One of the coolest things on the
Strong show was the way that stringers and planks were permanently fastened
together. One guy set the jacks while two more were setting the stringer/plank
section on them- Voila- in about a minute you have the entire section in place
with little likelihood of a fall.
You see these seating units neatly stacked in the middle of this semi with the generator in front and canvas spool aft. |
Monday, April 20, 2015
From Dave Price
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
This system of seating was developed by Big John after he had had problems with the traditional separate stringers & planks roped together. Also the seats were ten high, consisting of a front section of five and a separate back section of five. The last seat plank on the back section was only 30 inches high because that was what the California State Fire Marshal would allow without a back railing. So you figure out that the seats rose about 30 inches over 18 feet you were constantly bobbing your head to catch a view of the ground acts unless you had a small kid in front of you! When David Rawls & Co. took over the physical assets of the show to form the new Al G. Kelly-Miller Bros, they used these seats for a while and later modified the design. The jacks, by the way slipped into sleeves bolted onto the stringers. It was a very fast method of setting the seats without fear of seating collapses. Having helped set those seats many many times, I can assure you that it was a great system for the working guys.
Roberts Bros. later adopted a similar design copied from the K-M show, but with further modifications such as seat planks made of aluminum. Other than the metal seat jacks, all of Big John's seats were mostly wood, except one proto type with metal stringers that we all hated because it was so damned heavy! When Toby Tyler had it's seat collapse incident in New York state years ago because one of the metal stringers crystalized and broke, Big John asked me if that could happen to his seats. I told him that wood didn't crystalize, and cracks in wood were pretty visible, and a new stringer could be easily replaced. He was much relieved.
Thanks, Bill.
I saw this show at Beach Bend Park in Kentucky thirty-five years ago. Didn't see the performance, just the set-up and had to leave.
Dave
Post a Comment