Cat Act in Miniature #1 (From Dave Price)

CBmod06, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Buckles: I began collecting material on Mr Beatty in 1953 but I always felt that my little display needed a model of the act. Modeling is one of those things you have to learn early in life and I was already half way through my sixties by this time and just too old and clumsy to learn it. Jim Cole has this terrific complete model circus he has been working on for many years and I decided he would be the perfect man to build the Beatty act. Mary Jane and I both saw Beatty's 1943 act, so we all decided on going for the act, cages, props etc of that period. I had accumulated a lot of pictures and facts about the act and Jim and I stayed in daily e-mail and/or telephone contact throughout the project. There are a lot of models which include a lion act and some of these are identified as being a model of Beatty but in fact are just generic cat acts. I believe this is the most accurate model of Beatty's act ever made, certainly the most accurate I have ever seen. Here are a few more pix. One shows the familiar safety cage with Beatty's helmet on the elephant tub, where he would toss it as he went into the arena. Maybe you can see an extra chair in the safety cage. The second photo shows something about the cage-truck setup. These are the converted Coke trucks that Beatty used 1940 through 1945. And the last picture shows Jim and Me and the model and Dave Hoover at his and Lois's place in Deland, where we all stopped for lunch when Mary Jane and I went to Florida for the completed model.