Friday, January 18, 2008

Mills Bros. Circus 1963 #1 (From Buckles)


Scan000010674, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Busy weekend coming up. Jim Elliott and I are going down to Arcadia this afternoon for the opening of Circus Pages.
Tomorrow I take the grandkids to the Gibtown Circus matinee and Sunday is the Ring of Fame ceremony.
Jimmy Cole plans on attending all these events so we should have plenty of good pictures on the Blog next week.
Buckles

PS- How do you think '63 Mills compares with '08 K&N?

Posted by Buckles at 1/18/2008 06:13:00 AM

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was a 16 year old novice circus fan when I saw the 1963 Mills Bros. Circus in Fall River, MA. The thing that stands out in my mind more than anything was the great band they had, and all of the traditional circus music they played.

The Mills Bros. were always very "circus fan friendly" and allowed many fans to make audio reel to reel tape recordings. There are many copys of these recordings in the hands of circus collectors still today. With all the new technology, I believe it is possible to further enhance the audio quality of these 40+ year old tapes and convert them to digitally enhanced DVDs.

Do we have any readers out there with knowledge of such technology?

Jimmy Cole

18 January, 2008 07:26
Anonymous said...

I saw the 1962 edition of Mills Bros. Circus on a Friday night in Hammond, IN in May. A young Lt. Herriott (probably not yet a Col.) was the announcer and presented the mixed act and a 12 horse liberty act (might have been the largest one working at the time).

18 January, 2008 09:14
Casey McCoy Cainan said...

Mr. Cole,
There is a place in Austin TX. called Terra Nova Digital Audio, 5446 Hwy 290 W #270 Austin TX. 78735. Phone 512-891-8010. They are the best at digital re mastering. I have used them for a few music projects, and have been very pleased with service and return time. You can check them out at www.terranovamastering.com. Mr. Tubb has mastered albums for many great artists in the past, including a few Willie Nelson records.

18 January, 2008 12:45
Anonymous said...

A brief historical account of Mr. Zerbini's appearance on Mill's Bros. can be found on his website:

http://www.tzproductions.com/history.html

18 January, 2008 16:32
Anonymous said...

I sat in with Mills Bros. band sometime in the late 50's or early 60's and they played, as I recall, only one tune for the wild west after show "Deep in the Heart of Texas".
Before the show started the bandmaster pulled out an electric razor and shaved so he would look good to the audiencs.
The one thing that impressed many of the circus fans was the fact that the peanuts were unsalted and were very fresh.
I also remember during the early
50's that all of the arrows were chalked on power poles.
The brothers didn't believe in workers comp, so after an accident in Janesville, WI, they never played in the state again. However, later they billed Beloit, WI and actually played So. Beloit, IL and of course the state peoiple were down to nail them to the wall, but had no jurisdiction in IL.
There was a second hand store by the lot in So. Beloit and one of the performers bought a camel back trunk. After the show it was burned because, of course, because the slide for life pulled out the stakes and the performer suffered a broken arm.
Bob Kitto

18 January, 2008 19:37
Anonymous said...

A bit of circus ballyhoo on Mr. Zerbini's bio page. Johnny Weissmuller played Tarzan in the 1930's and 1940's, then Jungle Jim in the 1950's. Don't think TV execs would have been looking for a "Weissmuller" Tarzan replacement in the early 1960's. Gordon Scott had already played Tarzan on television in the late 1950's, and Ron Ely took on the role in the late 1960's...
...But it makes for a good story!

18 January, 2008 20:19
Anonymous said...

mills always had a good performance. almost any circus from that time period would be stronger than almost any show is today. there were certain things you had to have to be a circus. there were no hula hoops, motorcycle gloes were in carnivals and even the smallest shows usually had at least a few 3 ring displays, even if it were onl webs and ladders.

18 January, 2008 20:46
Roger Smith said...

Here they still spelled it John.  Later, he was Jon, and then got into the furor with the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate over ripping off the name of Tarzan.  The sister told me he got a hurried legal name change to Jon Tarzan Zerbini in court, which anyone can do, and that was that.  My opinion has been that it is corny as hell to be a lion guy named Tarzan, and less than inspiring to take the name of an enduring fictional character in an attempt to distinguish oneself.

Let's see...is anyone using Noah Beery Jr's old movie monicker, Jan of the Jungle?

Roger Smith

19 January, 2008 19:25
mariluwho said...

The Mills Brothers Circus came to Mayville, NY in 1957 and Lena the elephant stayed behind and lived in the garage under the exotic pet store in Mayville from June to December. She marched in the 4th of July parade, was featured at the Republican picnic, and helped to open the new Super Duper in Jamestown. I'm writing a history and would love to hear from anyone who knows more about Lena and the Mills Circus.
mlmcc@mindspring.com

09 September, 2015 18:37

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