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Saturday, December 09, 2006
Ringling-Barnum Blue Unit #2
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48 comments:
What a difference that 3 decades have made. Back then, Kenneth Feld was fresh out of college, and another one of Daddy's "Yes Men".
This shows an incredible opening production. I see 14 - 15 male lions in the cage! I am really surprised to see how close some of the banner holders are to the flexible cable cat arena. Seems like a safety issue that Charly Bauman would have picked up on.
It was truly the "Greatest Show on Earth" back then.
Think in the back of our minds, we hope that Ken & Nicoloe will look at this blog, read the comments and thus realize what their circus SHOULD look like.
NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.
It's hard to believe that Jewel New opened the first half, and Charlie Baumann opened the second half, 18 or 20 elephants, three rings, and several wagons full of wardrobe ago, there was this show called the Greatest Show on Earth.
Are there no photos left in corporate headquarters to look at to give anyone a clue as to what a circus really looked like?
There's stuff being sold in Cato and WalMart with more sequins than the GSOE performers costumes today.
Pretty Sad!
Bob
No, Charly always opened the show.
That's why I posed the question to Gary Hill.
I got inspired and wrote the following poem while traveling on the circus train as Perf. Director of the Red Unit in 1977. I think it is self explanatory at the time. For children of all ages down thru the years.
A century and more of laughter and of cheers.
From a very humble beginning in a village town square.
To eminence and parlance in the entertainment sphere.
It brings that majic of joy all thruout the land.
Wherever it may stop, by the people's command
What is this giant of thrill and laughter?
That leaves fond memories forever after.
Its elephants and clowns and acrobats feat.
The man on the flying trapeze a treat.
The brass of the band, the ringmaster so neat,
The beautiful horses with their thundering feet.
And the few hours spent in happiness complete.
But its work is not easy. It fights for its life.
Its history is clouded with many moments of strife.
Thru fire and flood, and famine and war.
It has never been stopped by these cahallenges and more.
It moves across the land. A giant caterpillar on rails.
No boundries can contain it along its many trails.
All cities it has visited for more than a century.
Some more remembered. whatever the reason may be.
Each city has a tale to tell about the circus.
Some good, some bad, and some that could even hurt us.
But the people who cammand it and are familiar with its worth.
Have always insisted that it be, The Greatest Show On Earth.
So appearing in your city each day twice daily,
Its Ringling Bros.& Barnum and Bailey
Jewells act always opened the second half of the show. I don't remember us ever opening the show? The lions loaded the cage in the dark and the lights came on at the intro? Charlie always opened then dressed for Performance director. On move out day his cats were loaded on the train when we started the act by Rob Bush and I stayed with Jewell and the lions.This is the first shot of Jewells act where I am actually in the photo too. I have my best side to the camera tho -top of the cages to the right.
This must be the show at Venice? The cats and props are facing ring three instead of the grandstands. I remember we had to adjust the lions to coming into the cage differant that when they loaded at CW.
Gary we need some better pictures of you. I see a man in front of the shift cage. Is that you? Also pictures of Jewells. I don't remember seeing any of him yet. Looks good from the back in this picture. Nice tush.
The first time I saw the cats come in with other acts working, I had a beef that is renewed here. They had two acts working in the air over Rings 1 and 3, and with them aloft, Wolfgang was running his cats in. Who is watching the other two acts, with lions coming in? I felt it an insult to whatever acts were on to so distact from them by starting another act that hadn't been announced. The aerial acts came down to almost no applause, and walked out obviously disheartened. This is bad showmanship, cured by letting the entrance of the lions be part of the act when it is on as a solo.
Someone picking up on a safety issue by putting people around a net cage with lions inside? When the Felds aren't circus, and are light years away from being animal people?
Dream on, "anonymous".
Dutchess that is me-I think above the two guys next to the traveling cages. I have a stick in my left hand. Long hair and skinny was me. Can't remember WHY we would have faced that direction???????? Must of been some reason we did but I have slept abit since then.
