SOCIETY CIRCUS PROGRAM

AIRED: Season 6, Episode 3
THE DETECTIVE: Gwen Wright
THE PLACE: Oregon and New York City

THE CASE:

A young girl from Oregon finds a curious, yellowed circus program in her school’s drama closet that reads ”Official Program of Cobina Wright’s Society Circus for the benefit of the Boy Scout Foundation, Hon. Franklin D. Roosevelt, President, Season 1933.”

The program seems to promote some kind of high society theme party at the opulent Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.

Who was Cobina Wright and what do the Boy Scouts, FDR and Cobina’s Circus -- with its lengthy “who’s-who” celebrity list -- have in common?

History Detectives explores New York City’s 1930s high society and illuminates a connection between FDR and the Boy Scouts that inspired one of the most popular and effective pieces of the President’s New Deal program.

Feature: 1930s High Society
Despite the poverty and suffering that charactarized the Great Depression, the 1930s also featured lavish parties for the era's celebrities, socialites and aristocrats.