Saturday, April 04, 2009

1969 Ringling #8


1969 Ringling-8, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

The “space aliens” were depicted as people with huge orange wings (not unlike the “Hawk Men” from the Flash Gordon serials of the 1930’s.)

Posted by Buckles at 4/04/2009 05:48:00 AM

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd like to know the program of the Ringling Blue edition in 1969,who presented the elephant and liberty horse acts and numbers of horses and elephants.Many Thanks.
sigela@citromail.hu

04 April, 2009 05:59
Eric said...

These photos are of the Red Unit. (The “Gunther” Unit.) The Blue Unit that took to the road in 1969 was essentially a repackaged version of the 1968 edition, with a mostly-new musical score. (Noticeably absent were works by such traditional circus composers such as Karl King, Russell Alexander, and Fred Jewell.) It was also billed as the 99th Edition.

The “Winter Wonderland” aerial ballet from the 1968 edition was revised with mostly-new musical arrangements, including a theme from "Rhapsody in Blue."

With the U.S. presidential inauguration now history, 1968s “Inaugural Ball” spec was revamped into “Alice in Wonderland.”

The Hugo Schmitt “Carnaby Street” elephant number was the only production number from 1968 to remain completely unchanged. (If enough elephants could be located, this same number could be revived today as a “Swinging 60s” nostalgia piece!)

04 April, 2009 10:46
Henry Schroer said...

That guy on the Horse is Fuddy, juggler from Hungary. I think he was in later years on Ringling in charge of the aerial displays or something. The picture before this one shows two of the Hungarian girls on the low wire. I think there was 5 girls in the act and the did a juggling act and two of them did the wire. The name was Thundis and one of them became Fuddys wife.

05 April, 2009 05:02
Roger Smith said...

For Eric:

In regard to Alexander, Jewell, and King, I always remember the story of an old-timer who told the latter-day Clem Toca he was ruining circus music. Toca, who was given to rock and jazz for circus scores, merely smiled, and said, "Good!"

05 April, 2009 18:58
Anonymous said...

A few years ago in Des Moines, Iowa during the RBBB pre-circus Adventure, I was asking some of the clowns to autograph my copy of a Pictorial History of the American Circus. One of the clowns came over to sign the book and asked to show it to a First-of-May clown. "This is the real circus!" he exclaimed in an Eastern European accent. When he signed his name, I couldn't make it out, but right beneath it he signed "Fudi" with a great flourish! I just about fell over and then exclaimed, "Are you thee Fudi, the Great Juggler?" His eyes brightened and he asked, "You remember me?" I just about did a back flip! "Remember you, are you kidding? Of course, you were Center Ring on Ringling in 1970, the first year I ever saw the show. You were THE BEST!" He couldn't believe that someone actually knew who he was, and by then several of the younger clowns had gathered around and I went off telling them that they were blessed to be in the shadow of a true Circus Legend! Fudi had never revealed to them who he actually was. He went on to tell me that Feld had asked him to come back and head up clown alley to "keep the kids in line," and that this was his last year with the show and that he was returning home to develop a new juggling act with his son. Last I heard, he'd done just that. It was truly a thrill to meet him!
Neil Cockerline
Minneapolis, MN

08 April, 2009 17:47
Mike Naughton said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t7PvaRE2QQ&feature=channel

Fudi and Suzanne
1981 London TV show.

09 April, 2009 01:54

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