This is the only picture of an arena full of cats where the cats are actually all looking at the trainer that I have seen on the blogs. Are my eyes lieing to me again? This shows great talent on the part of the trainer with all that is going on on the floor. Good job Mr. New.
when I brought 14 lions in during clowns working around the complete track I had a major argument ,with Mr. Bauman to get a jumping standard poodle off the track while I had the lions in,mostly because the lion did not have an issue with it for the first 3 months.
I also had a MAJOR issue with the fact that the mesh pull-up arena would not hold lions or tigers "against Their will".Wich I believe to be a minimum requirement.
When a lion fell off his seat and went through the arena onto the front track Mr. Bauman's reply was "What's your problem he was only on the track !"
I asked if he need be in the 5th row before anything was going to chang3e ?!
that arena was built by a prop man using experimental "clips" designed by an engineer employed by the show.many cages used to restrain wild animals are an illusion
Larry, I understand you had some health issues, recently. I hope all is well, and you are on the road to recovery. My very best wishes. Wade Burck
Mr. Smith,
I have to disagree with your assessment that having aerial acts work while the cats enter the arena is bad showmanship. I think it is good for the performance, as it is very boring for the audience to watch cat after cat enter and be seated. In my opinion it's better for the lights to come up on a full cage, then immediately begin the act. This may not be good from the aerial act's point of view, but my view is from the ground. Just my opinion.
ANONYMOUS SAID: "I think it is good for the performance, as it is very boring for the audience to watch cat after cat enter and be seated. In my opinion it's better for the lights to come up on a full cage, then immediately begin the act. This may not be good from the aerial act's point of view, but my view is from the ground."
I remember as a youngster just learning the business and was being trained in local movie promotion in Jamestown, NY by the famous Germain Germain (is he still remembered)who was a film publicist for Radio City Music Hall and worked on The Big Show many many years ago. He said to me one time long before I was associated with circus, and I'll never forget,in discussing the "art" of publicity; "Never tell em how it's done. The movies are always telling you how the "trick was done. One of the mystics of the circus is that they never tell you how the trick was done."
Point taken, thank you. Another thing with cat acts also has to do with time contraints. Unless the act is really big, usually 9-11 minutes. I prefer the lights coming up a full cage, ready to work. A few years ago a producer said he wanted "the cats entrance as part of the act". I didn't like it, but it was his show. My objections fell on deaf ears. Yet- three shows later, he asked me to "CUT SOME TRICKS" because the act was "TOO LONG". Duh. Go figure.
For this "anonymous": No audience of Clyde Beatty's, or any of the great masters' was bored by the entrance of the cats. Those audiences outnumber you.
Any infringement of a following act by an act presently working is unacceptable, a standard you failed to recognize from the standpoint of showmanship. Detracting from one act never showcases another. The impact of the following act is as diminished as 7th graders peeking out and waving to their friends in the audience--when they come onstage, their entrance has lost its value.
How can we be surprised at someone with such preferences? As is often said, "forever the circus fan--never the circus man". And we get these things signed "anonymous". The rest of us sign by name.
Entrance of the cats: I'm an (was a) animal trainer and would find the entrance of the cats, or dogs, or bears, or pigs interesting in the dark or not. Sometimes it's part of the act, bouncing cats and all. However, I'm sure many circus patrons aren't impressed watching cats calmly enter an arena to walk over and hop up on their seats. I remember a few times when Ringling combined the aerial act finale and cats entrance, e.g., Pio Nock performing on the wire over Holtmair's lions. I think Pio fell into the cage one time and Wolfgang kept the cats away.
If this is another [WHEEL THING] My vote is for the cats being in the ring before the anouncement, etc. For most of the Fighting Acts that was the act. Entrance and Exit. Sorry Roger
Roger, It is that Circus Fan who buys the tickets that buys the food to feed the animals so we can live the life we choose of working with wild animals. We don't want to forget this. Thank you all Circus Fans.
