Thursday, September 28, 2006

Bobby Gibbs' Sacred Cattle


Hubert Castle Shrine Date/Albany,NY. 1966.

Posted by Buckles at 9/28/2006 06:29:00 AM

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bobby's parents brought this act for him to assist his show biz career. I think he got the act from Charlie Allen (Col. Herriott might have better information). When I first met Bobby in 1965 he was working several acts in a shopping center unit for King Amusements. The only animal you had to watch out for was the smallest dwarf zebu, Rajah (Roger in SW Missouriese). He was known to knock people down and continue the attack. I think Bobby sold the act around 1967 after he'd had the elephants for a year.

28 September, 2006 09:27
Anonymous said...

I don't think it is the New Scotland Avenue Armory in Albany, NY that was the venue for the Shrine date for many years. However, it could be the Washington Avenue Armory, also in Albany.
I played the Albany Shrine date for several years for Bill Kay, along with Syracuse and sometimes Buffalo.
One year Buckles and Barbara were on the date and I said to myself, "Gee, they are really turning this date into something by bringing in the headliners."
The armory was a horrible building, there was no backstage so everytime you had to bring in the animals the clanking overhead door had to be rolled up and immediately a cold wind would chill down the place in about 20 seconds. It was always a winter date.
Many years later I learned that this "lousy Albany date" was a mainstay in the old Pollack route eastern unit and had many headliners had already graced the cold concrete floor. Also, the little man that always hung around Bill Kay was the legendary Louie Stern and Bill Kay was really William Mullkahey, an Irish Catholic from Boston who started as a phone room salesman.
Bobby Gibbs had his camels on the run one year and in Syracuse the camels left the ring and scattered all over the place. Bobby was in a robe and turban and didn't know which way to turn. I was at the end of the building waiting to follow the act with a clown gag and one of the camels comes trotting down toward me. I step in front of the wayward camel, put my arms out, he stopped, I took the lead rope and brought him back to the ring where Bobby took over and said, "Well I knew clowns were good for something."

28 September, 2006 12:02
Anonymous said...

This was the Armory in Hartford, CT, that year the date was produced by Wirth - Wallenda

28 September, 2006 18:27

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