Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Blue Show 1978 #6


1978 RBBB-6, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

6 comments:

Eric said...

I'm guessing that the cost of the pay-off elephant blankets alone, when converted to 2009 dollars, would be equal to the entire cost of producing ZING ZANG ZOOM.

Buckles said...

You're right about that, they spared no expense as long as it was Mattel's money.

Anonymous said...

The blankets for Bellobration were nice...not spectacular...but nice...unfortunately there was only the one set of gold blankets...even the elephants need a costume change....AC

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Mattel, can anyone shed some lite on the Mattel purchase of RBBB and then the re-selling of the show back to the Felds?
I have very sketchy details about this entire deal. Would love to know more.
Also does the Feld organization subtract the time that Mattel owned the shows from the time(s) they have had ownership? Or do they merely ignore that fact?
Seems that there was a bit of shenanigans in play on the whole affair.
Thanks
Joe G

Anonymous said...

Joe: Remember that when the show was sold to Mattel it was by Hoffeld Corp consisting of Judge Roy Hofheinz of Houston as well as the brothers Feld. This deal was for "stock and cash" but I don't know the figures.

By the time Irvin bought it back in 1982 it was just him and the figure given out was $22.5 mil, considerably more than they had paid for the show fifteen years earlier.

I don't think Circus World was part of this 1982 deal. Is that correct, Buckles?

Anonymous said...

Whitey
Thanks for the info. Is it true that Mattel paid 50 million in stock and cash ? Then Feld's bought it back for 22.5 Mil.
I am sure the relationship Irvin had with Mattel Pres. & CEO Mildred Fenner played a part as well.

Joe G