Thursday, August 27, 2009

Hanneford #1 (From Hal Guyon)


Hannerford-100, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Buckles,
Warren Adams posted some comments on your blog the other day about the Hanneford Circus playing Jamil Shrine Temple in Columbia, SC. Here are a couple of pictures I took in the early 80`s. The first is the Grand Lady Herself being interviewed by a local TV Reporter, Mrs. Hanneford was always gracious and a pleasure to be around. The next 2 were taken late at night before the opening the next day, I don`t remember who was on the trapeze but the other is Gaylord practicing. As you can see the arena wasn`t large but you will also see in the next picture that we really packed them in at all 7 shows. For those that were on the show during this time you may remember that at the first show on Saturday we brought in several hundred recruits from nearby Fort Jackson. Some of these soldiers had never seen a circus in their life and really enjoyed it. The last is of Mark out front of the elephant ride, I remember the guy loading the kids but can`t recall his name, maybe Warren can help. I was always proud to be associated with the Jamil Circus as a Co-Chairman,and we always treated the show folks like family. You were there yourself a couple of time Buckles, I hope you enjoyed it. I have many more photos that I have taken of the show in Columbia over the years and will send more if you`d like. Keep up the good work on the blog, it`s one of the first things I check every morning.

Hal Guyon

2 comments:

Chic Silber said...

In the early 60s when George &

Vicky were on Ringling the rest

of the family was on Beatty and

Mrs Hanneford maintained her

centered position in ring 2 with

the long whip and her husband

maintained his position at the

back of the ring standing regal

Tommy had become the new Poodles

and I can't remember who else

besides Kay was in the act

I believe Kay's husband was a

band leader on another show

Those WERE the days my friends

Warren said...

Nana was always the star of the show and a favorite of all who had the honor of knowing her. I'll never forget the morning that Kay Parker knocked on my trailer door in Winston Salem,NC, at about 5:30 am after we had just moved the show, leaving Nana along with Tommy and Struppi, in the hospital in ? to tell me that Nana had passed during the night. That day was the hardest set up of my life - but we had the show to prepare. That evening, the fanfare for the riding act played, and the spotling fell on an empty ring except for a single lunge whip and a solitary red rose.