Wednesday, January 04, 2006

The agonizing wait is over!


In the early 1930's Clyde Beatty's fame was such, not only his act but from working in movies during the off season, that the Ringling Show would feature him in Madison Sq. Garden, after which he would return to the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus for the regular season.
In the Garden they would enlarge the center ring so Mr. Beatty could present in excess of 40 lions and tigers. This also made it possible to include a 24 horse liberty act later in the program.

Posted by Buckles at 1/04/2006 07:07:00 AM

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

John Ringling offered Beatty the RBBB route. But even then, Beatty had the innate sense of showbusiness to realize his act was better sold in a Big Top the size Hagenbeck-Wallace carried, and could lose impact in the immensity of Mr. John's six-pole operation. Mr. John reluctantly agreed, and the Depression era H-W enjoyed great success with Beatty's Big Act. When Beatty left Ringling interests over rifts with Sam Gumpertz, he created a second Big Act for Adkins and Terrell's 1935 Cole show, the only trainer to do this twice. Forgive me if I've made this point before. I wasn't even there, and I'm still jumping up and down over it.

04 January, 2006 13:42
Anonymous said...

I heard from Jules Jacot, who was a trainer on Corp. shows, that the Beatty act for the Garden was made up of three acts. Jules lion act, Bobby Golden tigers, and Beatty's act as I recall. Not much in the way of tricks, just get them on their seats and get them out -- not exactly Charly Baumann but a thrilling performance. After the Garden the groups would return to their regular trainers.

04 January, 2006 19:43
Anonymous said...

Jules Jacot was a highly respected trainer, whose career spanned more than 60 years. One has to take a second look, however, at Jim A's story here. We recall some of the Bobby McPherson tigers segued into the Beatty act. But what went into Beatty's act, stayed there, and after the New York and Boston Garden dates, the act went with him intact for the Hagenbeck-Wallace canvas route, for the years 1931 to 1934.

We may be thinking of Johnny Golden, whose work came in a later generation.

As for not being exactly Charly Baumann, no it wasn't. Charly had class tiger acts, shown with flash and style, which should never be discredited. But such trainers as Jim A names here never mixed lions and tigers, and never worked the Big Act, as did Beatty and Terrell Jacobs, men who put wild animal acts on a level untouched by the rest of us.

06 January, 2006 16:33
Anonymous said...

Thanks for correcting my memory of what Jules told me. The McPherson name sound better than what I was thinking. A case of one old man's memory related by an old guy. I was close to Jules his last years in St. Louis and was fond of him but I was aware some of his historical tales could be revised to his benefit. Thanks for straightening it out.

No slight meant by the Charly Baumann comment. Almost apples and oranges, good ones in both categories.

I seem to be irritating people left and right. Sorry. I'll just stick with reading for a while.

06 January, 2006 18:41
Anonymous said...

Jim A. Please don't stop commenting. I irratate the hell out of someone at least five times a day. It gets folks talking and thinking about things most of us know nothing about. Some folks are more knowledgeable and have access to more stories then you or I, but we all contruibute something. And we can all learn something new everyday. I got the tes sanctuary so pissed I got banned from their sites. But I proved them wrong and let hundreds of people know the truth about them. Put your words in. Thats what this blog is for, interesting conversation. We don't all have to agree with every written word.

06 January, 2006 19:45
Anonymous said...

No, Jim, don't get me wrong. Maybe just because I was in the animal end of things, I began to think there are no people more critical of each other than animal trainers. I've heard knocks put on every trainer in history, told as eye-witness truth, only to have a diametrically opposite yarn told me about the same people. Uncle Benny Bennett, at Jungleland, was known for truthfulness and straightened out a lot of stories for me. The one I never heard put down was Louis Roth. Let us hear from you. I revel in showfolks stories, and every contribution adds to the color.

07 January, 2006 03:36
Anonymous said...

Thank Rebecca and Roger. I agree with your comment that animal trainers can be especially critical of each other, usually to their benefit. Also, some of us prefer apples to oranges but we know oranges can be tasty and good for you.

Just a bit of my humble background since I've seen Roger's work on the Castle show and read Rebecca's tales: I was a zoo guy for 40 years but love circus and animal training. After training chimps and baby elephants I replaced (if possible) Jules Jacot at the St. Louis Zoo doing the sea lion show for 35 years. Never really been in the ring except to hold a dog or elephant or set props.

Looking forward to more tales of Jungleland and Kelly-Miller.

07 January, 2006 08:10
Anonymous said...

Jim A. I also got my start at the St Louis Zoo. Sort of. Dick Mcgraw had the cage act. John Cuneo came to ask Dick to shift the cats while the Circus was in town. Who knew that I would end up with a cage act of my own and having the wonderful experience and making the best friend of my life for 43 years. Marlin Perkins offered me the cat act years later at the St Louis Zoo. Small world. Another friend Gene Garner worked Jules lion act for Paul and Dottie Kelly as they were trained in Spanish and I do good to speak english. My best female friend Eloise Berchtold also worked this lion act later. She would have been the best asset to the Zoo if given the chance. I got to be friends with Roger thru the internet and we share the same love for the circus and its people. We are too young to have know the really great old world trainers like some of the older bloggers, but we love to hear their storys.

07 January, 2006 12:10

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