Greetings Jim Alexander, You ARE a damn fine animal trainer, not WAS. Just because a doctor retires, and no longer practices the craft, does not mean he forgets how. He is still called Dr. even in his retirement. My best to you, and your family. Wade Burck.
Regarding the issue of when to "start" a cat act, according to principles of good showmanship, I contend that the best answer is, "it depends."
In Jewell's act shown here, clearly most of the action when the cats take their seats is going on outside the arena. And for this act, if memory serves, it was all about what happened after that point anyway.
In other acts, getting the cats to the seat was part of the act. Fighting style acts like Beatty's, but others too.
But I also agree that sometimes the wrong choice was made. I can see how a noisy act being seated could take a way from a slow-paced, elegant act in the air.
Seems that what we're all saying here, really, is that good showmanship starts with being able to make the best decision for THAT act on THAT show program.
The lack of reliability of mesh arenas reminds me to ask, does anyone have any photos of an uncaged lion act? I've heard tales of such acts, but have never seen a photo.
-kevin
Kevin, I have some pictures of my baby lions "SARAH and BABE" working on leashes. Alas when they got bigger, if they wanted to go back to their den thats where they went. If Eugene or I wanted to go or not. Insurance was a factor in useing an arena.
We never as long as I was with Jewell brought the cats into the cage with the house lights on. It might of happened after I left the show but doubt it. Charlies tigers did enter with the opening going on only then because Charlie was a busy man during the show, being Trainer and PD.
Bobby Gibbs used to tell of cat acts in Mexico that worked with out arenas. I have heard stories that an act (to be un-named at this time) presented a group of cats, arena-less here in the States.
I have heard of a tiger going through one of those mesh cutain arenas at Circus World during a practice session one time. I didn't see it happen, but I did notice the patch job on the mesh.
I did see a young white tiger in Gunther's act get the pad of his foot tangled in the mesh once. The tiger crew had quite a job of getting him free (he was OK). Gunther's attention was focused on keeping the other adult tigers on their seats and away from the young tiger who was struggling to get free.
When I worked with John Campolongo putting together his mixed cat act in Galveston, a tiger went through the mesh almost all the way.
It was Seamus, I think, and he was new to the act and was confused about where exactly the tunnel door was. John was behind him, shooing him in to the tunnel verbally in order to get him to go out fast. I was operating the tunnel door. Poor ol' Seamus wanted to get out with John right on his butt, but missed the door and walked right through the mesh and before I knew it, he was face to face with me (he was looking down as he came through, so he was as surprised as I was). He was head and shoulder through, and maybe one leg. I pushed him back in as John called him back to the far side of the arena. He went right back in and I blocked the tear with my body as I opened the tunnel door again and jiggled it so he couldn't miss it (though I was jiggling the first time, too).
I still remember the look we had, John and I staring at one another with jaws open and eyes wide after the tunnel door close behind Seamus.
Even if he'd got through, it was a practice with no crowd around and the tiger'd have moved from there into a fenced area that would have taken some time for him to figure a way over that.
We think the cable rusted in the salt air there at the sea wall and weakened the loops that anchored the edge of the mesh to the frame around the tunnel door. I always pulled on every inch of the mesh every day after that!
Hey, Rebecca, I'd like to see your uncaged lions!
-kevin
When we were working in Mexico in 1973, Barbara and I went to visit Gran Circo Union.
They had a cat act that worked in the open. This was accomplished by the prop crew supporting a six foot net with side poles around the outside of the ring which was then dropped as soon as the cats were seated.
The crew however, remained kneeling at the ready and as the act concluded, they raised the net back in place before they exited.
I will forever disagree with upstaging another act. They didn't work hard to perfect their acts to presentation quality only to have them diminished by the intrusive entrance of another.
