Thursday, December 20, 2007

More on Sells & Gray #1 (From Henry Edgar)


chrisannamayinternet, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Chris Hudson and "Anna May" in Paramus, New Jersey.
Sells and Gray stars of 1965 -- bareback rider Pat Miller and aerialist Carmen del Molino. 1965 also had Johnny Golden and a Dave Hoover cat act, the Bontas, clowning and dogs, the Zuniga juggling act, Chris and the elephants (we changed elephant men - but I don't remember much - Dave Mullaney was on front door that year and think he worked the act at least some of the time).

Posted by Buckles at 12/20/2007 06:19:00 AM

6 comments:

Eric said...

Question: do independent elephant acts all run to some standard length like 5-6 minutes? If not, when two or more independent acts are booked for the same engagement such as a Shrine date, how do they work it out so that they start and end together? (Just curious.)

20 December, 2007 10:47
Buckles said...

Today the principle concern is the location and time allotted for the elephant ride.
Everything else is incidental.

20 December, 2007 11:00
Eric said...

(I guess I should have prefaced my earlier question with “Back in the good old days . . .”) Another question: in the latter 1960s, which were, relatively speaking, still “the good old days," The Cristiani elephants had their own special music (prepared by Bill Pruyn) which synchronized with their act. This music was quite good and included excerpts from Borodin’s “Polovetsian Dances,” “Scheherazade,” “Procession of the Sardar,” etc. Did the Woodcock Elephants have their own special music or did you have to make do with whatever the bandleader decided to use. (For shrine circus elephant acts, Izzy Cervone liked to use “The Southern” March by Russell Alexander.)

20 December, 2007 11:30
Buckles said...

I've still got the music my dad had put together in 1952. I'll have to dig it out.
I remember they played "Persian Market" when "Lydia" turned around on the plank and the "March from Aida" for the closing walking long mount. One winter on the Davenport dates I overheard Merle say to my dad, "I wish I had known you were going to be here Bill, I would have brought THE FLYING DUTCHMAN along. It would be perfect for your act. I have probably heard that piece b ut nothing comes to mind.

20 December, 2007 12:09
Anonymous said...

Ringling sent a herd of elephants out with Axel Gautier and Company a few years ago.

At the Boston Shrine date, Ed Migley had booked 3 rings of elephants and Axel working closest to the backdoor (or portal as they say on the USS Ringling). Axel and Company's act went on a good deal longer than the other two rings, so the others just stopped and waited and gazed at the Ringling elephants until Axel was finished.

The Ringling wardrobe was re-hased and re-upholstered and ridiculous; they recycled the "Be A Clown" costumes. As my English cousins would say, "Twas a bit tatty."

20 December, 2007 12:50
Eric said...

Re: FLYING DUTCHMAN: it is the selection used at the opening of the Bugs Bunny cartoon WHAT'S OPERA, DOC? which most everyone is familiar with. (Back in the early days of television, it was also the theme music for CAPTAIN VIDEO.)

20 December, 2007 18:31

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