Monday, July 06, 2009

From Gee Gee's albums #3


Scan11817, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 7/06/2009 06:07:00 AM

1 comments:

J Goodall said...

Dorrita was the daughter of Arthur Konyot

Arthur, wife Manya, son Alex and daughter Dorita were contracted by John Ringling for the 1940 opening of his circus at Madison Square Garden.

From 1940 to 1944 they performed for the Ringling Show. Alex, because of the war, had joined the US Army in 1942 and was sent off to Ft. Riley. He was shipped to the Italian front and became a decorated soldier.

In the meantime, Arthur, his wife, Manya and Dorita continued to perform their high school act for Ringling to the delight of their audiences, however, in the season of 1944, Manya became ill and after a short time passed away.

Arthur’s devoted helpmate and companion of 30 years was gone. Alex was still serving overseas at his mother’s death. Despite this terrible loss, Arthur and Dorita stayed on with the circus until the end of the season, which would have been what Manya wanted.

After the war Alex returned to his family and Arthur, Alex and Dorita continued to perform in circuses across America sometimes together and sometimes in solo.

Around 1952 Arthur said farewell to the circus and moved to Chicago to open his own equestrian center. Dorita joined her father at his Chicago Riding School. They both trained and showed Arabian horses to championship status, and loater Arthur became the exclusive trainer to Arthur Godfrey.

Dorita returned to Sarasota and also opened her own School of Equitation. She trained and schooled many horses for both performers and private clients, and taught countless people the principles of classical horsemanship. She married a handsome flyer by the name of Ray Humphries, and they had a son whom they named, Ray. He still resides in Sarasota. Dorita kept close to her circus roots and continued to produce equestrian acts for other performers and big equestrian shows.

06 July, 2009 16:20

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