| A couple of posters advertising Harriet's signature act- originally a lion and tiger atop Anna Mae or May and later just a tiger, several tigers over the years but always with Anna May, who by the way would sometimes spook so another former Hall elephant "Sidney" was kept nearby to calm her a bit. |
Saturday, April 26, 2008
To Henry Edgar
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7 comments:
dave - thanks for sending in the posters! the more i hear about harriett beatty, the more fascinated i become. i remember a story you did for bandwagon, and i bought a tape that showed a few seconds of her act. i feel the time she performed with a group of mr. beatty's cats while he was in the hospital said a lot about her courage and her strength -- and her love for her husband and the business itself. she's one of the stars i've really wished i had seen perform.
Johnny Cline, who rose from a pony boy to present horse on the Beatty rail show and later had his own elephants and liberty act, was the person who had the difficult task of delivering the news of her death to her husband. He must have been close to Beatty. Johnny was married to Milonga Cline and the family did the shows at CWM for a few years in the early '70s but he died soon after. Great family, long out of the business.
Dick Flint
Baltimore
Johnny Cline was with us on Miller-Johnson my first time out for them in January, 1969. Then he was with Suesz when both units came together for Wichita, Kansas, in '75. He was very ill on that date, and I recall he passed not long after.
Roger Smith
Milonga (I've also seen it spelled Malonga) was an Escalante, as was Herbie Weber's wife Chata.
Milonga has lived in Lakeland, Fla. for a number of years, raised her family after Johnny's passing and has been a school tracher for many years, teaching Spainish language classes. A wonderful person. Along with her varsatile talents she sang the production on Clyde Beatty. However she could only sing while Barefoot. When she first worked a pony drill on Beatty, during reheasal he clled her to the Marqee and said"Longa [thats what her nickname was] Crack that whip when you work the ponies. It will make people watch you". She is in her eighties and going strong.
Buckles,
Wonderful people, Johnny and Milonga Cline.
Wade Burck
Thank you all for your very kind thoughts and reflections of my grandmother Harriet Beatty. I asked my Mom (Albina) about Johnny's having to inform Clyde about Harriet's death. She wasn't sure if he did or not since she was up in Michigan at Hillsdale college when grandmother died.I remember Johnny and Milonga very well and my mother was always so happy to see them both. Longa was a very sweet and gentle person as I recalled. Evelyn Say Jaynes
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