Sunday, December 07, 2008

RBBB outdoors 1958


Scan11061, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

In regard to Mr. Beheim's pictures below, I played Balboa Park with the Polack Show in the 1960's but I recall it as a baseball stadium.
One day the grounds keeper showed me a semi trailer parked nearby and inside were the aluminum uprights as seen in the picture above taken by Harry Quillen at the Hollywood Bowl in 1958.
He said that San Diego was the last outdoor spot the Ringling Show used it and after an arena was built the truck was abandoned.
Ten years later I was at the Ringling Park when this subject came up and Chappie Fox asked me if I knew anything. I explained that the center poles for the Greatest Show on Earth were out behind left field at Balboa Park.
Upon further investigation he discovered that evrything had vanished.

Posted by Buckles at 12/07/2008 07:20:00 AM

7 comments:

Buckles said...

I cropped this picture to more closely identify the uprights and rigging that Concello designed to support the flying act frames, etc.
However, I might add that the place was packed, I wonder what the seating capacity is at the Hollywood Bowl?

07 December, 2008 12:18
Eric said...

This would be San Diego's Balboa Stadium, which at the time it was built, was the largest stadium of its kind in the world. (I saw an open air Polack performance there in the 1970s.) In 1941, Ringling set up in Balboa Park on what is now the parking lot of the San Diego Zoo. Old-timers told me that the ground there was so hard, that the show couldn’t use its wooden stakes but had to comb all the local junkyards to find old automobile axels, which were the only things strong enough to be driven down into the hard pan. Later in the 1960s, and before the Sports Arena was built, Ringling would set up in Westgate Park down in Mission Valley (the current site of the Fashion Valley Shopping Center.) One of the local musicians who played for the show back then confirmed that San Diego was Ringling’s very last outdoor stand, and that the show’s special outdoor rigging was permanently stored there. The San Diego Sports Arena opened in 1968.

07 December, 2008 12:56
Eric said...

The seating capacity of the Hollywood Bowl is just under 18,000.

07 December, 2008 13:00
Anonymous said...

If Eric is correct and this is Balboa Stadium rather than the Hollywood Bowl, it sort of explains the mystery mentioned the last time this pic was shown about why the bowl doesn't show in the photo.

07 December, 2008 20:39
Anonymous said...

This picture is not Balboa Stadium.
Balboa Stadium had seats on both sides of the football field. The Chargers played there when they were in the AFL. It was also an excellent track and field stadium. When the Chargers moved to the (then called) San Diego Stadium most of the seats were removed to prevent competition. Balboa Stadium is now the home field for San Diego High School. I too was told Ringling' last outdoor date was San Diego. I know they played Westgate Park in the sixties. I was there. It was also replaced by San Diego Stadium when the minor league San Diego Padres joined the National League.
Mark Horton

07 December, 2008 22:19
Eric said...

The B&W photo appears to be, in fact, the Hollywood Bowl sans the trademark band shell. (At least, the orchestra pit in front is just like the one at the Hollywood Bowl.) What they did with the shell I have no idea, since I always thought that it was a permanent structure.

The venue in San Diego where Polack played was the Balboa Stadium, which is just a short walk from the lot where the Rudy Bros. photos were taken.

Incidentally, the San Diego Sports Arena opened in 1967, not 1968 as I had reported earlier.

07 December, 2008 23:19
Buckles said...

As mentioned in the text, this is the Hollywood Bowl in 1958.
The best picture I could find of the Ringling outdoor layout that was later stored at Balboa Park.

08 December, 2008 07:02

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