Saturday, July 12, 2008

Cole Bros. Circus 1941 #1


Scan10422, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Zack Terrell sole owner.

These pictures came from the 1941 Cole Show folder but nearly half were undated so a couple might be off a year.
Buckles

Posted by Buckles at 7/12/2008 06:45:00 AM

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Astute historians would be more aware of the times of Mr. Terrel than I, but from what I have picked up, he would have been an important part of the Mugivan-Bowers in the earlt Grift show years and on into the formation of the ACC in Peru, having a reported ten per cent interest and naturally would be the Gen. Mgr of their flagship Sells Floto Circus. It would seem that he always made money, either grift or otherwise, but we do know that he always had grift on Colr Bros. until he sold out the fall of 48.

My main point of comment was that I doubt if he was highly educated but we know he made decisions of high echelon both with ACC, Floto and then Cole. He dealt with Big league people in and out of the Circus Biz. such as Jess Murden and others. He was quite a guy and I would enjoy hearingcomments from you historians out there. I met him during my fathers years with Cole and my father had the greatest respect for him. I was scaRED TO DEATH OF HIM.

13 July, 2008 16:22
Anonymous said...

In the mid 40's my father took me to the Cole show side show and there was a man running the shell game. I was at table height and kept telling my dad that I knew where the pea was and indeed I could see where it was, because I was not listening to the patter and concentrated on his hands. My dad finally jabbed me and said to shut up.
They also had a blow-off with dancing girls, but we didn't go for this attraction since I was too young and my dad would have caught hell from my mother if he had.
Bob Kitto

13 July, 2008 19:40
Bob Karczewski said...

John and Buckes,
Do you remember seeing the "Grift" around the lot or did they keep a pretty low profile most of the time? Did they ride on the train and eat in the dining tent along with everyone else? Did they have any specific location on the lot when they were taking the "marks" for everything they could steal?

13 July, 2008 20:22
Anonymous said...

SPANGLES - Zack Terrell memories from Vickie Cristiani Rossi's "Spangles, Elephants, Violets and Me." She (pages 44,45,46)writes that when she turned six the Cristiani Family moved from Ringling to Cole Bros. for the 1946 season. And in detail her meeting with Zack Terrell. It started when mother Marion made a sack lunch on the days she didn't want to eat cookhouse food. If it was a rainy day she would climb up and eat in "The Old Lay in the Shoe" wagon. As luck would have it one day Zack Terrell caught her climbing down from the shoe. Vickie said, he was fumed, pointing his cane at her stating what are you doing climbing on my floats? Vickie attempted to explain that she was a Cristiani and her father was Oscar. And that she wouldn't eat her lunch in his shoe anymore. While there is more to this story it ends with Zach telling Vickie, That the Ole Lady expects to see her in the spec and don't be late." What a story....

13 July, 2008 20:24
Buckles said...

As the audience left the big top after the evening performance the Side Show talker included in his pitch that tonight the dancing girls would offer a special attraction, "It's hoochie-coochie, rooty-tooty time. Where you can smell the smoke and see the flame!"
Once the regular side show acts had completed their numbers, an additional fee was charged to enter a walled off area (called the blow-off) where the sporting element could view the Cooch Gals, the Half & Half and be invited to partake of Craps or Three Card Monte (Nuts and Broads).
Once the "live ones" had been determined they were hustled outside to a predetermined area, since by this time the Side Show was being taken down around them.
When the show was short handed my mother and I would help fold up grandstand chairs and then on the way off the lot, if we passed the Side Show area we might see a commotion where the Lucky Boys were closing up shop but we didn't dare linger.
I never saw a grifter in the cook house or even on the lot during the day, due no doubt, to the possibility of an irate official from the previous town making a call.
Usually the show's Fixer squared the games in advance.

13 July, 2008 22:20
Anonymous said...

My father said that the grifters were not allowed to socialize on the lot, They appeared, did their thing and disappeared and somewhere along the way greased the palm of Mr. Terrel. My Dad pointed out a chubby little fellow who took sise show tickets named Glenn who would have a ball park idea of what the grift did each show. Incidentally they only worked in the siseshow and would appear just when the sideshow tip were being entertained on the various stages. Naturally Glenn would give his info to only Mr. Terrel. Seems like Terrel had a LOT OF TRUST IN gLENN. wHAT A WAY TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS.

14 July, 2008 09:49
Anonymous said...

Did the lucky boys who visited the show change from day to day, so that they wouldn't be recognized at consecutive stands? Or, did one crew work the same show the entire season?

Grifters were often segregated from the "legitimate" circus people when they traveled as part of the show. They sometimes traveled in their own leased railroad car, providing a second derivation for the term "privilege car." The other is for the "legitimate" privileges, the side show, concert, concessions, etc. The grifters had their own cooks and such and probably ate and traveled more comfortably than the showfolks. The arrangements depended upon who directly controlled the show privilieges.

14 July, 2008 12:39
Buckles said...

A grift joint usually required a dealer, an inside man, an outside man and most importantly a "Stick" (or Shill) who could pass for a towner.
The Stick would start the game and the outside man would feed him more cash should the game slow down.
There was a handsome young performer who fit that description perfectly and seemed to enjoy fast company until one night in a dispute, whacked one of the grifters.
Needless to say there was Hell to pay over that. I'll never forget Terrell's words the next day, "You God Damn performers stay here in the back year where you belong!"

14 July, 2008 13:10
Bob Karczewski said...

Thanks for all of the good stories on the subject of "Grift", it is not something you normally read about. And thank you Buckles for having this great blog for all of us to read.

14 July, 2008 20:19

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