As for fighting acts only showing entrance and exit--not the great ones. If that's all the big fighting acts did, they would never have achieved an audience, nor sustained the public's attention.
To Gary Hill: Baumann once told me of his disdain for the net cage. Like happened in Gunther's incident, Charly did not say specifically, but indicated one of his tigers got a claw hung in that mesh--somebody's did, and he said, "You have to hurt the tiger to get him loose." Maybe someone knows if this happened with Charly.
Thanks Wade for the kind words. Best to you and the new generation of tiger trainers.
Even more exciting was the riding tiger which was brought in on a leash.
Normally the elephant (Mills Show Burma)would already be stationed between the ring curb and the pedistal but on this occasion the tiger managed to mount the pedistal first and "Burma" wasn't about to squeeze past her head first and began to back away.
We had the misfortune of being seated directly on the other side of the ring curb and the tiger looked right down into my eyes.
The trainer became excited, Burma became excited and the tiger became excited.
Was I excited? Of course not. I always befoul myself while visiting other circuses.
Finally someone had presence of mind enough to remove the tiger from the seat and then "Burma" went on over to her proper position and the act continued.
As "Burma" and the tiger paraded around the ring, the trainer grabbed the headpiece and pulled himself up into a leg-carry.
I have heard of so many animals getting caught in mesh. Even chain link fence. I always have two pair of heavy duty bolt cutters real handy just in case. Last week I had to cut choke chain collars that I use to hang the door clips on. The clips had frozen solid. I never put those collars on an animal.
As we draw close surpassing the 36 comments on that stupid wheel last week, I did want to ad a note on the Circus World arena. It was controled by an electric winch in the tech booth. One day right in the middle of McMillian's tiger act, the "down" button got pushed by accident. There was no stopping it, until it got to the end of the cycle, then it went back up. The tigers never realized what was going on.
Another time, it jammed and couldn't be lowered after the Polar Bear act, so the whole show worked in the arena, including the elephants.
It reads here like Mexico had so great animal acts. Any pictures?
Dear Mr. Smith
Sorry I ruffled your feathers on the "when does a cat act start" issue, but we'll have to agree to disagree on this. While I was proudly a card carrying member of CFA for many years, and still support their wonderful organization, I have also worked cage acts for 31 years. So, my opinions have formed from my experience, not theory. Patricia White
P.S. I comment anonymously sometimes because I check the blog near showtime and it's quick and easy. Also because I'm too electronically retarded to figure out how to become a "blogger".
Roger, I don't remember any of Charlies or Jewells cats getting tangled in the cage. Sure could of happened but both of these Trainers demanded the cats attention at all times. They faced them when they were on their seats at all times. Jewell had one cat, Posha that would do a Beatty growl if Jewell pointed at him. I was very lucky and proud to have been the doorman for these two gents while with the Blue. That and working for Buckles , man how much better does it get?
I usually let the producer run the program
but on the blue show I usually brought the cats in "in the dark"
due to the low level of lighting in some buildings that became an issue more than once
SHANNON. PLEASE show Patricia White how to become a BLOGGER. Her input is so important to us. An actual living/working Animal Trainer. She knows the animal business from the ground up. I have great respect for this lady and her comments add sooo much to the blog. By revilling her name she has throwned some people for a loop. GO GIRL
Thanks, Rebecca. I appreciate your support. So if I throw someone for a loop, does that mean they're loopy or I'm loopy?! I hope you aren't upset with me Mr. Smith, because I expressed an opinion which differs from yours. If the lighting is done correctly, no one should even notice the cats coming in, so there is no upstaging. But- not with a fighting act of course. Just my opinion...
