Tuesday, February 20, 2018

#5 Baraboo!

Looks like my Buddy Bill Johnson moving Pat Anthony's Cats around to be loaded into Parade Cages!

Posted by Buckles at 2/20/2018 07:53:00 AM

1 comments:

Roger Smith said...

Bill Johnston stayed with me in San Antonio, when he researched for his articles at the late Hertzberg Circus Collection. We went up to New Braunfels and shared great dinners and jackpots with Peggy MacDonald, and Hanna and Emil Pallenberg. When Bill returned from the Army, he was taken at once into World Jungle Compound, and there met the first young man to learn wild animal training on the GI Bill, Pat Anthony. When Pat left the Old Place, in 1953, to go on his own, Bill went with him for the next 17 years.

It was Bill who provided the definitive answer to how many cats Clyde Beatty had in his Big Act. A Chicago boy, Bill's father took him twice to see Cole Bros-Clyde Beatty, in 1937. Known at an early age for exacting detail, Bill told me he accurately counted Beatty's cats on both visits, in the menagerie, as they ran by through the tunnel, and once inside, on the seats. That season, Beatty worked 43 mixed lions and tigers.

In 1992, Bill was in Baraboo, researching his article "Circus Tuskers", at the Parkinson Library. On the morning of October 24th, when he didn't meet them at the door, the CWM people called his motel. The manager went over to discover that Bill had died in his sleep, a death attributed to natural causes. This was hard news to receive, as I was once again his next stop. After Baraboo, he was coming back to my place and work at the Hertzberg. Respected for his detailed articles, published in the circus press as well as zoological tomes, Bill was also sought out for his knowledge around the big menageries and many animal acts. Any animal in his care, or any show he was on, was better served because Bill Johnston was there. Rest In Peace, my friend.

22 February, 2018 03:05

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