Monday, September 11, 2006

Deppe Bros. Circus 1967


Jimmy Cole took these first three pictures. Here we see John Herriott with his 12 pony liberty drill appearing at the Meridian, Mississippi Fair in the Fall of 1967 after the Museum had ended it's season.
A pretty basic operation, "Anthym" the High School horse patiently awaits his turn in the background, Mary Ruth's dog act props at hand just ouside the ring and the elephants will close the show while the orchestra at left, plays "On Wisconsin".

Posted by Buckles at 9/11/2006 06:53:00 AM

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are these the same ponies that ended up on the Blue Unit and eventually worked by Billy Baker? If so, it was a very good looking act. Where can you see a 12 pony drill these days? Hell, you're thrilled to see a 4 pony drill. I don't know the official color of the ponies but I do recall, if this is the same group, the harness was orange.
Please pardon my lack of info, did Mr. Herriott ever work this act on RBBB? I'd love to hear more on this act, if Mr. Herriott would be so kind.
Tip of the month: The Big E Super Circus at Eastern States in W. Springfield, Mass. Check out their website and check out the list of circus talent.
If this circus was on the road you'd rush to the box office and gladly pay $45 a ticket or more.
As Bette Davis use to proclaim, "PETA, PETA, PETA" ...and I hope that the .62 cents ad commission is sent to Buckles promptly.
Follow the arrows!

11 September, 2006 07:26
Anonymous said...

The Big E Super Circus, sponsored by Coca-Cola - The Fair's own free, one-ring, European-Style circus. This year's line-up includes Grandma, straight from the Big Apple Circus, TV's America's Got Talent finalists David & Dania's Amazing Costume Quick Change, the Irina Markova Dogs, Catherine Hanneford presents the Carden Elephants, the Marinofs' Double Trap and the Raul Castano Comedy Dog Act. Showtimes are daily at 1, 4 and 7 p.m.

11 September, 2006 08:59
Anonymous said...

YES THESE WERE AMONG THE ANIMAL ACTS THAT BROUGHT FROM CWM TO RINGLING RED. EITHER I OR MARY RUTH WOULD WORK THEM OR AN EXOTIC ANIMAL IN THE SAME DISPLAY. WHEN I TRASFERRED TO THE BLUE SHOW AS EQUESTRIAN DIRECTOR, HORSE TRAINER I LEFT THEM ON RED AND SHOWED NEWLY ARRIVED BILLY BAKER TO SHOW THEM. OVER THE YEARS BILLY AND I WOULD EXCHANGE PLACES AT DIFFERENT TIMES [VARGAS,RBBB CIRCUS WORLD]. HE BECAME A GOOD FRIEND AND WAS A FINE FELLOW. WE SPENT SOME HAPPY TIMES AT THE SHOWFOLKS BAR WITH OTHERS NOW DEPARTED. I MISS HIM. ON THE BLUE SHOW BARSTOW STAGED MARY RUTH LEADING THE BLOW OFF SECTION, RIDING AMERICAN ANTHEM IN THE 100TH ANN. SPEC RIGHT BEFORE THE BELL GLOCKENSPIEL SECTION DOING A NICE HIGH PASSAGE DOWN THE HIPPODROME TRACK IN TIME WITH THE MUSIC VERY PRETTY. THE LAST THING IN SPEC WAS OTTO GRIEBLING RIDING THE BACK OF THE BELL WAGON IN A SHINEY, ALL SILVER, TATERD AND TORN TRAMP COSTUME IT WAS THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.

11 September, 2006 10:24
Anonymous said...

Mr. Herriott,
Yes, I remember Mary Ruth in front of the glockenspiel and Otto in the tattered silver wardrobe.
Brillant, many thanks for stirring up buried memories.
I remember, too, when Billy Baker's brother, Pat, arrived with two sons and did clowning on Vargas. I liked their routines very much but thought they were at a great disadvantage in the vastness of the Vargas big top.

11 September, 2006 11:11
Anonymous said...

Memory Lane in overdrive this morning...for Mr. Herriott, after all these years of not knowing...what is the "official color" of those ponies. I never saw anything like them since and I remember they have very nice manes.

Am I remembering correctly the following display: Mary Ruth in one ring with dogs/ponies and Sue and Rudi Lenz's chimps in the middle? I only saw this show once and I don't know if I am "remembering" or "imagining". If this was a display--then what act was in the other ring? And my apologies to the act for not remembering their names. I'm sure once they are identified I will remember.

11 September, 2006 11:48
Anonymous said...

OF COURSE, thank you Lee.
I've been racking my brain trying to remember what act was in Ring 3---I've been trying to think of "what dog act was it?" And when a "dog act" didn't register, I concluded that I was just "imagining" the past and not "remembering"the past.
I didn't want to start digging through the old programs.

Does anyone else remember that in 1971, after the red unit finished in The Garden, they brought the blue show 100th edition BACK into The Garden for a two week run?

Around the same time, when the new Feld/Hofheinz team was tinkering with two routes, that the red unit played Boston THREE YEARS in a row, presenting the same SHOW TWICE. Boston, usually played in the spring was shifted to the fall.

I don't understand the New England routing for RBBB, with such a dense population and overlapping of media territories, you could watch one channel and see a commercial for the blue unit and then "CLICK" to another channel and see a commercial for the red unit playing at a different building, different town the same week.
This most prevelant with the Worcester/Providence markets, then go a little further and you have Hartford. All these dates are in the spring--and then in the fall they play BOSTON which is during the final weeks of the two week tour.
But it is proof positive that NOTHING by RBBB really makes sense anyway.

12 September, 2006 09:58
Anonymous said...

I meant to type: Boston is played in the FALL during the final weeks of its TWO YEAR (not two week) tour.

I regret the error. My fingers type faster than my brain can think, which prompted the lovely MRS to say that this condition is not restricted to my fingers, that my mouth suffers from the same thing.

Before we were wed, her beauty and intelligence were evident but after the wedding her barbed-wire tongue came as a complete shock.

Back to RBBB--Since the Hofheinz/Feld gang performed a karyokenesis on the GSOE, by splitting one unit into two, they have never "mastered" the Northeastern routing. They are always tinkering with it. Since the early 70's we've seen new buildings in Maine (that's the oldest "new" building), Manchester NH, Bridgeport Ct, Albany NY, Wilkes-Barre PA, Trenton NJ and Atlantic City, NJ.
I'm not sure if Providence/Worcester/West Springfield are "newer buildings" or just re-upholstered versions of existing ones.

And in NYC they are planning a new arena for BROOKLYN, a subway ride away from MSG.

12 September, 2006 13:26
Anonymous said...

Barney, Barbed-wire tongue is caused by foot in mouth of the other party. Buckles steps in IT every once in a while so he has problems with his feet also. Must be a MAN thing with the feet.

12 September, 2006 14:11
Anonymous said...

To Barney - is the Brooklyn date in lieu of MSG?

12 September, 2006 18:56
Anonymous said...

JG.
The building in Brooklyn isn't even built yet.

13 September, 2006 00:35

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