Thursday, February 21, 2008

Royal Hanneford 2008 #1 (From KLSDAD)


15CircusSetupFromBalcony2, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.


Thoroughly enjoyed the Royal Hanneford
Circus at the Westchester Center, White
Plains, NY at the 2 o'clock performance
today (Sat Feb 16, 2008)

With Clayton Rosaire - tigers, Hall's - bears,
Frisco - elephants, and the Flying Pages and other
high caliber acts.. it was quite a complete show.
Good house!! (No program - but a nice lady
gave me the running order.)

Now that elephant rides are no longer
allowed, at intermission Clayton brought out
his huge white tiger. (Samson) in a Plexiglas
sided cage and sold tickets to take.. or have
Polaroid's taken.. in front of the window. On
the other side of the center ring you could have a
picture with a large snake. The end rings had
pony rides.

Here is the list of acts and some shots I took.

KLSDAD

Posted by Buckles at 2/21/2008 06:03:00 AM

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This show merged the acts from Billy Martin's school show which came south to White Plains from the North Pole region of New York state. (valla, dogs, BMX biker dude, Billy Martin ringmaster, amongst more).

Elephant rides are no longer allowed in New York since the inspectors starting enforcing this part of the law last year. It affects all fairs, all circuses and all park elephant ride operations. A significant source of people's income; how does the government expect you to pay taxes when they won't let you earn a living?

Tiger under glass looks like a winner, I didn't get the price but it looks great.

With such a fine program it looks like Tommy Hanneford is overseeing things from heaven above.........well, I assume it's heaven above.

In Royal Hanneford custom the ring curbs are painted with a new pattern every winter, a lot of work but it does look great.
Way to go STruppi Hanneford!

21 February, 2008 06:21
Anonymous said...

I recall working props on that White Plains date in the '60s - early '70s when Don Francisco had the Pan American Circus. Always a great bunch of circus fans on hand, who often pitched in helping to tear down the cage arena. That was usually the first or second circus of the year that the fans got to see(some would venture up to Rochester for the Shrine date a week earlier).

The Polack date in Albany was usually the next show we all saw in early March. Then around Easter we had Ringling in New York City, The Island Garden Circus in Hempstead LI, and the Beatty-Cole opening in Commack, NY. The Hartford CT Shrine date in the Armory was always in late April, then about 2 weeks later that same show played the Fairgrounds Coliseum in W. Springfield, MA.

Quite a few shows around that area to keep the fans interested.

21 February, 2008 07:24
Anonymous said...

KLSDAD, what pre-existing law was going unenforced prior to last year prohibiting elephant rides? Is this an animal welfare regulation or a health and safety code regulation prohibiting all physical contact?

21 February, 2008 09:19
Anonymous said...

Don't you understand that the government doesn't give a damn about whether you make enough to pay taxes, their only care to make new regulations so the bureaucrats can make money.
Bob Kitto

21 February, 2008 20:02
Anonymous said...

there is not a law that says you cant ride elephants,there is a law that says you cant touch anything that bites,claws,or scratches,so they say you could come within the elephant in some way when you would go for a ride,we are fighting this with guns blazing,because this is a bunch of shit,aint over yet

TIM COMMERFORD

22 February, 2008 17:40
Anonymous said...

Thanks Tim. Kristin Parra and I have been back and forth on this since she explained it to me. Sounds like something somebody decided to enforced after the ride ban & bullhook bill stalled in the NYS Assembly last year. I would think the Nobles in Rochester and Syracuse and such would be up in arms over the impact on the Shrine dates. If the law has been on the books long enough, the first time they don't enforce it I guess it could be argued that enforcement is discretionary.

I'd wager I'm the only one here dumb enough to have sustained actual injury from an elephant BITE

22 February, 2008 22:42
Buckles said...

I'll take that bet. You would be surprised to learn how many people, who should know better, have paid the price from shoving food into their mouths or even worse, petting them on the tongue.

22 February, 2008 23:13
Anonymous said...

Does that include the crowd-pleasing "loaf of bread into the mouth" bit as we've seen so many times?

I've always noticed that the "shover" moved very fast.

23 February, 2008 00:22

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