Thursday, March 05, 2009

Merle Evans #1 (From Hal Guyon)


rbbb 1943-1n, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Buckles,
Been a lot on your blog about the Merle Evans and RBBB Band albums, I thought I`d send you these from 1943. I don`t know of any show now with live music, if there are it`s only a organ and maybe drums. I would love to hear this band now, gone forever.

Hal Guyon

Posted by Buckles at 3/05/2009 06:09:00 AM

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

All three Ringling units have live bands--and not just an organ and drums.

05 March, 2009 07:52
Anonymous said...

Big Apple and Circus Flora also have live bands, not trying to exclude anyone else, these are two that I know of. They both receive outside funding though!
Erik Jaeger

05 March, 2009 08:59
Anonymous said...

My mistake, I forgot about RBBB and haven`t seen Big Apple or Flora in several years. I was hoping to be able to go to Stone Mountain GA and catch Big Apple, but it didn`t work out. The last time I saw Circus Flora was at Speleto Festival in Charleston SC.

05 March, 2009 10:04
Eric said...

For most of the 1942 season, the Ringling-Barnum Circus had to use recorded music after Musicians’ Union President James C. Petrillo pulled the band off during the Philadelphia stand in a bid for more money. (This was his call, not Merle Evans’ and the bandsmen, who were perfectly satisfied with their wages.) 1943 the year this photo was taken was, of course, the first year that Robert Ringling and his mother Edith ran the show after wresting control away from JRN. One of the first things Robert did was to settle with Petrillo and bring the band back. 1943 was also the first year the show did the “Changing of the Guard” elephant number, which they continued to do throughout the war years.

05 March, 2009 11:24
Anonymous said...

While I'm not a big fan of the majority of musiccal selections used on Ringling today, I must admit that the sound quality is excellent.

Both the Sailor and Peru youth circuses have live bands, and they are great, often playing old traditional circus music.

05 March, 2009 16:15
Anonymous said...

Is that the bass drum that had the light bulb inside it?

06 March, 2009 08:16
Anonymous said...

Im order to light up a bass drum, you need an ocean, an island, a palm tree and the moon shining down, painted on the head.

06 March, 2009 19:26
Anonymous said...

You also need a bulb to control the moisture content of natural heads.

07 March, 2009 12:14

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