(Cad sits painting in the image to the left, with Charles F. Ross shown in the insert and to the right painting Fifi “Sheep-Headed Girl” banner headed for the Texas Centennial World’s Fair, from The Evening Express, Portland, Maine, 1936)

Clarence C. “Cad” Hill of Falmouth, Maine is considered one of the finest banner painters to ever wield the garish colors and outlandish imagination that the great sideshows of the 1910s, 20s, and 30s demanded.


(Ad from The Greater Show World, 1937. Note mention of his partner Jack Shafer.)

Cad was born in 1871 in Sandwich, New Hampshire, and was legless due to an accident that occurred around 1915. He got started in the late-1880s as a sign painter and scenic artist in Lynn, Massachusetts. In 1890 he did his first show work, painting up a lobby display for a local store show, and as it returned each winter, he got to know the show folk. By 1894 his reputation spread to Boston, and he soon was the house artist for the renowned dime museum Austin and Stone’s.

Hill recalled in 1936 that the first freak he ever caught on canvas was Millie-Christine in 1890. Other performers he painted included Jo-Jo “The Russian Dog-Faced Boy,” the Wild Men of Borneo (several varieties of them), and The Korean Siamese Twins.

In 1898 with the Spanish-American War on, Cad was hired to paint the banners for the John H. Sparks, Walter L. Main, and Pawnee Bill shows. This led to even more work, and Hill travelled to New York, subsequently painting bannerlines for Barnum and Bailey, Buffalo Bill, and the 101 Ranch show.

Having by this time worked his magic for all the major shows, he was hired for a time to be the main show painter for the two huge competitors at Coney Island– both Luna Park and Dreamland Circus Sideshow.

After trying New York, Hill decided to try a few other places– “have brush will travel”– ending up in San Antonio by 1920.

An ad in The Billboard in March of that year, had Hill partnered with C. Jack Shafer, as “HILL & SHAFER, Big Banner Studio, 406 Dolorosa Street.” They advertised that they were looking for a:

“SCENIC ARTIST…Experienced on Show Fronts and Show Banners. No limit to salary to artist who can produce results. Long season work on contracts for Wortham’s Carnival’s, Sells- Floto Cirous Side-Shows.Thousand other big Shows. АLL work designed and laid out by C. Cad Hill himself”.

By the next year Hill and Shafer seemed to have found their artist:




Hill had established a studio capitalizing on the now famous name, HILL SYSTEM, advertising in The Billboard “A SUBSTANTIAL STUDIO CATERING TO HIGH-CLASS SHOWMEN,” with fellow painters C. Jack Shafer and A.S. Solomon.

In 1923 The Billboard reported that “Cad Hill, of the Hill System” painted a set of show banners for California Shows, including Prof. Ozark’s Circus Sideshow, the Motordome, the Monkey Speedway, “The Working World” show, and the Puzzle House (funhouse). Hill travelled from San Antonio to Boston to paint all the fronts, and “they are beauties.”

Brown & Dyer Shows in 1925 found Cad Hill in Los Angeles where he had established himself that year, reporting that the painter had made a new set of banners for Victor Lee’s wax show.

Enter Charles Ross

The gorgeous and extravagant banner at the head of this article, probably painted in the 1930s, titled Rosshill Circus Carnival Show Banners, was used to advertise Charles Ross and Cad Hill’s joint enterprise.

Back in 1912 soon-to-be partner Charles Ross had a sign painting establishment in Lewiston, Maine, and hired the temporarily off-season Cad Hill to work in his shop. A couple or few years later Hill hired Ross for an assignment in San Antonio. Ross eventually settled in Falmouth, Maine in the 1930s and lured Hill to a permanent partnership.

In the April 1936 article mentioned above, Hill and Ross were seen finishing up an order for Manchester, New Hampshire based Bockus and Kilonis Wild Animal Circus, a doomed enterprise begun by professional wrestler John Kilonis, known as the “Greek Demon,” which lasted all of 6 weeks. The order for banners included Ten 10×14 banners and a 21×14 cut-out entrance banner.

Likewise in 1936, Rice Brothers Circus-Buck Owens Wild West Shows’ manager, Ray Marsh Brydon, advertised:

HAVE FOR SALE- Complete set of Single Deck 8×8 Side Show Banners, used 14 weeks last year, for open front Show, practically new, cost $25 apiece, will take $8 apiece, or $150 for complete Front, 26 Banners in all. including Sx15 Doorway and 2 Double Deck Descriptive 8×14, for Ends.A REAL BUY. REASON FOR SELLING. GETTING ALL NEW DOUBLE-DECK BANNERS FROM CAD HILL.

Charles Ross may have retired soon after this, as no mention can be found on him after this date, other than the death of his wife in 1946, and the death of another wife who was his widow in 1952, putting Ross’s own death between 1946-1952. And two years later Hill had a new (old) partner.

Re-enter Jack Shafer



In April 1938, old partner from the San Antonio days, C. Jack Shafer, described in The Billboard as an “erstwhile museum owner,” writes that Cad Hill is working at his Augusta, Maine farm, and has established a studio there, where the two were working on banners for the coming season.

A 1938 article describes a housewarming party for Jack Shafer and his wife at their Webber Pond home in Vassalboro, Maine, tells us Shafer was well-regarded by the locals and that:

“The house, which has been completely renovated and many modern improvements added was inspected by the guests. Of particular interest to everyone were the many beautiful paintings about the house, which are the work of Cad Hill, who makes his home with the Shafers.”

It is not known at this time when Cad Hill retired, but he seems to have fallen to ill health by the mid-1940s. Cad passed away October 20, 1947 at a convalescent home in Pittston, Maine at age 77, and is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Augusta, Maine.

Sadly, in the age when Cad Hill painted, banners were considered completely disposable, and not many survive from his era of the 1920s and 30s. What work does survive is remarkable. In Fred and Mary Fried’s seminal book America’s Forgotten Folk Art he quotes prolific banner artist Fred Johnson on Cad Hill: “…very good… very much in detail, too good for banner work.”