EKKA Sideshow Alley and the Travelling Showmen - The Pink Family and their Descendants

This blog was written by 2025 Royal Queensland Show (EKKA) Fellow, Bronwyn Bridgewater. 

I am proud to be the firstborn member of the fourth generation of one of the oldest Australian travelling show families. My great grandfather, ‘Snowy’ Pink (1), had a history with agricultural shows that dated back to 1894 (2). Up until the 1930’s Snowy, and his wife Ethel (3), travelled the agricultural show circuit of Queensland and Northern NSW in horse and wagon, living in wagons and tents with their seven children.

Undeterred by the challenges of itinerant living, Ethel, a gifted and resourceful cook, could prepare anything from stews, baked dinners to cakes and damper in her trusty Dutch oven on the campfire. Snowy and Ethel relied on their seven children becoming versatile and resourceful showmen to help survive tough times like the Great Wars, the Spanish Flu pandemic and the Great Depression. My grandmother, Thelma, the eldest of their offspring, was at various times - a snake handler called ‘Venitia’, a contortionist, the only female to run her own boxing tent, was the dead-eye shot in the Human Target tent show performing at country shows and the Ekka – she even taught herself to play the ukelele so that her two younger sisters (Daisy and Sylvia) could dance the hula in her tent show. 

An interesting old sideshow story that my grandmother told me was when she was performing in the Human Target, she used a real gun and live ammunition which a local would verify as being authentic. Thelma would shoot at her assistant who would ‘catch the bullet in her mouth’. Of course, this feat is not possible but regardless, the performance took real skill as my grandmother would have to accurately shoot at the girl’s chest where a metal plate was concealed inside her vest. There have been several recorded instances where this act has ended in injury in other similar shows (6). One day, Thelma, who was extremely intuitive, had an uneasy feeling about proceeding with her act. So, she checked the girl’s vest and discovered that the metal plate was missing. Asked why, the girl tearfully confessed ‘My boyfriend broke up with me and I wanted to die!’.

My grandparents, Bill and Thelma Howard, who adopted me, were the first showmen to pioneer the Dagwood Dog canteen business.(8) Dagwood Dogs first appeared in Australia around 1949 - originally called Pronto Pups - there were some legal ramifications regarding the use of that name by the Americans who were selling them at Sydney Easter Show – there was a court case relating to the name’s use. (9) My grandfather frequently told me about how they first started making Dagwood Dogs, saying that in the beginning, they didn’t have a clue how to make them. My uncle, Charlie Pink Jnr, was told the same story by his father. In the following clip he reveals the experimental flops made by my grandmother, her brother, Charlie Pink Snr and another showman called Dickie Riley, before they finally settled on the perfect recipe. I am proud to say that more than 180,000 Dagwood Dogs were eaten last year at the Ekka (10) knowing that my family are part of that founding history. 

Today, Glen and Jaze Pink’s Dagwood Dog canteen occupies the same position as my grandparent’s original stall and canteen from the 1940s. These days there are numerous showmen who sell Dagwood Dogs, including my family of the Marshalls and Pinks who have continued with their catering heritage.

I was four months old at my first Ekka in 1953, when we camped with the rest of the show community on Brisbane Showgrounds. By 1958 we had to camp outside of the Ekka due to sideshow alley requiring more space. Jimmy Sharman, my grandfather’s best friend, was my Godfather, and when, as a five year old, I was picked up by the ‘Lost Children’s Tent’, I was told by my Nana if that should occur, I was to take the police officer to Jimmy Sharman’s Boxing Tent – where the officer would tell Jimmy that ‘this kid’s not lost, she knows the showgrounds better than me!’. Indeed, Brisbane Showgrounds was like my backyard for the 2-3 weeks that we were camped there.

In 1954 the Brisbane Sunday Mail featured an interesting article that described the itinerant lifestyle of my family and how on show day, I would sit in my cot next to my mother’s Dagwood joint, and watch her serve hot dogs and fairy floss:

Like most show kids growing up in the 1950s, I attended school in whatever country town the agricultural show was on. I had a passport sized booklet that had to be stamped by the school to prove I was attending school. It was difficult going to school where I was a stranger, ununiformed and not understanding the schoolwork they were teaching. My family were quite fierce that I should remember to get the book stamped and to never lose it. I could never understand why they were so insistent until I spoke to the late Mick Brophy in 2018 (the brother of Fred Brophy, famous for his Boxing Tent). Mick told me that during the 1930’s there were stories of children being taken from their families because they were accused of not attending school. 

