Wednesday, February 20, 2008

From Jim Cole


scan0056, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.



This is obviously the same steam calliope truck that appears in the previous King - Cristiani Photo, taken at almost the exact same angle some 50+ years earlier.

This was taken in Peru, Indiana in 2004 during their annual circus parade. The truck appears to be an early '50s Ford, vs the Chevy in the earlier photo. The Calliope is owned by the Circus City Festival International, and will again appear in their parade this July.
Can anyone fill us in on the history of this calliope prior to it being on King - Cristiani?

Posted by Buckles at 2/20/2008 07:47:00 AM

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think I read that this wagon was from Gentry Bros and tha there were two of them.

Hal Guyon

20 February, 2008 10:20
Anonymous said...

Hi there, Enjoy reading this Blog tremendously, Thank you.The many photos, and information is very much appreciated. I love Circuses and have been to many of them. I noticed Jim Cole's name appears on many photos sent. I enjoyed the comments on the old time TV "Big Top" and "Super Circus." I would love to view thoses shows again. Would Mr.Cole, or any of your blog readers have any movies or clips of The "Tom Pack Circus" or "Howard Suez" show of 1954-55?? One will never see those acts again. Keep up the good work. I'll continue to check out the comments, as well as view the Blog. Thank you agin.

20 February, 2008 13:11
Anonymous said...

The calliope was owned by Benjamin C. Davenport, who bought it for use on Dailey Bros. in the 1940s. Davenport loaned it to the Cristianis, on whose shows he sometimes traveled with his own pit attraction in the 50s. Ben's son-in-law and daughter , Pete and Norma Cristiani, took it out on their Wallace Bros. and Cristiani-Wallace Bros. shows in the early 60s. (Ben Davenport also owned the Wallace Bros. title.)

In an article I've just completed for the next Bandwagon, Norma explains that Ben fell in love with a steam calliope being played in 1929 by Eva Billings Merriam, aka Princess Iola of medicine show fame. He married Eva in 1930, and Norma came along in 1931--the couple's only child. Norma says her dad always loved calliopes and, of course, elephants. Daveport owned as many as 24 bulls at one time, including the punk Tommy, who later was renamed King Tusk. He gave Rex Williams and Smokey Jones their start in the business, as well as Ward Hall.

Lane Talburt

20 February, 2008 14:24
Anonymous said...

Yes there were two of these built; you sometimes hear them called the Gentry Twins. They were built by Sullivan & Eagle of Peru, Indiana, and debuted on two Gentry Bros units in 1902, so this wagon has passed the century mark. The history of the other one had some gaps which another reader may fill in for us but this one is pretty well documented; in fact I'm surprised someone better informed than the undersigned hasn't already responded on this question.

This one was on Gentry Bros (owned by the family) through 1916 and continued on Newman and Austin's Gentry show through 1922, by which time it had somewhat been remodeled. James Patterson then had it on his Gentry show 1923-1925. The King brothers bought the show from the bank after Patterson lost it and kept this wagon on the show through a couple of title changes: Gentry, then Main and finally Cole Bros under which title the show failed.

National Printing ended up with the show, then it was supposed to go out as Ingraham and Rutherford but didn't and it went to East St Louis where Venice Transportation held this and other properties from the show until George Christy bought it in 1936. Christy sold this wagon to Norfolk Shriner and circus fan Dr C S Karland Frischkorn in 1945 and he must have been the one who had it lengthened to accommodate the boiler for a steam calliope that had been salvaged from a sunken show boat. Floyd King bought it from him in 1952 and used it until King Bros (by then 2 units) went belly up in 1956. I cannot account for the intervening years but it had come home to Peru by the early 1990s.

This is not the same wagon nor instrument that was on Dailey Bros.

20 February, 2008 14:44
Anonymous said...

Found a note to myself about the Dailey steam calliope and wagon. Apparently this was also a former show boat instrument that first saw circus service with the E E Coleman show under the M L Clark title in the thirties. We assume Coleman built the first wagon for this cally.

In the late 1930s this unit was on Parker and Watts; at some point Paul Van Pool became the owner and it went from him to Ben Davenport.

The long open-sided semi wasn't built for the calliope until the late fifties when it was on Cristiani.

After the Dailey and Cristiani era it went back to Van Pool and may exist somewhere today as it was in the Johnny Marietta and Alex Irwin collections at different times.

