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Wednesday, June 15, 2011
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9 comments:
Tonito on the slack wire while tight wire artists Lola Dobritch occupied the other end ring and Hubert Castle was in the center ring. I believe Tonito was around for a number of years.
Dick Flint
Baltimore
According to Tom Parkinson’s 1951 BILLBOARD article (which was reprinted in Joe Bradbury’s article on the RBBB 1951 season) Hubert Castle didn’t appear in the film because he had not been contracted by Paramount.
Hal once told me that he had done a good bit of Hollywood work previously.
For a while served at one studio as an "Idea Man" which entailed solving problems in complicated stunt work.
He still belonged to all the Movie Unions and demanded to be paid accordingly in the DeMille epic.
Needless to say he was excluded.
Tonito was the brother of famed trapeze artist Miss Mara. Circopedia has a rundown on her career.
Bob Good
I would suggest that this not Tonito in that his wardrobe as I recall were the Toreador styl like Colleano and do not believe he ever used that "slack" of a wire.
Now Castle was indeed a movie star at least once in that he played a scandinavian wire performer with a speaking part by the name of the "Great Gustafson" supposedly doing a high walk over Niagara Falls or some gorge. He was a lousy actor and his broken Swedish or Norwgian was terrible. Its a great "musical" titled "Sensations of 1945" and also stars Eleanor Powell tap dancing with horse "Starless Night". Also Mel Hall on unicycle and Cristiani Zerbini teeterboard with Remo and Benny Cristiani among othr Circus-vaude performers. Its fun to watch.
John, I think you are right. Tonito did back and front summies and not on a slack wire.
At one time the act was Los Tonitos. I guess it was his brother, but not sure. Maybe early on he worked slack wire. It should be in the program.
Well, I turned to the showman’s Bible, Billboard, for clarification and had a nice surprise that we are all correct.
The April 21, 1951, Billboard noted that "at present" side show top spinner "Ruiz holds down Ring 3 in Display 6 of the big show as a temporary substitute for Senor Tonito, slack wire.” But most interesting was the review a few years later in the April 21, 1956, Billboard (page 61): "Tonito in center ring on low tight and slack wire, flanked by Attalini, tight wire, and Naukos, unicycle." Other issues reported him in reviews as doing a “forward” as early as 1955 so he must have been performing on the tight wire by then but the 1957 review still reported him as working a slack wire. By 1959, when he was on Beatty-Cole, Billboard reported that “Tonito does the forward and backward on the tight wire, frequently, as in Freeport, accomplishing both on the first effort.” So, apparently, he evolved from the slack to the tight wire on which he became quite proficient. His sister, per a 1955 Billboard, was Miss Mara and in the 1951 route book, the source of my original posting about all three wire acts, he’s further identified as “Spain’s renowned slack wire genius,” “Tonito” is listed with the Miss Mara act of Mara Papadopaulo and “Mr. Papadopaulo.” Come to think of it, I remember a great photo looking up at him leaping up from the wire to touch his toes, certainly a trick from the tight wire.
Thanks for questioning this, John! Keeps me on my toes, so to speak.
Dick Flint
Baltimore
The Colonel is right--Castle's acting was awful, but it astonished people who knew him that anyone got him, with his wild prejudices, to affect a foreign accent. Part of the story was a bet between the leads that no one could get star publicity for a wire-walker, thus the featured stunt, with our Hubert getting plenty of frames.
Castle opened his routine doing comedy drunk on a very slack wire ending that routine with the nhipswinging "whip" and then it was ratcheted up for ythe demanding jumps, somersaults, etc. James Plunkett does it exactly the same way [Chrisopher James] having been schooled by Castle. It is remarkable that these artists did both.
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