Good morning to you and hope you have a great day in sunny Florida. Thanks so much for your answer on Dukie book. Now the term mud show. I talking to Joe McKennon many years ago he said a mud show was like the Mighty Haag when they traveled by wagons from town to town and Barnum and Bailey when they traveled by wagons, or is this a wagon show. I have heard Carson and Barnes called a mud show but they traveled by truck hence a truck show. Or can this be a mud show also??????? Also Cole Bros railroad circus is a rail show not a mud show????? Ringling Bros. was a wagon show at first then Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey a railroad show. A real mud show traveled by horses and wagons down the dirt roads of Amercia and when it rained had to travel the muddy roads. Circus lingo is very fascinating and Joe McKinnons book does a great job of tell us all about it. I emailed Dave Price to find out what Georgia ice cream was????? Grits. Thanks so much as always. Harry Kingston I think the term "mud show" was used before there were any motorized circuses and referred to shows that traveled overland. I remember my dad saying "A gentleman travels in a railroad car!". I always preferred "Lowgrass shows" for those that appeared in big cities and "Highgrass" for the ones in the cow pastures. Buckles |
Sunday, March 04, 2007
From Harry Kingston
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I remember that Joe McKennon had a real thing about the term Mud Show-he insisted that it not be applied to truck circuses, but by the time he brought it up, people had been using the term for truck shows for many years.
By the way- Barnum & Bailey was always a rail show; by the time these two showmen got together their wagon days were behind them
A gentlemen always speaks to the engineer of a train before a trip. He assumes [the gentlemen] he owns the train. Probably did.
Buckles,
Thank you again so much for your insight of the great world of the circus and it's lingo.
I have heard that Al G. Kelly and Miller Bros. Americas second Largest Circus referred to as a high grass show. Now I know what it means.
I never heard low grass and that is a new one added to my lingo memory.
You circus pros please remember that some terms you use in describing something about the circus not all of us know what it is.
I love circus history and what makes the circus tick and the logistics best of all. How they come in and get it up, perform, tear it down and move to the next town. Truly the wonder city that moves ny night.
Harry Kingston
Ask Whitey about "Side-walling", "High-seating" and "Red-lighting".
I used to hear "high grass" used a lot more twenty or thirty years ago, particularly in the west. Always thought is was a perfect description for some lots in places like Alberta
Ok old Whitey tell us what is:
Side Walling
High Seating
Red Lighting
thanks,
Harry Kingston
Several years ago Pfred the Greater wrote a nice piece about high-seating, based on his experiences as an usher with the Ringling show "WTRSWTRS" (meaning "When the Ringling show WAS the Ringling show").
I offered to sidewall a lady for a quarter in the canebrakes of Louisiana with John Frazier's one-ringer many years ago but she said no, she was going to wait and use the two bits to "go see dat Campbell."
I had no idea what the hell she was talking about - it turned out to be the camel
in the menagerie.
As bad as being red-lighted is to be left in winter quarters, as I heard of a young lady having done to her not all that long ago.
When Dr. Charles Fisher started his one-ring Fisher Bros. Circus in 1920, the show traveled by wagon but had one panel truck, according to Josephine Silverlake, "Doc Fisher'" daughter. When I interviewed Josephine for a White Tops story in 2001 on a Kelly-Miller lot in Union, Missouri, she told me that the show could travel up to 14 miles on a good day, considerably less when the roads were muddy. She and the family slept in tents or under the stars at night. Both Fisher Bros. and Clark & Walters were both referred to as mud shows, and especially as "high grass" shows, given the extremely small towns they played, where the fields where they played were never mowed--unlike most lots where today's tent shows set up. Josephine died at her home in Medora, Indiana, several years ago. Her youngest son, Joe, died about six months later on the same family property.
Lane Talburt
I've also heard the terms "short grass" and "tall grass" shows.
"Red-lighting" when I first heard it, meant tossing some miscreant off the train, or out of a truck, between towns. Usually the hapless victim had caused heat on the lot. One once-upon-a-time major circus employed at least one specialist for such assignments. How did we know? He signified about it out loud.
Lane,
I remember Fisher Bros. and Clark and Walters Circus so well.
To me this was one of the best of the small shows and they treated us fans well.
With Brownie Silverlake, Joe, Bob Greene on the calliope, and many more.
And the one and the only Mel Silverlake, who wanted to be a cowboy and loved the old B westerns. If Mel could have changed his name it would be Roy Rogers Silverlake.
The shows they had played all around me and i had a alot of fun with these fine show folks.
Josephine called me one day and said Harry we need help as the sponsor they had was something to do with the Big thicket and was being picketed and the pickets were out fornt of the circus and I worked for a tv station so we covered it to help the circus.
The Silverlakes aka Timberlakes are a great buch of old time show folks.
Thanks Mel for all the great times.
Harry Kingston
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