Consequently, to avoid this happening, and to ensure I received a good education, when I was 6 ½ years old my grandparents sent me to a Catholic boarding school in Sydney which I attended for ten years. I received an excellent education but gradually, I felt like an outsider in my Show community when I would return to the showgrounds on the holidays. In fact, quite a few of my family and other show children have been sent to boarding school over the years – often a very difficult experience for children who, like me, had lived in tents and had to adjust to austere, cold buildings and a regimented lifestyle. 

In the year 2000 the travelling showmen established the Queensland School for Travelling Show Children (QSTSC). Recently when speaking with my cousin, Aaron and his father, Charlie Pink Jnr, they were enthusiastic as they shared about the success of the show school, saying it was the best way to educate the travelling show children without sending them away from their family and community. I couldn’t agree more, knowing from personal experience how painful it is for young children to be separated from their family and culture. In the following clip Aaron speaks about how his own family benefited from the Show School. 

I am extremely proud of the show community and my family’s long heritage and relationship with the Ekka. Although the showmen’s itinerant lifestyle and culture is significantly different to traditional Australian society, Showies are a highly creative and hardworking community whose industry ‘brings the Show to the Country’ where many country children have never experienced the excitement of visiting amazing theme parks such as Movie World and Dreamworld. Each year the show community boost the Brisbane economy by employing locals to work at the Ekka, as well as providing that special carnival atmosphere and excitement that complements the many other attractions of the Royal Queensland Show. 

Call out for your photographs!

As part of her Royal Queensland Show (EKKA) Fellowship, Bronwyn is calling for stories, photographs, or film footage related to the EKKA. Her research draws on the John Oxley Library and RNA archives to explore how major events—such as drought, the Spanish Influenza, the Great Depression, both World Wars, and more recently COVID-19 and security concerns—have shaped the EKKA and its agricultural, urban, and show communities. If you have memories or materials you’d like to share, please get in touch via qldmemory@slq.qld.gov.au.

Bronwyn Bridgewater

Read more blogs about the EKKA.

More blogs by 2025 EKKA Fellow, Bronwyn Bridgwater:

• Showtime Stories: Uncovering 150 Years of EKKA Magic
• Legends of the EKKA: Volunteers
• Legends of the EKKA: Competitors and Exhibitors
• EKKA's Sideshow Alley and the Travelling Showmen

References

1. ‘Snowy’ Sidney George Arthur Pink 1880-1965 born UK emigrated at 3 years of age to Qld, Australia.
2. "Show Business In Pink Blood" The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1955) 6 October 1954: 8 (HOME)., viewed 09 July 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98150792.
3. ‘Ethel Pink” nee Ethel Mary Kennedy 1880-1954 born in West End, Brisbane daughter of Irish and Scottish emigrants.
4. Thelma & George Pink with Horse & Wagon circa 1921 copyright Bronwyn Bridgewater.
5. The Pink’s Merry-Go-Round circa 1930 Snowy Pink and son, Charlie standing in the centre copyright Bronwyn Bridgewater.
6. 1934 'WITHIN AN INCH OF DEATH.', Western Star and Roma Advertiser (Qld: 1875 - 1948), 9 May, p. 2., viewed 09 July 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98150792
7. Human Target tent show, Thelma & Daisy Pink circa 1931 copyright Bronwyn Bridgewater.
8. LIFESTYLE The world of the sideshows (1 April 1972)' 1972-04-01.  The Bulletin, vol. 094, no. 4798, pp. 31. Refers to Bill Howard as being ‘He is popularly supposed to have given Australia the Dagwood Dog.’
9. 'Hot Dog Quarrel', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW: 1842 - 1954), 15 April 1949 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- article18111242 viewed 21 May 2025.
10. https://www.ekka.com.au/media/jzmjstxp/media-release-queensland-brings-it-home-for-ekka-2024-18-august.pdf 8th July 2025.
11. Interview Aaron & Charlie Pink with Bronwyn Bridgewater 8th June 2025, Charlie describes how Dagwood Dogs started copyright Bronwyn Bridgewater.
12. My grandparent’s Ekka position, Bill & Thelma Howard’s Dagwood Dog canteen and floss position, with sideshow alley tent shows behind. Standing out front of the Fairy Floss joint is a Māori employee called Lenny Rossiter Circa late 1950s. Copyright Bronwyn Bridgewater.
13. Sideshow tents at the Exhibition, Brisbane, August 1938 (no date). John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Record number 99183505145202061.
14. After the Ekka is over – my mother, Betty Davis and Aunty Daisy Davis (nee Pink) circa 1952 copyright Bronwyn Bridgewater.
15. Sunday Mail (Brisbane, Qld: 1926 - 1954), Sunday 8 August 1954, page 7 National Library of Australia Bronwyn Blewett http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article101724582.
16. Interview Aaron & Charlie Pink with Bronwyn Bridgewater 8th June 2025, discussing education and travelling show children copyright Bronwyn Bridgewater.