Tuesday, June 15, 2010

NY Worlds Fair 1964 #14


Scan12997, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 6/15/2010 05:14:00 AM

9 comments:

Roger Smith said...

Kim Baer confirms with me: Dorothy Yerkes returning, Fay in a double over the passing leap, Bobby Yerkes catching.

Someone recently suggested Bobby had died last year. Nuts. He's an active stuntman at 78. Kim and I have both talked to him recently, and he's now involved with the WATER FOR ELEPHANTS shoot over in Fillmore.

15 June, 2010 20:10
Don said...

To see Bob Yerkes in a recent film, go to youtube and select "Butterfly Circus", an inspiring new short film about a small traveling mud show set in the thirties. Bob is typecast as a senior citizen trapeze artist. Chester Cable and Wini McKay supplied most of the set and the props for the film. They, along with Bob, are now busy with "Water for elephants".

Don Covington

15 June, 2010 23:15
Frank Ferrante said...

Good to hear that reports of Bobby's death were greatly exagerated! ~frank

16 June, 2010 10:05
Chic Silber said...

This is good news I wonder who

posted that he had passed away

Of the many erroneous claims

this kind of thing is shameful

16 June, 2010 21:28
Frank Ferrante said...

Chic - Before you go through the archives, I was the one who said that I heard that Bobby passed away sometime last year. I spoke with Bobby today and he assured me that he is still alive and well! ~frank

17 June, 2010 00:39
Bill Shoop said...

What was Faye Alexander like personality wise?Where did he start his career?

17 June, 2010 17:27
Buckles said...

I think both Fay and Bobby were among the acrobats recruited from Muscle Beach by Ted DeWayne in the late 1940's.
I never knew a flyer that wasn't well liked, however there were a few catchers that were a bit eccentric from getting hit in the head with elbows and knees a bit too often.

17 June, 2010 19:53
Chic Silber said...

Fay & Rose were 2 of the nicest

folks in the business

After they stopped flying they

trouped "Al's Lemonzeen" which

might have been Cook's car

While Fay had all the fun out

front poor Rose was cooped up

in the back operating the thing

17 June, 2010 23:03
Roger Smith said...

BILL SHOOP: The late Billy Barton wrote an excellent 9-part series on Fay Alexander for CIRCUS REPORT that ran weekly from March 22 to May 17, 1976. I have all 9, but it might be a little tricky to get them now.

Briefly, Fay contracted a lung disorder at 3, and was given singing and ballet lessons to help maintain his health. He and sister Dorothy had a kid song-and-dance act in vaudeville.

Buckles is right. Ted DeWayne bought some 2nd-hand flying rigging, and called time for Fay with Bill Snyder catching, when, as Fay said, not one of them knew beans about flying. He stayed with DeWayne for 8 years, in Risley, teeterboard, and sundry acrobatic turns. But his flying caught the eye of Art Concello, and we all know most of the rest.

I had the pleasure of talking with Fay many times from 1957 until our last visit when he was on the 1980 winter tour of Beatty-Cole, with Al's Lemon-zeen. He was soft-spoken, patient, a gracious gentleman, and any young hopeful who met him will tell you he gave them generous encouragement and tutoring.

Kim Baer feels his only failing was smoking. It contributed to his death from cancer.

Fay died at his home in Sarasota, on July 16, 2000, with his wife Rosie by his side. He was 75.

18 June, 2010 00:10

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