Sunday, February 17, 2008

RBBB 1944 (Akron) #1


Scan000010871, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

This was the first outdoor stand following the Hartford fire.
From the 1944 Route Book: "The tragic big top fire in Hartford ended the 1944 tour under canvas. (July 6th)
Nine days later the circus left for it's winter quarters in Sarasota, Fla. to rehabilitate and prepare for a quick return to the road with open air performances.
Reopening on August 4th in the Rubber Bowl at Akron, Ohio, the show gave tentless exhibitions in stadiums, fair grounds and baseball parks for the balance of the season."

You may notice that in the above picture the center ring steel arena is missing. Due no doubt, to damages from the tent collapse.
Buckles

Posted by Buckles at 2/17/2008 06:06:00 AM

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don’t think they were using but two big cages in 1944. When the Hartford fire occurred they had only two – one in each of the end rings as shown here. That is made plain in Stewart Onan’s fine book about the fire. He goes into exhaustive detail about how everything was set up.

There was some inconsistency as to the number of big cage acts worked in the Court numbers in 1943 and 1944. I know that when 1943 started there was an arena in each of the three rings. That is shown in Bob Good’s photos taken in Philadelphia. But when the show played a three day stand in Atlanta in October, there was only a single arena in the center ring. I was very disappointed because the program we bought called for all three arenas.

I asked Willy Storey about it. He said the leopard act was sent to the new Spangles show in the Garden after which it went back to Sarasota. Later in the season another mixed act was cut and sent back to Sarasota because of the wartime manpower shortage.

17 February, 2008 13:05
Eric said...

Back in 1967-68 while I was still in college, I had a part-time job in a little fine arts theater just off campus. The projectionist Jesse Hughes had served in the Coast Guard during World War II and had been stationed in Sarasota. (Since he was also in the projectionist’s union, he did part time work as a projectionist.) In the summer of 1944, he requested leave so he could return to Ohio to get married. During those war years, it was almost impossible to take a train for long-distance personal travel. However, the chief porter on the Ringling train was also a member of the projectionist union. (He worked as an operator during the winter season.) He arranged to get Jesse a free ride on the train when the show went from Sarasota to Akron.

17 February, 2008 13:27

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