Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Clyde Beatty Circus #4

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Posted by Buckles at 5/02/2007 05:59:00 AM

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

After the cat act, everyone draped their robes over the tunnel until they returned after their act. The tunnel was a sort of community gathering place at the back door, as long as the cats were gone.

Many are familiar with the exceedingly wild aromas emanating from large deposits of big cat manure, and the cats never failed to deliver. On hot days, the band guys were overwhelmed by it. Imagine trying to take a deep breath to play your horn with these aggressive zephyrs rising from the cat chutes. The bars were too narrow to use a cage-rake for effective removal. The remedy was a mixture of Pine-Sol and water, heavy on the Pine-Sol. We'd pour it as needed and some of the odors were tamed for maybe half an hour. Ramon Escorcia was 3rd trumpet that year, sitting right next to the tunnel, and he got the worst of it, but the smells permeated the whole bandstand. I figured I could go into business for myself by holding out for tips, if the musicians wanted any Pine-Sol. Walter McClosky came from Frank Orman advising me this wasn't funny, and there were a lot of beefs coming from audience members in Section K. So like a good show-bum, I sprinkled the rather copious droppings, but I cut back a little on the Pine-Sol.

05 May, 2007 13:56
Unknown said...

I am the granddaughter of Ramon Escorcia & am looking for any information/ photos/ stories about him. Would greatly appreciate any help as I know very little about him.

29 December, 2017 16:28

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