I guess I will chime in cause we had this problem part of this year, using a trailer Pat is familiar with.(C & B Beast Wagon). Because the trailer was not very easy to run the cats out of, and it sat so far out of the tent, we usually started them coming during the second to the last trick in a rola bola display. I did not like doing that for said reason (distraction of ongoing act) I also didnt like waiting 3 or 4 mins to put cats on their seats while all eyes were on the arena. The rola bola guy never cried about it so I guess it went ok. But I am sure it took away from his act so it was wrong, prolly more in my eyes then his.
Hi Patricia, Roger and I are friends and get loopy together often. Over the e-mail. He has his beer and I have my Rhine. We disagree on a couple of things. I have never liked fighting acts and he is no fan of my mentor either. But we still talk and enjoy reading and writing on the Buckles Blog. It would get boreing if we all agreed on everything. As long as we all love the circus and the life style it offeres "or did offer" we do OK It gets to me that all the guys are better then me on this commputer. I am a female so that makes up for it. I sure hope you find the time to comment more here.
I recall in Japan Larry's concern showing me some weak spots in the cable arena and Mgr. Mike Fall showed little concern. I told Larry. " Well you told them. Now tell Clubb and you have done your job. If the cats chew up some Japanese its not your problem. Now I have seen a couple of times with Charly and Gunther when a new young tiger would grt down in the ringcurb kind of hiding and it was very difficult to get them out. This during the show. Kind of had to pry them out. Not very graceful.
To Gary Hill: I'm glad you didn't see cats snared by the mesh. I hope it never happened, and Charly was only thinking ahead for what could happen.
And no, no ruffled feathers. I always supported the other acts which were on, just as I admired those who were in the Backdoor 4 or 5 numbers ahead of time, to go on in the event of emergency. Whether working solo, or in 3-ring displays, I'm on the side of the performers to whom the spotlight belongs at the time.
Rebecca asked if I had something against Jewell. Not a chance--he, Charly, and Wolfgang were doing what the show told them to do. I oppose the producer who told them so.
Good Heavens---41 comments.
To Pat White. I enjoy your comments. Hope all is going well Japan. Whose cats are you working?
Last time I saw you was in Ft. Pierce when the afternoon started started at 6 pm and the seat wagons and other trucks were still coming across the state.
I guess the thing that so impressed me was Charlie's tigers were so push button. Their tricks were so clean and I never saw one of his cats miss a trick. When they were on their seats their attention was on Charlie. Smooth and graceful was the way to describe his act! Jewell learned from Charlie and kept his composer in the cage also. They were a great group of cats to work with also. I spent alot of practice and some performances in the cage due to Jewell's bad knees. I had to move his props for him quite a few shows. Cats didn't even act like I was in there with them?
Jewell actually almost tore down the cage when Kenneth dismounted the motorcycle trick! He would jump off and doing so pushoff, and Jewell would sometimes crash into the webbing of the cage or a prop! TA DA !
Yes, I remember the C&B beast wagon well. I knew every square inch of it. Rebecca and whomever comments from Lionsden has the right idea, depends on the show/cat act, and we must remember that any debate stems from the fact we all feel so passionate about circus. John Goodall, things are fine here, Jim Clubb animals. I remember seeing you in Ft. Pierce, Um, yes. That show was in serious need of improved organizational skills.. !
I have been replacing my kennel chain link with top rail vertical bars. No way any pet can climb out or eat their way through. Except maybe my pitbull "KATHY" She just wants to be where I am. I found her on the back steps twice waiting for me to come out and play with her. Besides the bolt cutters I keep handy. I also have one of those gadgets to break car window glass and cut seatbelt straps after a car accident. It is the perfect tool to cut collars off if a pet should get hung up on something. I usually don't leave collars on a pet, but I use them until I can get the microchip in. I have yet to see any vet or animal control person check for a chip, so the verdic is still out on that added expence of owning an animal.
Anyone know where Jewel New is now? Is he still with Ringling? I got to know Jewel, Brian and Bonnie when they spent the summer at Rocky Glen Park in Moosic PA. Would love to see them again.
Lynne
can be reached at weinbergla@gmail.com
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