Tuesday, July 06, 2010

From Richard Reynolds #1


!cid_X_MA1_1278367681@aol, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.


Richard Reynolds says - - -

Here is Ernestine Clarke with Robert Ringling. This is from the Pfening archives and is labeled 1943. It was the feature photograph leading into the late Joe Bradbury's splendid history of RBBB's 1943 season as published in WHITE TOPS for Nov.-Dec. 1980.

At the risk of seeming ungallant, I must mention that The Social Security Death Index records Ernestine as being born on October 16, 1921 in New York and dying on August 1, 2000, making her 78 at the time. There was a bit of trouble finding her, for she is not listed under “Ernestine” but rather by her real name “Elizabeth Laura.” She was always Ernestine to her family and assumed it as her performing name early on.



There is a terrific obituary about her in the LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH for 26 August 2000. The obit may be found on Google.



When she arrived in Sarasota to get ready for the 1943 show she was only 21 years old, to become 22 in October. Joe Bradbury’s fine 1943 review show tells how she was worked into the Concello flying act and also that she appeared on horseback in the opening “Hold Your Horses” spec.

Posted by Buckles at 7/06/2010 06:21:00 AM

2 comments:

Jackie LeClaire said...

Robert Ringling was such a gentleman, but what an eye for the girls. He was the one who took the pants (long pants)off the girls and put them in kilt skirts for the Changing of the Guard elephant finaly number in 1944. He also had all the aeirial clowd swing and any other costume he could catch, designed so the the waist on the girls cut in a V down below their navals. Shirley Linderman, later married to Feddy Logan, rode in the speck on the elephants trunk, laid back on it with her hand holing on to the head piece and the end of the trunk wraped around her ankle. It only made one performance in Boston and was taken out for the rest of that engagement. Robert Ringling added so much classical music to the prgram with help from for one I remember, Deems Taylor. When he was outed during the NYC Madison Sq. egagement, the music was quickly changed back to the old circus standards. Unfortunatly, I was booked by Robert, and the next season 1947 saw a vendenta of almost exclusively everyone who was a Robert Ringling act, got the ax. That included my trapeze act, the Wallendas, Capt Heyer, Lalage, you name it, they were gone. I will admit they made a better change for my single traps by bringing back Albert Powel contortion, one the the greatest single trapeze performers of all times. No one has touched him for his style and tricks to this day. Jackie

06 July, 2010 23:15
Roger Smith said...

Even the birth of Elizabeth Laura "Ernestine" Clarke was not without drama. As Buckles discovered, her birth occurred on October 16, 1921, in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, but in those first moments it was thought she had died, and all medical attention turned to her mother, Elizabeth Rebecca Clarke. As the precious minutes passed in her care, her daughter announced her presence with a commanding wail. By the time everyone gathered their wits, it was then October 17th, the birthday Ernestine celebrated all her life, and the date on her marker at Forest Lawn.

Her true date of death was on Parley's 86th birthday, August 5, 2000. He was holding her hand when she passed in their home on Bilmoor Avenue, in Tarzana, California.

06 July, 2010 23:16

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)