Sunday, August 01, 2010

From Frank Ferrante

Buckles -

Received the sad news that Ray Hartzell passed away last week after a battle with cancer. Ray's parents were well known to a number of your readers as Johnny and Helene Hartzell. Along with their other sons Mike, Ross and John, Jr. they appeared as one of the first long term acts at Circus Circus in Las Vegas. During that period, Ray also created some of the elaborate head pieces worn by the Vegas showgirls. With their show, The Wallace & Rogers Circus, Ray formed the entire orchestra with one of those new fangled electronic keyboards back in the mid-70's. He also did the dagger-sword balancing routine that Rogana did on RBBB in the early 70's. After selling their show, Ray returned to Vegas and Circus Circus where he worked as lead prop master for the other acts. Ray was a great person to jackpot with and will be sorely missed. ~frank

Posted by Buckles at 8/01/2010 05:23:00 PM

6 comments:

Ole Whitey said...

Ray was the grandson and I assume namesake of Ray Rogers who had Barnett Bros and Wallace Bros out for many a year.

His mother Helene was one of the daughters of Mr Rogers.

01 August, 2010 18:56
Hal Guyon said...

Had the good fortune of meeting Ray in York SC about 30 years ago. a groupe of fans from the South Carolina area gathered there with many of the old Barnett Bros & Wallace Bros folks. Baron Nowak, Pete Sandowski and others that I can`t recall at this moment were there also. It was a day I`ll always remember, lots of great stories from those old timer`s, all of them gone now. I`m very sad to hear this news, RIP Ray.

01 August, 2010 20:52
Brian Liddicoat said...

I remember Ray from the Rudy Brothers stands in Butte, my home town. The Hartzell's had the concessions and I did snow cones, sodas and on the cool evenings peanuts, for them. Had a great time getting to know the family.

02 August, 2010 11:12
Anonymous said...

So sorry to hear about Ray. Ray and I were both learning to play the Hamond organ the summer that their family was onn my folks show and Ray and I spent many fun hours working on our music. Would love to talk with Helene some time, she taught me to knit that summer.

02 August, 2010 20:37
Frank Ferrante said...

Dear Anony Mouse -

Johnny, Sr. pasted away in 1977, Helene passed a few years back, as did John, Jr. ~frank

03 August, 2010 10:35
Anonymous said...

Sorry I forgot my password so I can't sign in. So are Ross and Mike are the only ones left?

03 August, 2010 20:45

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