Saturday, February 25, 2017

#1 Sixty Years Ago!


5 comments:

Mike Naughton said...

See it now or miss it forever.


You could use this tag line on circus advertisements today!

In Times Square there was an electronic store targeted toward the tourists. There was a huge sign in front "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS" or words to that effect. It was always going out of business and prices were advertised as CLEARANCE PRICES. The store was there for decades.


Harry Kingston said...

The year was 1956 after Ringling folded it's tent in Pittsburgh and I am sure it was Art Miller that came up with this slogan.
I asked Dorey about it and how was business then and to quote him he said we jammed them.
Great days of the circus and D R Miller was a real showman and he is missed and his stories were the best.
Thanks for the memories D R.

Harry Kingston said...

I forgot that in 1956 the Clyde Beatty railroad circus closed on May 9TH.
So it was wide open for Al G Kelly and Miller Bros Circus

Bob Momyer said...

We saw Ringling's "Out Of This World" last Saturday in Philadelphia at the Wells Fargo Canter it was a combination circus and ice show and the circus acts were excellent. Well presented cage act, excellent equestrian presentation as well as high acts, unfortunately, as in past years, the clowning left much to be desired. Too bad this is the end of an era.

Roger Smith said...

Re the 1956 Beatty show: We remember that after filing bankruptcy, Judge E.P. Johnston, in the Burbank, California bankruptcy court, on May 20th, allowed Beatty to take the show back to Deming, New Mexico winterquarters. The Gang of Four, as I call them--Frank McClosky, Walter Kernan, Jerry Collins, and attorney Randolph Calhoun, went to the Sheriff's auction in Macon, Georgia, where Beatty was incorporated, and persistent stories hold they bought the show for $80,000. But they did not buy Beatty. His name, his act, the equipment, and his private 61 Car were not involved in the bankruptcy. The buyers had to totally renegotiate with Beatty to keep him with them. Reorganized, with Beatty starring, the show re-opened on August 30, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and finished the rest of the season as the last railroad show under canvas. Sadly for all concerned, the conversion to trucks was made for 1957, but the Big Top remained, John Ringling North's pronouncement of doom notwithstanding.