Friday, November 03, 2006

Titans of the Tigers #6


Trevor Bale, Ringling-Barnum Circus

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

All are Great photos Jimmy ; do you have any more ( color )of Trevor Bale & the Big Cats ?

Anonymous said...

To Bud, The only color photos I have of Trevor Bale's tiger (and lion) act is from a slide that was taken by someone else from the seats at the Boston Garden in 1959.

Bobby Hakes may have a Ringling TV special on VHS that shows Trevor's act. I think it would be from 1961, but it was in B&W.

Anonymous said...

This wardrobe is so fitting a tiger act. It all fits together. I know it is only my opinion, but a cage act is to show off the animals, not a half naked male body. Don't get me wrong, I love a naked male body. Just not in a cage of animals that are more beautiful and graceful.

Anonymous said...

Trevor worked for me in 1983, originally to add some more arabs to our liberty act. I had no work for him the winter, so he took 6 of our tigers on stage to work in a pantomime. He wasn't well at all then and really had come out of retirement to help us out. When I told him we needed someone for the tigers, he said "when's the opening?" which was in 7 days time and sure enough Trevor worked them without a hitch. He was quite frail, so I had to send somebody to move the props for him. He appeared immaculately dressed in Maharaja wardrobe. In fact, you only had to say to him the type of act he was to show and he would immediatley appeared in the appropriate costume. He was a true showman.

He, of course, worked for Chipperfield's in the late '40s and early '50s prior to joining Ringlings. His half-brother was Hader Johnson, who was another cat trainer and ringmaster with Chipperfield's.

GaryHill said...

Ole Trevor was a hoot at CW. He and Jewell New used to have chess matches everyday between and during shows. The stories he told us were always exciting!

Anonymous said...

I always enjoyed the time I got to spend with Trevor. Always a learning experience and great fun and stories to die for.

Anonymous said...

The Bale family has always made some of the best wardrobe in the business. I can't leave out that Buckles and Smokey Jones were the best story tellers of all. One evening at Buckles house him and Smokey spent several hours telling great stories for a group of us young elephant guys. Then they both started to laugh, saying that two old guys trying to out lie each other and us young guys believeing every word of it. Thanks Buckles, would not have missed it for the world.