| Both Rex and Smokey told me that when George Smith came from the Ringling Show everyone thought he was completely lost since all he did was walk around the lot taking notes and measuring things. |
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Dailey Bros. Circus 1947 #3
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4 comments:
Buckles: Ward Hall, who joined the Dailey Bros. side show in 1946, once told me that the 25-car consist was packed so tightly that it would have been the equivalent of the 30-car Cole Bros. train. Norma Davenport Cristiani (Ben Davenport's daughter) said Leo "Tiger Bill" Snyder helped build some of the wagons, which, as some photos show, were converted semi-trailers. When Dailey Bros. called it quits in Hope Arkansas in September 1950, the train returned to winter quarters at the Gonzales, Texas, fairgrounds. Other old photos show some of those same old Dailey Bros. semis being re-used in 1951 when Davenport took out the Campa Bros. Circus as a truck show (the old Dailey Bros. signage clearly showed under the partially repainted trailers).
I had forgotten that George Smith was on the Dailey Bros. show. How long? Bandwagon magazine carried an excellent two-part story on Smith last year.
Lane Talburt
Mr.L Talburt
Would like to see some photos of those semi conversions. In photo #7 the wagon that sits above the #59 on that flat car, I think it is the one I have, it was a semi on the king show when it was used as a hippo den, than converted back to a wagon later when it was hauled on the Straits show train, also used as a hippo den.
I also then heard this wagon was on the Dailey show.Could also have been on the Campa Bros.Circus you mention.
My Info came via the Bert Petus tribe a while ago.Still digging for this rig's credentials.
Jimmy: I recall seeing the Campa Bros. trailer conversions in a White Tops photo spread that ex-editor Jim Foster featured in White Tops in about 2000 or 2001. i'll try to find the specific issue and let you know.
I always enjoy seeing photos and jackpots on Dailey Bros., since it was the subject of my first major story for White Tops in 2000, based on interviews with Norma Davenport and Ward Hall. I'm working on another story on Norma's upbringing as a child of the circus during the Great Depression, which Fred Phening plans to publish in the Jan-Feb issue of Bandwagon.
Responding to another blog, Ben Davenport did, in fact, provide jobs for numerous "teenaage punks," as Ward calls the group. (At age 18, Charlie Smith was one of his earliest first of Mays on the Davenport Society Circus in 1935.) The key, Ward says, is that, even though his starting weekly salary in 1946 was a meager $35, Ben gave him the "opportunity" to earn additional money. And Ward's mentor on the side show, Milt Robbins, allowed Ward to pitch a bag of tricks on his first day on the job (for a cut, of course). More importantly, Robbins also instilled in Ward the necessity of saving as much of that money as possible for a rainy day.
I can remember being pleased as punch in 1959 when I pulled down $55 a week at my first full-time job as a TV news film editor and script writer in Oklahoma City. Unfortunately, there were no opportunities for "cherry pie" at a TV station.
Lane Talburt
To L.Talbert;
Mr.Talbert that would be some great information,thanks.
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