Buckles Blog: ROUTE CARD #8

Saturday, June 13, 2020

ROUTE CARD #8

13 comments:

Chic Silber said...: I designed & built quite

a bit of stuff for Castle

over many years; 13 June, 2020 21:57
Chic Silber said...: I believe the Jean Charles "Tarzan"

Zerbini version of this show is the

only survivor from this whole series; 13 June, 2020 22:24
Roger Smith said...: The towns in RED font are the "Double dates", when Hubert had a complete 2nd unit working. He usually went to those, while Mary (Ms. Castle) stayed with the primary unit. She took it very seriously. For each whole show, she stood right by the ring curbs fretting through every act.

If you study those jumps in BLACK font, this is what Hubert's route looked like every year. The arduous miles were very costly, in more ways than one. On a grueling jump into Watertown, South Dakota, in '73, a father of a large family act fell asleep at the wheel. The camper and trailer were wrecked, and his 10-year-old son was killed. It's a miracle more of us did not fall asleep driving Hubert's jumps. We disrespected him for, as we put it, letting the Shriners throw darts at a map and expecting us to make the towns.

More than this, Hubert's route proved terribly expensive for performers, and angry demands became ritual for gas and oil money. Some got their receipts paid back, but others were left to tough it out, vowing to kill Eugene Lambert, the agent who booked them over there.; 14 June, 2020 02:20
Roger Smith said...: Very interesting you mentioned building things for Castle--since more than once I heard him go on endlessly about how he himself, "put every screw in every box, fitted out every cable, designed my lights, my rigging, and the loading of my trucks. I built this show with my own two hands, and that's how I did it."

I knew Castle was a pretty good craftsman, who knew his way around the best tools. But I'm a nuts-and-bolts man myself, and was dismayed at how he bastardized the Beatty arena he got from Dave Hoover. It was built new in 1960, in DeLand, from the original design of the 1934 cage. It came from The Nipple Factory of Chicago, and was replicated for Beatty when he went to the Cole show for 1935. When Castle got the 1960 cage, his tear-down of it was his ego-trip showing how Beatty's cage should have been. The details are too many to go into here, but at least he did not alter the man-door, through which Beatty entered the last 5 years of his life. I went through that same door for two seasons.; 14 June, 2020 20:58
Chic Silber said...: During his last years which

of his lions jumped on the

inside of that enclosure as

Beatty made his escape; 14 June, 2020 21:37
Chic Silber said...: Castle was funny about how

he went about ordering stuff

He would call several times

going over details with me

often asking & then telling

me about my suggestions

More often he would end up

"well I'll consider it for

a while & let you know"

The next day he would say

"OK but make it snappy"

His word was always good; 14 June, 2020 21:45
Chic Silber said...: The only circus owner who

ever stiffed me I trusted

as a long time aquaintance

was Roland Kaiser which

ended up with him getting

very beligerent after he

had apologized & promised

to square things away for

a few years & then turned

That was after I helped

with his conversion to a

single ring Vargas format

I built & provided much

new equipment & spent a

considerable amount of

time in Goodyear for him

I was angry with myself

for trusting him; 14 June, 2020 21:54
Roger Smith said...: The lion you asked about is called a "door bouncer". Beatty's for his last 5 years was his top mounter, Pharoah. He joined in the 10-lion laydown for the act's last formation. Then, when the others lammed it down the tunnel, he scrambled back up top. When Beatty cued him down, he came on like a freight train as Beatty cued him hard. "That enclosure" is called the Safety Cage. Beatty barely made it inside, while Pharoah pawed at the bars, trying to get at him. When Pharoah finally retreated, Beatty slammed out of the Safety Cage to take a big style on the track. It was traditional for trainers to have a door bouncer, but nobody sold it like Beatty.; 15 June, 2020 06:16
J said...: Hi. Can you tell me more about Eugene Lambert? Was he a performer as well as an agent? Was that a stage name?; 26 December, 2020 04:25
Chic Silber said...: Please give us your NAME

& I'll give you information; 26 December, 2020 09:58
J said...: Hi. Thanks for responding so quickly. And Merry Christmas!
I'm Nancy Grison. There is a chance I'm related to him.; 26 December, 2020 16:40
Chic Silber said...: My good friend Kenny Dodd

& I only remember him as

an agent for night clubs

& variety shows as well

as for circus from the 60s

He ran ads in Billboard

& later in Circus Report; 26 December, 2020 17:45
J said...: Hi. Thanks for that. I wonder if he spoke French, or had an accent. I doubt there is a picture around?
Nancy; 06 January, 2021 00:56

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