CIRCUS WORLD (From Jerry Digney)

CIRCUS WORLD, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Just noticed (as I have the decorative invite framed in my hall) in two weeks, it's the 35th anniv. of the gala ground breaking in Haines City for Circus World, attended by Fla. dignitaries and Irvin Feld, Lou Jacobs, Harold Ronk, some elephants in hard hats and Michu; I guess a year or so later the permanent "Showcase" tent-like building was done and open, as I remember working out of an office in Orlando for quite some time (and temporarily living for almost a year at The Gold Key Inn, on Orange Blossom Trail, near downtown and then moving the PR office on site into a trailer that I shared with Chappie Fox and Glenn Graves, who handled group sales, and whose father was a prop boss for Ringling in the tent show era--i believe; When we opened the "Showcase," we had a major media blowout which was highly successful; all of the graphics, press kits, etc., were quite lavish and the IMAX film of the circus (I wonder where it ended up, as there are now hundreds of IMAX theaters around the country?) was fantastic and played multiple times a day--IMAX back in '73-74 was still a major novelty; There was also some great decor, artifacts and dioramas inside the permanent "tent" and Chappie lent them an impressive array of original lithos which he owned and which were spectacular; Not long after opening, I went on a quick trip to DC and worked with Chuck Smith (RBBB financial head) on a presentation to the Gulf Oil people as the plan was for them to help bankroll the actual, fully-realized theme park--of course there was an oil crisis and that never happened; Don Stacey has an article on the history of the Circus World park in the Jan.-Feb. issue of Bandwagon. However, some of the interesting details are missing since he apparently didn't talk to Buckles (or myself) or others who were there from almost day one; Buckles, as i recall, arrived (in '74?) with a pretty good size herd, which included many recent purchases from the Billy Smart Circus as well as five (?) punks that he trained after arriving; an outdoor ring and bleachers were set up behind the cement big top for quite a while and that's where Barbara and Buckles worked Anna May as well as the babies and other elephant combinations for the public shows; we even took the herd across the highway to the truck stop and did a "weigh in" which was a big hit wit the press; Jack Joyce, retired from the traveling show, was also there training camels and other livestock for a while, too; After a couple of years, I was transferred to DC to work on the traveling shows and Ice show acquisitions but returned to Haines City for extended periods on several occasions to help launch new attractions and expansions, none of which, unfortunately, proved to be viable in the end; Jerry Digney Solters & Digney Public Relations & Internet Marketing 1680 N. Vine Street Suite 1105 Hollywood, CA 90028 Phone: 323.993.3000