20 February, 2008 15:40
Anonymous said...

Ole Whitey has it right, Lane is confusing another calliope with the Gentry unit and had better contact Pfening. Hopefully you can correct the article before it goes to print--forever.

The one that was with Davenport's Dailey outfit came off the steamboat Verne Swain and went to E. E. Coleman, who placed it in a Kingham semi trailer. It was on his circus and he also used it for promotional engagements and Rice Bros. in 1935. Then it was with Parker & Watts. Coca Cola bottler and circus fan Paul van Pool then got involved with it, under the guise of CFA Merle Evans Tent No. 27. It went over to Dailey, Campa, Diano, Merchant's Free, Cristiani and elsewhere, ended up in the hands of Johnny "Scrap Iron" Marietta in the 1960s. He had it for a while but it turned out to actually belong to Alex Irwin, who must have bought it from van Pool. Irwin's descendants still owned it, last I heard. It's been mounted in several different trucks. While on Cristiani, it originally occupied a trailer that had some sort of prior medical application. Before that, it had been the Ring Stock truck on Stevens Bros. in 1952.

A fellow named C. E. Bradshaw out in Nebraska bought the Gentry calliope after Floyd King's 1950s fling. It was out there, also at the Cowboy Hall of Fame for a while, before being acquired for Peru.

The 20-whistle instrument in it originally was pretty well gone by the time that Frischkorn got it from Christy. He bought a literal wreck instrument off the Goldenrod floating theater [river troupers don't say "show boat," an Edna Ferber term] and had J. M. Van Splunter fix it up for use. It was a 32 whistle device, thus it required the longer wagon.

Bradshaw later had Harry Shell "fix" it for him. Harry took the manifold, keyboard and such and made a "new" set of whistles for the instrument, which went to George Roose at Cedar Point. Last heard from, it was at Hale Farm, near Cleveland.

For the Gentry wagon, Harry fabricated a new manifold and keyboard, in the Van Splunter style, and put the old whistles back on it. That's what is in Peru today, inside the lengthened Gentry wagon.

20 February, 2008 16:14
Anonymous said...

Thanks, Dave and Anonymous. I was responding off the top of my head, and not from my research. You are absolutely right about this particular calliope.

Fortunately, i won't have to correct the Bandwagon article that's about to go into print, because the story deals with Ben and Eva Davenport's background before the 1940s.

I have cleared my initial story with Norma, by the way, prior to submitting it to Fred Pfening just this morning. If you do notice any errors when it comes out, I'd appreciate your calling them to my attention.

You can be sure I'll make good use of the information provided by Ole Whitey and Anony when I do prepare the next article on Norma, which will be centered around the Dailey Bros. years.

My apologies for the misinformation in the response. Now, just how long do I need to stand in the corner with my back to the class?

Lane Talburt

Lane Talburt

20 February, 2008 17:56
Anonymous said...

Stand in the corner if you want but don't turn your back on this bunch.

20 February, 2008 22:05
Harry Kingston said...

I just got off the phone talking to Helen Marietta, the widow of Johnny "Scrap Iron" Marietta, on the calliope.
Checking on the Paul Van Pool and the Alex Irwin connection.
Helen said it was at Van Pool's house and he wanted it moved so they took it to Johnny's house.
Helen just related a very interesting story about the calliope while it was parked there.
One of Johnny's son's Jake being 9 years old and his tom boy girl friend down the street wanted to see it work. Helen said Johnny told Jake all about how to do this or that to get it going. So the two of them snuck around to the back of the garage where the calliope was parked and built a fire in the old boiler.
So Helen said you could see the steam coming out and and when they hit a note of the key board they all came running out the house to what the heck was going on.
So Pittsburgh, Kansas and Helen's neighbors had a real circus experience that day.
Helen and I had a few laugh's today about this old calliope.
Harry Kingston

21 February, 2008 10:25
Anonymous said...

Mr. Kingston,
Next time to talk to Helen, give her my best wishes. Johnny was a truely good man, and someone who was a joy and pleasure to talk with. A good friend, who I think of often.
Wade Burck

21 February, 2008 11:40
Harry Kingston said...

Mr. Burck,
I just called Helen again to tell her about your comments as she does not own a computer.
This made her day as she remembers you well.
She is now 81 years young and just enjoying life to it's best.
Johnny went and enjoyed the circus and played and Helen was there with him sometimes and other times she was making the money and talking care of the kids.
She says to give you her best.
Harry

21 February, 2008 13:30

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