Friday, April 11, 2008

George Denman #10


Scan000011066, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Sunny days in Sarasota.
Here we see George Denman, William Larian (Rattlesnake Bill) and Tom Lynch in their twilight years at the Ringling Quarters in 1932.

History repeats itself, this picture could be enlarged placed on the wall at the CFA Convention next week and the names Bill Woodcock, Al Vidbel and John Herriott added and no one would be any the wiser.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tom Lynch was another long timer. I have a copy of a Jerry Booker sketch of Mr. Lynch and 40 horse hook rope team that I treasure. He was Boss Hostler on Barnum and Bailey 1890-1918 and stayed on after the merger until about 1934.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Jerry Booker, what ever happened to him. He made some wonderful horse sketches and was working on an elephant sketch according to the Bandwagon and that was the last anyone heard of him.

Anonymous said...

Photographs of RBBB parade wagons between 1921 and the 1940s are infrequently encountered. One typically sees more photos of the former Sparks parade wagons at Sarasota, after they were placed on display outdoors in the 1931-1938 era.

Some ex-RBBB wagons appear in generic photos of the Bridgeport quarters, like the one Deafy Denman view with elephants in the NE corner of the Bridgeport quarters. Others turn up in Bob Good Sr.'s post-1924 fire photos.

A few RBB wagons were used in the 1921 and 1923 NYC milk fund parades, but otherwise they were keptin storage.

Most of the former RBBB parade wagons were sold off in the 1920s, but the Five Graces, United States Tableau, an air calliope wagon and perhaps a few others were taken south during the Bridgeport to Sarasota relocation. The tableau went to pieces there, and was resurrected as a replica. The air calliope was cut down into a manure wagon.

The Five Graces, seen in this photo, was shipped north from Sarasota to be used on Hagenbeck-Wallace in the 1930s and thankfully was shipped back south when the Peru quarters was cleared in the early 1940s.

Anonymous said...

Tom Lynch and Denman, two all time greats working together at the same time frame. Denman with the huge herd of elephants and Lynch Boss Hosteler with some 300 head of Draft horses. Unbelievable. Note that Lynch was illiterate; Not unusual in those days. But he was a hellava guy. Deacon Blanchfield told me about him.