Monday, April 17, 2006

From Darryl #2


After looking at this, Ben mentioned that he was 16 at the time and had just broken his right hand the night before at Karate Class.

While making the Texas dates in 1960 Barbara and I worked in a display with the Hamid-Morton elephants worked by Al Vidbel and despite our act having the wonderful vaudeville type tricks my dad had trained, when Shirley Peterson went into that leg carry with "Bombay" we were dead in the water.
The following winter while scuffling around with Little Bob Stevens Show waiting for our regular season to start, we decided to train a leg carry with "Anna May". We had it in the act in a day or so but being on a mud show Barbara's long hair would drag thru the weeds as "Anna May" walked around the ring. The alternative was to raise the trick up by having "Anna May" turn with her front feet on the tub which was fine until I happened to recall the picture of Cheerful Gardner having "Blanche" do a hind leg stand during the "head carry". So the finished result was the picture above.

Posted by Buckles at 4/17/2006 07:15:00 AM

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Somewhere I remember this being about 1967 I've been told. Figured this had to be a young teen Ben. Louie ended mup with a bum leg and is probably in Williston, but Sid and Juno should be in Polk City.

17 April, 2006 11:32
Anonymous said...

One of the best trices of the act. The public should only know how some of them come about. Barbaras hair is out standing, but stop and think how much work it was keeping it in such beautiful shape. No running water in those days. Just washing your hair was a major feat on its own. The first time I ever laid eyes on Barbara she was standing in the door way of a fifth wheeler brushing her hair. I envy few people on earth, Barbaras hair was one of the few things I coveted [?] I even tried henna a couple of times to no avail. I was 18 years old at the time and before you Buckles. To this day mine is still long but silver.

17 April, 2006 12:05
GaryHill said...

Dutchess were you smoking it hoping to make your hair look better???? I Had to!!! Shame on me!!!

17 April, 2006 17:31
Anonymous said...

Henna!! Gary not Hemp. I have some funny stories about that from Colorado. Can't tell you on the Blog. Don't know what the statutes of limitations are about that. Barbara also showed me how to get rid of split ends useing a match. Lucky I am not bald.

17 April, 2006 17:48
Anonymous said...

Another female performer that I really liked and knew was Darlene Pratt. That was her last name at the time. Her husband was a candy butcher working for Ion Stevens. I have asked everyone I know what ever happened to her. Now SHE was a showgirl. Could and would do just about anything. I remember she wanted to pierce her ears so rings would stay in and her husband would not let her. He said what if an elephant stepped on them. DUH Don't think it would matter much if that were to happen. Earrings would be the least of her concerns. She had a beautiful little girl and later a little boy. I think she might have worked on Circus Flora at one time. She was tall, blond, every thing a show girl could be. She did loose some hair after Barbara gave her a permanent and bleached her hair. When the curlers were removed so was the hair.

18 April, 2006 11:16
Anonymous said...

Weird. In my dreams last night I remembered Darlene's little girls name, but can't think of it today. My new medication is playing tricks with me. Need to return to booze.

19 April, 2006 09:21

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)