Pat Cashin commented on Emmett Kelly leaning on Lou Jacobs' shoulder in your pic. This one must have been taken just a few moments earlier as here we see the two coming toward the camera. Look at the far left of this pic and you can see that the band was set up that year in the end of the big top, possibly dating it as 1943. |
Friday, April 10, 2009
From Dave Price
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6 comments:
At the upper left, you can also see the high wire artist.
I saw shows in the 6-pole big top four times - 1937, 43, 45 and 47.
I cannot recall where the band was located in 1937 but in all the others it was at the end of the tent, as shown here, with the performers entering and exiting to either side.
Sir, straight ahead a quarter mile and turn right . . .
About a 200 x 500.
I lifted the picture I used from the 1945 Russell Bros.- Pan Pacific Program.
Roland Butler did the feature article so probably supplied the material for Mr. Concello.
Richard: I only saw the show in 1943 of the years you mentioned. The reason I recall the band being in the end was that the back side, where we were seated, was as long as the front side, unlike the set-up on many shows where the band stand location makes the back side also the short side.
At Mr & Mrs Gargantua's cage we ran into some neighbors and caught a ride home with them. Having no car in those years, we had ridden to Centennial Park on the bus. My dad worked in a bank and he had waited on someone from the show who had given him our tickets as a courtesy.
Apparently the show let service personnel in gratis as there were many many soldiers at the show that night. I recall Emmett Kelly offering one of them a cabbage leaf.
It was the only time I ever saw Alfred Court and his 3 rings of animals; I wish I knew who was working the end-ring acts that night.
Whitey - - You saw more of A. Court in Nashville a week earlier than we did here in Atlanta. You saw three rings of acts whereas there was only one here - -in the center. The program certainly called for three, and I recall our disappointment at being short changed.
I believe they started with three but cut the leopards and sent them to the Garden for Spangles. When it folded, they went back to ‘Sota.
I asked the late Wilson Storey why I saw only one big cage here. He told me that they cut an act and sent it back to quarters.
Now, the possibility just occurs to me that when I saw the Monday matinee they only put on one act for some reason or other. I do recall that there were polar bears because after the show we went into the back yard and saw them being fed.
Also, at the Monday show - -in the faux street parade spec - - the steam calliope rolled around the track sans steam. That too was disappointing. When I saw it at a matinee in 1941 (Two Jesters - -painted white), it was belching aplenty.
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