Sunday, January 14, 2018

#9 Gold Unit!


10 comments:

Paul Gutheil said...

Palacios ?

Chic Silber said...


What are those 2 "things"

inside of the ring prop

Henry Penndorf said...

Chic, they look to be Hyenas.

Chic Silber said...


Thanks Henry that's

certainly new to me

GTC said...

Gary Ambrose in red.

Jim Alexander said...

Jim Clubb's mixed act. Palascios worked on Ringling. Pat White worked it in Japan and maybe elsewhere. Don't think the striped hyenas did anything but sit - but they were there. Two black bears did something (I think seats came off the big ring and a bear rolled it from underneath with a cat on top). Closest thing I'll ever see to a Alfred Court act.

Roger Smith said...

The two seats come off, and the two fixtures underneath, set to scotch the barrel from moving for the moment, also are pulled. Court had a large barrel like this, with seats affixed as he liked, including a flat on top to seat another animal for a type of pyramid. With the scotches and seats removed, usually by the act's inside assistant, the barrel was rolled by whatever animals were assigned on top and inside.

From Patricia's descriptions to me, e-mailed from Japan, that act, co-performed with Jim Illig, had other features, and I'd think it was not this one. As we know, Mr. Clubb is extensively accomplished in having trained an impressive array of acts.

Tony Greiner said...

I think the "things" are Cape Hunting Dogs, aka Wild African Dogs.

Philip Astley said...

Dad says: "This photo was taken when the act first appeared at Cottle and Austen's Christmas Circus in London, UK. It consisted of 4 x tigers, 2 x lionesses, 2 x leopards, 2 x hyenas and 2 x wolves. It was presented by Jennifer Solomon, assisted by Gary Ambrose (who is in this picture). After London it was taken over by Luis and Marcia Palacio, and it went to the Blackpool Tower Circus, where I added a black panther who sat on top of the wheel. From Blackpool it went to the Monte Carlo Circus Festival and then to the Gold Unit of Ringlings in Japan. We removed the black pantehr and added another leopard and also 2 x black bears. Palacios stayed with the act through Ringlings in Japan, Ringlings in the USA and then back to Japan with Kinoshita. After three years in Japan, the Palacios were replaced by David Lowrey and Tina Stiff. We also added a liger to the act. The second wolf was dropped after Blackpool. David and Tina took the act from Japan to Circus Louis Knie in Austria, where it was eventually taken over by Pat White. After Pat, Tina Gasser presented it and then John Ilig. It was probably one of my most successful acts. I eventually sold it to Circus Mundial in Spain. It generally consisted of 14-15 animals. However, when Pat took it over there was no longer any wolves and only one hyena. She also went to Monte Carlo with it".

Chic Silber said...


Many thanks for this history Jamie

Please make comments more often