Buckles Blog: #13 Cole Bros.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

He started Show Biz as Hal Smith but John Ringling North thought Hubert Castle sounded better.

Roger Smith said...: James Albert Hal Smith, my old boss, out of Enid, Oklahoma. He played bass horn in the high school marching band, and went then to a Baptist seminary, studying to become a preacher, to please an uncle. That fell aside when he saw his first wirewalker. He was known for vocal and unlimited prejudice, which extended to Blacks, Europeans, and indeed, Jews. But during the Depression, he let the Jewish booking agents think his name was Silverstein, and they kept him working steadily as Hal Silvers. He was incensed when JRN named him Hubert Castle, since he hated the British inference, but he starred on RBB as a Center Ring solo for 4 seasons, and got a LIFE magazine cover there, in 1941. Hard as he was to take sometimes, he was among the few performers who made it in the Front End as a show owner.

On the technical side, Hubert was among the first to abandon the single-strand wire for cable. In his little shop in Cincinnati, Ed Van Wyck made all of Con Colleano's wires. They were 1/4" English steel strands, 37' long. Herbie Weber, a purist who stayed with wire, told me it was stable, while cable allowed a slight roll under your feet. Hubert did well, but remained No. 3, after Con Colleano and Harold Barnes.; 15 September, 2016 18:26

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