Friday, December 15, 2006

Ladies of the Steel Arena Vol. 5 (From Jim Cole)



1945 POSTER Posted by Picasa

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know the lady at right with the leopard draped around her neck is Charlotte "Zeke" Walsh- Ole Whitey

Anonymous said...

I believe another lady in picture was John Sewells wife Joyce..Wasn't the act trained by Alfred Court? Fantastic litho.

Anonymous said...

Don't believe that for a minute Ole Whitey. ZEKE is another wonderful trainer that never got the credit due her. Wish I had know her in her happier days with Joe Walsh. I can't remember seeing her smile after his death. Always working, keeping busy.

Anonymous said...

Richard Reynolds says - -

This "Ladies and Leopards" Act was 1945. It was Alfred Court's last act ever. He framed it and then went into retirement as I recall. By then he had sold or was about to sell all his animals to RBBB.

These animals rode in smallish European cages with clestory roofs on them. They looked like small rail passenger cars. Because of the Hartford fire, the cages themselves were brought into the big top and positioned against the big cage in the center ring. There would be no more chutes or
"tunnels" extending across the hippodrome track to cages outside the big top. I recall as if yesterday that when this act was over, an orange painted crawler tractor (that's right orange, not yellow) came into the tent and pulled the small cages back outside.

This leopard act, without ladies, was on James Edgar's Sparks in 1946, presented by Damoo Dhotre. It was back with RBBB for 1947-49 after which Damoo took it with him to France.