were the many circus performers who still made Homer their home. Sig must have enjoyed it. For three days the glory of , his old Circus was reenacted, if only for the camera (“Sig Sautelle: A Circus and an Era.” The Crooked Lake Review. October, 1995).

In 1927, the year before he died, Sautelle, then a widower, tried to give it another go. With the improvement in roads, he decided to use the new large, motorized trucks to move his new show. Caught in a downward whirlwind of credit and a fluctuation of prices, Sig\'s show failed the first year. To the end of his five-decade career in entertainment, Sautelle contended with ups and downs, earning his rightful place in the Circus Hall of Fame, and, for a while, Homer’s fame was tied to that of Sig Sautelle’s highly respected traveling circus.

Sautelle exited the circus business after his wife died in 1916.

He was near 80 when he died in 1928.

Reference list

References

Koehl, Dan, (2024). director George C. Satterlee in United States. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 25 November 2024 at https://www.elephant.se/person.php?id=1504. (archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources used for this article is among others:

http://newyorkhistoryreviewarticles.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-trials-and-tribulations-of-homers.html
http://www.classic.circushistory.org/Bandwagon/bw-1944Dec.htm
The Billboard 1922-03-18: Vol 34 Iss 11
James P. Hughes, https://www.lifeinthefingerlakes.com/homers-sig-sautelle/
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/4747840/hobby-bandwagon-august-1948-vol-3-no-7-circus-historical-

Selected publications

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