Thursday, December 03, 2009

Sarasota Revisited #1 (From Buckles) Part 1


Scan12431, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

I took these snapshots myself when I worked for Hugo Schmitt in 1957.
This is the building we discussed yesterday. The menagerie animals were housed on the ground floor and the upper stories were used to make the shows wardrobe as well as assemble the tents for the following season.
Unfortunately the days of "peanut sacks and wagon tracks" or "wagons of wood and men of iron" had just ended. The show was about to embark on on a tour of buildings or ball parks or where ever they could camp.
Looking back it was a remarkable experience tho, pretty heady stuff for a high-grass showman such as myself.

Posted by Buckles at 12/03/2009 06:20:00 AM

10 comments:

Buckles said...

I was just trying to remember what my salary was, don't hae a clue.
No cook house, a guy named Joe Bananas ran a grease joint down by the gate for both public and show people.
On occasion you could walk to town in the evening for a meal and a visit to the Gator Bar.
We flopped in one of the coaches that was spotted close to the elephant barn.

03 December, 2009 06:57
Anonymous said...

Buckles just exactly in Sarasota was winter quarters located?I have oft times wondered if any of the old buildings survive to this day?
Can they be seen fron I-75?

03 December, 2009 09:52
Hal Guyon said...

I heard that this building was once an old grandstand, that`s the reason for the unusual shaped roof. Can anyone confirm this ?

03 December, 2009 11:21
Anonymous said...

Your employment record is probably in the RBBB business records housed at Baraboo.

Imagine the late 1920s, when RBBB announced the shift from Bridgeport to Sarasota. No more frigid winters, a near summertime winter for those that relocated. And, you left town before hurricane season.

03 December, 2009 11:23
Anonymous said...

Didn't the steel beams from this building go into the building at Venice?

03 December, 2009 12:22
Anonymous said...

The RBBB quarters were formerly the fairgrounds and the existing structures were adapted to serve the needs of the circus.

03 December, 2009 16:22
Anonymous said...

Ringling was given a tax break on the winter quarters as long as Sarasota had a free ad in the programs. One of the questions I always wanted to know was why the show dropped the ad and wouldn't put it back in the program. Sure would have worked out better.

03 December, 2009 23:10
Frank Ferrante said...

In 1927, Ringling set up shop from November to early-March on 200 acres on the east end of Sarasota. The County Fair Association deeded the former fairgrounds to the Ringlings in exchange for publicizing Sarasota in the show's programs.

In 1959, John Ringling North, moved WQ 25 miles south to Venice. The tracks were pulled up and the buildings dismantled. The original location at what is now Beneva Road at Calliandra Drive became the subdivision of Glen Oaks Estates in 1963.

At the height of its popularity, Winter Quarters boasted over 100,000 visitors during their roughly four month season. ~frank

04 December, 2009 01:08
Anonymous said...

The fair grounds property was privately owned by four individuals; it was not city or county property other than for a small corner. The owners deeded it to the circus as part of the deal negotiated by Sam Gumpertz for John Ringling to bring RBBB to Sarasota. When John Ringling North later sold the land to Arvida Corp. [Arthur Vining Davis] for development, one of the four, who had been a Sarasota mayor, tried to get the deal rescinded, initiating a great search for title documentation to prove his recollection. Nothing was found to indicate anything other than circus ownership. The deal went through. Gene Plowden later gave life to the old mayor's claim, but it's not accurate as to the property ownership.

04 December, 2009 13:02
Chic Silber said...

Yes Anony the Venice arena was

assembled from the Sarasota WQ

structure and was modified to

accomodate seating for about 4K

It was one of my longer lasting

legacy projects to have designed

and supervised creating the show

elements including the elaborate

proscenium, bandstand, lighting,

and painting the entire interior

The building is currently in a

desperate condition and will most

likely be torn down by the city

(Photos to be sent by E)

08 December, 2009 23:21

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