Friday, December 12, 2008

Clyde Beatty Music Cues (1955) (From Chris Berry)


Clyde Beatty Music Cues (1955), originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

I can hear it now...

This cue sheet is handwritten by the legendary circus band director Victor Robbins - and shows not only the music that was played during Clyde Beatty's act during the season of 1955 - but also gives some insight into what was happening when the music changed.

Chris Berry

Posted by Buckles at 12/12/2008 05:58:00 AM

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is interesting Chris thanks .

I also wonder if the Band Leader would have stayed in Hotels ?

12 December, 2008 08:37
Bob Cline said...

I can't read what 9A says but the rest appears to say there were only three tricks in the entire act. WOW! Try making a three trick act last for nine minutes now. That alone shows his showmanship was unequalled!
Bob

12 December, 2008 08:55
Harry Kingston said...

Bob,
I know Dave Price and I agree with you on Mr. Beatty's showmanship and why they called him Mr. Circus.
The likes that will never be equaled again.
I am lucky as I got to see him perform a few times in the 50's and early 60's. I remember saying to my Mom will he come out alive from that cage.
The music and Mr. Beatty in that cage of fury, WOW I have been a fan of him ever since.
Harry

12 December, 2008 09:36
Wade G. Burck said...

Bob,
This is an incredible piece of memorabilia. But I don't think making 3 tricks last for 9 minutes illustrates showmanship any more then milking the audience is showmanship. That is a patch for "nothing much" and that surly was not the case with Clyde Beatty.
Wade Burck

12 December, 2008 15:03
Eric said...

I agree with Wade that this is an incredible (and historically valuable) piece of memorabilia. No one area of circus history has proven to be more elusive to being documented for posterity than the musical programs that were used to accompany the performances. The circus historian doing research on the Ringling show during the 1930’s and early ‘40’s, for example, will have no trouble finding an abundance of detailed, season-by-season information on the size and configuration of the big top, the loading order of the train, the number and types of animals carried in the menagerie, the names of performers and key staff people, and so on. However, this same historian will be hard pressed to come up with much detailed information about the specific music that Merle Evans used to accompany the acts and the production numbers during those years. Somewhere, it might all be written down, but until it comes to light, we will all be left guessing. In the case of Beatty’s music from 1955, once again Buckles’ Blog has come through and made available something that we would probably never see someplace else.

12 December, 2008 16:24
Buckles said...

I still havn't quite come to grips with "Beer Barrel Polka".

12 December, 2008 17:08
Anonymous said...

Three tricks??? Read it again! It says to play Jungle Drums" until the barrel trick. Obviously,several tricks were performed during this musical selection. "Beer Barrel Polka" does seem an unlikely change of mood, even if it was a brief interlude used to get rid of the prop. Interesting that Robbins

Elmo

12 December, 2008 19:31
Anonymous said...

Clyde's music was used for many years, with a few changes, however the "Big Cage" galop was used as the chaser for some time after he went to the big lot in the sky. In fact, in Cherry Valley, IL, after the big Milwaukee JC sponsored date (Labor Day), the lights went out when Dave Hoover was the trainer and were immediately switched to the front end generator, which lasted for about a minute. The band (Chuck Schlarbaum) immediately switched to "Big Cage" and it seems that we played it for about 20 minutes, until some performer started his personal generator and was able to string some regular lights to see what was happening. Dave got the animals out safely, but after the show there so many steel stakes around the center ring that they were not possible to count.
Bob Kitto

12 December, 2008 19:38
Anonymous said...

I hit a wrong key and the comment disappeared. I think it is interesting that Robbins used a fermata mark to indicate a brief pause in the music following the chord.

Do most bandleaders keep cue sheets on file in case they play for the same act again?

Elmo

12 December, 2008 19:38
Wade G. Burck said...

Buckles,
You kidding me. That bit of innovation and genius has been used for a great number of "barrel rolls 0 death." Next to Born Free and the Pink Panther theme for anything with lights there is nothing cheesier(Baumann excluded. Congress should have voted it his tune only.) in a cage act.
Wade Burck

12 December, 2008 20:05
Wade G. Burck said...

Chris,
Is this piece of magic in your possession, or do you know where it is at? I can't believe it. I get goose bumps each time I look at it.
Wade Burck

12 December, 2008 20:09
Anonymous said...

I disagree with Wade...As a Kid I remember seeing Whizzo the Clown get 35 minutes outta "Hippity-Hop-Rabbits...When I bought the trick from Abbotts...I could only get 6..tops!...In short, I needed a trunk load of tricks to get a 1/2 hour.....

12 December, 2008 20:34
Anonymous said...

Back to the music...with this description of 19th century music, Theodore Hadjipantazis in a copy of Theatre Notebook happens to mention ‘One particular incident in Colonel Daniel Boone’s career...in Athens, Greece at that particular time his act was offered as a sideshow to the performances of the Armenian operetta troupe of Beklian, famous throughout the entire Eastern Mediterranean. Before the musicians would take their positions to strike up the overture of La Fille de Madame Angot or of Girofle-Girofla, the stagehands would bring into the orchestra pit an iron cage...and the dauntless Colonel would step in with his imposing lady to display prodigious feats of courage and resolution. The combination of operetta airs and lions’ roars may strike us as somewhat discordant today, but it seems it was not uncommon in the theatres of the nineteenth century.’
Paul Griffiths

13 December, 2008 09:26
Anonymous said...

Information on circus music actually goes straight back to the origins of the circus. Music for John Bill Rickett's act survives and is one of the very few references we have to any European appearances by the man who would establish the circus in America in 1793. It would be hard to say just what subject of circus history "has proven to be more elusive to being documented for posterity" as blogger Eric writes but I don't think it is the music. The hard question for circus music historiography is about the many changes of compositions used for just one act; too often one title is given for one act (such as "The Big Cage" for Beatty) when, in fact, it is several. Otherwise, we actually know a great deal about the composers (see the book "Pioneers in Brass" as well as some dissertations and books about specific individuals), the compositions (see "Circus Songs, An Annotated Anthology"), and I even have a small book written in the 1880s directed at how to join a circus band and what to know. Plus, there are huge archives--such as those of Merle Evans at Barbaoo--that need to be better mined. They've mostly been used only to acquire copies of the compositions for playing by bands today.

By the way, nice piece Chris and excellent analysis by several questioning why only 3 tricks (or behaviors, Wade!)of what we historians call the internal evidence--did he do only three tricks or are some just not mentioned in this list.

Finally, show people would choose to stay in a hotel for long engagements such as Madison Square Garden. As well, it was not uncommon for traveling showpeople to collect stationary from a hotel to use later on.
Dick Flint
Baltimore, MD

13 December, 2008 10:16
Anonymous said...

Somewhere back in the archives of this blog, I listed the tricks and the music for each for the Beatty act of 1964. His widow, Jane, had asked me for this during the time the court case was going on versus Jerry Collins over royalties for the use of the Beatty name.

In '64, the act ran from 15 minutes to as long as 25, depending on what Beatty had to do to manage hey-rubes at the break-up of the lay-down. In these often-protracted moments, Karl King's "The Big Cage" was reprised as required until Beatty got out from Pharoah's door bounce.

14 December, 2008 21:55

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