I never saw this one; 5/1948, MSG; 3 cat acts, Damoo Dhotre & Co.--notice how small the act cages are--was that standard then? none of these acts look especially BIG (lower corner, polar bears?). assume all 3 acts toured under canvas. Same year, June, LIFE Magazine did a big, colorful spread on the circus at MSG, noting the emergence of the modern streamlined circus, rebounding in snap and popularity--sound familiar? Great view from BANDSTAND! |
Saturday, December 24, 2011
From Jerry Digney #2
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5 comments:
Buckles,
How about the cat cages. They look like Frank Buck transport crates which were carried in and set on the floor.
Wade Burck
I saw this show under canvas which included the same three acts, Tigers, Polar bears and Damoo's mixed act in the center.
Concello's low permanent cages were placed behind the arenas which might have been the case in the picture above for the two end rings however they were quite long and spotting one behind Damoo's ring would have difficult at best so it appears they opted for shifting boxes and gillied them back and forth to their permanent cage.
If I'm not mistaken, the center ring act is Roman Proske Tigers.
The act closest to the bandstand is a a Polar Bear act (Not Albert Rix). The arena he is working in is the same style & design as Clyde Beatty used. Dave Price and I have discussed this before.
Hi Buckles,
This photo is actually of the 1947 performance at Madison Square Garden. Magazines are notorious for photographing one season and then publishing it a year later.
You can tell by the color of the sawdust and ring curb designs. Also the drapery around the Garden. It was red,white & gold.
The three cage acts are Damoo Dhotre's mixed leopard act in ring 1, Konselman's polar bears in ring 3. The center ring was suppose to have Rudolph Mathies tiger act but unfortunately he didn't arrive in time for the Garden dates. A substitute act by Roman Proske (tigers) was used until Mathies arrived from Europe.
The cages for the leopards and polar bears were very small european style and were rolled into the arena. Not sure about Mathies cages but from the looks of them they probably were carried into the arena as Wade suggested.
All of this is covered in detail in Joe Bradbury's excellent article on the 1947 Ringling show that appeared in White Tops.
It is interesting to note that the small cages were actually carried on flat bed wagons until the show went under canvas. Then the animals were transferred to the new larger cages built for the 1947 season.
The Concello low profile cages were not built until the 1948 season and they actually were pulled into the arena and placed next to the performing arenas.
All the best to everyone for the coming New Year.
Dom
It is highly likely the arena nearest the bandstand is indeed the cage Beatty used. Remember, this all-aluminum arena was built over the winter of 1933 for the '34Hagenbeck-Wallace season. Beatty ended his Gumpertz-controlled connections at the close of that season, and for '35 his act and naturally all the equipment remained on H-W, and was taken over by Bert Nelson. Howard Y. Bary bravely fielded H-W's last hurrah, but 1938 did him in, and most of the equipment found asylum at Louis Goebel's. This arena remained a house cage owned by the parent Ringling, and its not surprising that it would be dusted off and assigned as needed.
That arena in Center is uncommonly small for show. This almost too-tight diameter we always used for a breaking cage.
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