Thursday, October 02, 2008

Cole Bros. Program 1947 #4


Scan10785, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

"Noyelles Burkhart assistant general manager."

I just read Bill Taggart's excellent article in Bandwagon that shed new light on Mr. Burkhart when he was the fixer on the Ringling Show in the 1950's.
As a 12 year old, I don't recall that sunny disposition but about 30 years later when I was at Circus World in Florida, a gentleman and two ladies in aqua colored square-dancing attire approached and asked if they could see the elephants.
After a while the man said, "You don't remember me do you Buckles?", not having a clue he said, "I'm Noyelles Burkhart ".
They were participants in a Square Dance competition being held in the outdoor ring.

Posted by Buckles at 10/02/2008 06:50:00 AM

4 comments:

Harry Kingston said...

I also greatly enjoyed the Bandwagon article about Mr. Targets adventures with the big one. Alot of circus history in that article.
I corresponded with Mr. Burkhart and he was very nice to answer all my many questions on circus history.
He told me about the big one in Minneapolis/St. Paul when a strike was pulled and he went to the cars and got the old Cole Bros, hands and got the show moved to the next town.
He even told me about my town, Beaumont, Texas when the Ringling show played there in the 1950's.
He said after the 2pm show a sheriffs deputy came up to him and told him your ass is going to jail if you do not separate the blacks from the whites. And he told me what reserves were for whites and blacks as well as the blues also.
Has times changed. I had never heard of the color line in a circus.
I wish I had known Mr. Burkhart when he was on Cole.
A truly great showman.
Harry

02 October, 2008 09:09
Anonymous said...

Buckles:

I also met Mr Burkhart at CWM, up in the library. He and his wife were there with the Joe Glassos, whom I had known years before on Beatty-Cole.

Wasn't Mrs Burkhart another of the Nelson girls?

02 October, 2008 13:00
Anonymous said...

For Dave Price--that would have been the summer of 1972 or '73 (unless the Burkharts and Galassos traveled together to CWM at other times). I was working at CWM then and distinctly remember meeting Joe Galasso for the first time as I had admired his one-finger stand on CBCB years earlier. I had met Noyelles in Sarasota the winter or two before that and he and his second wife were on a trip, most likely either an Airstream caravan or to a square dance convention. Yes, his first wife was Hilda Nelson who died in 1969. He was as jovial a fellow as one might ever meet--even came up to see me when I was in graduate school in New York when he was on some Airstream caravan trip.

I remember Noyelles telling of the closing of the Ringling show. He knew there would be a lot of show people looking for jobs in Sarasota so he flew home to arrive early and took the first job he was offered, as milkman on a route. He worked his way up to become an executive with the dairy before he retired.
Dick Flint
Baltimore

03 October, 2008 01:21
Anonymous said...

Dick: Yes, that's when it was, 1973. I remember meeting you there at CWM and then running into you on the Beatty-Cole lot in Madison a few days later. Mary Jane and I were in the area phoning a nearby town for Bill English.

03 October, 2008 12:46

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