Kemp’s Wild West Shows.
George Pendelton Kemp "was reared in the West, and is thoroughly familiar with the life and habits of the plainsman. With his brothers Frank and Abe,1 he organized the Kemp Brothers Wild West Shows which has toured the country for many seasons." So read the advertising brochures of the Kemps. Since G. P., as he was familiarly known, was born in Lexington, Illinois on September 4, 1864, and had lived all his life in Lexington, Gridley, El Paso and La Mar, Missouri, this show bill slightly exaggerated his western background. He finally did settle in the West, but that was after his show had closed in 1912; this was his first residence in the far west which he had portrayed to eastern audiences for more than twenty years.
The show proper began in the early 1890's, booking fairs and celebrations in eastern cities, where the Wild West features attracted great throngs. We are unable to find the date of their first showing. They had been out a season or two when Frank Kemp bought a newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland, to read that his home town had suffered a great fire with the center business block totally destroyed. The fire was July 19, 1894. In 1895 we find them at the district fair of Iona, Michigan, the managers reporting that the "Kemp Brothers aggregation is a first class attraction. Mr. G. P. Kemp is a gentleman, and to all persons looking for something that is really good, we would say, seek no further."
Some of their show advertising was nearer truth than the bill about their western background. One told how "the Kemp brothers have been riding Roman fashion all their lives, and to their credit belongs the revival of the old Roman sports races that have so thrilled the American public." G. P., Frank and later Abe Kemp had been riding two horses at one time since their boyhood. The brothers used old Pastime Park near Kappa and a track at the eastern edge of Gridley for practice performances before Sunday and holiday crowds. Gridley folks who were close friends of the Neuhauser girl who married G. P. were displeased with her for allowing her husband to tie their two little girls on their ponies as they went through a routine of tricks and jumping. Years later, Mida and Lida Kemp were two of the finest horsewomen in America.
Page 90