Monday, May 29, 2006

From Bill Strong #2


Again three flying acts in the Garden in 1963 with the usual 3 ring-2 stage format. This is an unusual picture since this is the year John Ringling North framed the European Unit and sent Hugo Schmitt and Charly Moroski abroad to try to organize three ring displays.
In their absence we see Jack Joyce's camels in the far end, Bill Bushbom"s liberty horses in this ring ahd the center ring act is unidentified (probably a house act).

Posted by Buckles at 5/29/2006 06:26:00 AM

6 comments:

Buckles said...

I think those were the Johnny Cline horses.
When I was with Big Apple, samples of dirt would be received by Fed Ex from the supplyer in the next town to determine if the horses could perform on it.
It always brought Mr. Bushbom to mind, once we were playing a Speedway Racetrack with a brick suface that sloped about 10 degrees to the back of the ring. He casually mentioned that he was going to leave out the part where he stood on the horses side since he didn't like lying with his head down hill.

29 May, 2006 13:07
24-HOUR-MAN said...

The black & whites went from Bill Bushbbom to Johnny Cline, then to Ian, then to Phillip, but that's not half the story, Bill sold the act many times, but they kept coming back for some reason or another. To begin with Bill was so good with whips he was very hard to follow. I seem to remember Frank Noel had the act, and one day the custodian in the building in Omaha was telling me how he used to work those horses, and of course I'm thinking, "yeh", when he told me his name, (which I can't recall now) I recognized it as one of the people who had the act. The question I've always wanted to answer was whether they were originally the Cooper horses.

29 May, 2006 14:25
Anonymous said...

OK, Mr. Lee. Who's the "butcher" in the lower right corner?

(I have no idea, just want to see if you're really good.)

29 May, 2006 16:07
Anonymous said...

They ended up a Benson's animal park where Larry Records' wife (girlfriend?) worked them. They were real old by then, and worked at a walk - the act took about 20 minutes.

29 May, 2006 21:42
Anonymous said...

that "bladder looking thing" is the camel's tongue
it is a mating call thing
it seems to attract female camels

30 May, 2006 09:58
Anonymous said...

These were the Hollywood horses. They were old as dirt when Philip Anthony worked them and I helped Philip keep them togrther on 1978 Garden tour. When Ian worked them it was like magic they stepped to and still worked like champs.

30 May, 2006 11:31

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