Monday, January 28, 2008

From Dave Price


CLmsg, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Hotel Towels and Bentwood Chairs

I'm sure we all wonder what the MSG on the bottom of this chair stands for.

Posted by Buckles at 1/28/2008 06:04:00 AM

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Mr. Thonet ever realized that one of his chairs was put to good use by the king of the steel arena? Surely no other Thonet piece was within the attention span of 10,000 people at one time.

Was that type chosen for lightness and durability, or because MSG had a surplus of them and it was convenient to grab one? When did he first put one to use, or was another another trainer the innovator? If the audience was seated on them, think they thought of it in terms of personal defense and identified with the man in the cage?

Some tell the story that the four legs of the chair kept the concentration of the cat broken, since it couldn't decide which protrusion to counter first. Any basis for that observation?

28 January, 2008 09:55
Anonymous said...

I have no idea who started using the chair. The Wikipedia entry for Beatty says (among other myths), "There is some indication that Beatty was the first lion tamer to use a chair in his act" and cites as their source that great scholarly work: "How Does an Aspirin Find a Headache?" by David Feldman.

So I checked that book and found the statement that "as far as they could ascertain" Beatty was the first to use a chair. IN THE SAME SENTENCE they tell us that Beatty died as a result of an automobile accident, which of course throws suspicion on the entire entry.

28 January, 2008 10:54
klsdad said...

klsdad here:

Seems Frank Buck used a chair..and a gun..and a whip with his lions in my 50' 8mm film in the 40's! Loved playing that film forwards..and backwards!!

klsdad

28 January, 2008 14:29
Anonymous said...

Wow, I think they still have those chairs at MSG, I would swear that we had a couple out in the hidden smoking room in the garden last year(for those of you that know the garden, you can't smoke there and that ramp of death and slowest elevators on earth aren't condusive to quick smoke breaks...) Thank goodness for hidden closet sized rooms! AC

28 January, 2008 17:50
Anonymous said...

Roger,
How many of these chairs were on top of the cage truck in 1964. As I recall they came from some plase out east.
Bob Kitto

28 January, 2008 19:54

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