Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Joe Arcaris #1 From Jim Cole Collection


"Joe Arcaris filled in for Clyde Beatty in 1950 following the death of his wife Harriett. He may have also trained some of Beatty's cats. Dave Price or Roger Smith would know.
He presented at least three cage acts at Benson's Wild Animal Farm in Hudson, N.H., not sure what years but I saw him there in 1961. Four of the pictures are post cards but #5 is practicing the Clyde Beatty act, an 8x10 from my collection". Jimmy Cole

Incidently, Mr. Cole and legendary flyer Tony Steele are coming down from Orlando for this evening's CFA meeting at Show Folks. Col. Herriott and myself have taken it under advisement and will stop by the Lounge Area to administer wise counsel.

Posted by Buckles at 10/04/2006 06:24:00 AM

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is why I need to move to Florida. Does Showfolks rent rooms?

05 October, 2006 00:37
Anonymous said...

We note here he's working in a Court arena, as well as once again seeing the uncanny resemblance he had with Mr. Beatty.

05 October, 2006 00:52
Anonymous said...

Court arenas are easily identified with the half circle bracing at the top and cross bracing at the bottom. One went from Benson with mixed actof Joe Walch to Rogers Bros. and then to Gil Gray and then to Mills Bros. At about that time two new innovations took place that would become a part of our industry, good or bad. First would be chain link fencing arenas and homosote [celetex] for rings. Buckles has wittingly and correctly referred to them as Bed Springs and Cardboard.

05 October, 2006 10:30
Anonymous said...

I had a Court arena. It originally belonged to Bertram Mills when they bought a lion act from Court with Pat Borne to present it. Pat was one of Court's mistresses who he had a daughter with, who he later adopted, but unfortunately the child died when she was 2 years old. He always wore one of the child's shoes around his neck.

The arena was sold to Billy Smart's at the Mills auction. They then used it for the 12 polar bears. Chipperfields then bought it from Smart's and cut it down in size by 12 inches. I then had it after that. It was the typical Court arena, as we have all seen pictured many times. It took two men to lift one section and was too high to carry upright. We always had to drop it to move it. I have seen a few people underneath it when it was accidentally dropped on them.

05 October, 2006 11:53
Anonymous said...

Joe Arcaris worked at Benson's after 1945 (he was drafted in WWII and after that he went back to his animals) and he stayed there until the late 70s. Joe Arcaris was my great-great uncle, and was quite an amazing man; he indeed worked with Clyde Beatty, both in 1950 as well as in the early 30s, when he first came to america to train animals. He remained in contact with Beatty, which was how he came to sub for him in 1950. Beatty was so close to Uncle Joe that he offered him the entire show at one point, but Uncle Joe turned him down, preferring to stay at Benson's.
Times like these make me wish I could've seen him in action...oh well.

27 September, 2009 11:29

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