Saturday, January 06, 2007

From Dave Price #1



This is Willis M Johnson, old time one-armed billposter. He's brushing with his left hand; his right sleeve is empty except for a short stump. Willis saw the John Robinson show when he was about 10 years of age in Clinton, KY. He lost his right hand and most of the arm in a duck-hunting accident when he was 16. First job was turning a hand-crank projector at a nickelodeon.

He had been with many circuses, carnivals and other outfits when I knew him: Wallace Bros Circus, Strates, Penn Premier, Capell Bros, Prell's Broadway, Blue Grass Shows, O C Buck, M A & R A Miller, a WSM Grand Old Opry tent show with Pee Wee King, Minnie Pearl and Uncle Dave Macon; Bailey Bros, L I Thomas Shows, Rabbit Foot Minstrels, etc etc. I think the last circus he billed for was Penny Bros.

Another interesting thing about this photo: you will notice that he has started to cover a Beatty-Cole daub with Carson & Barnes paper.

Were those the days or what? Posted by Picasa

Posted by Buckles at 1/06/2007 06:13:00 AM

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like he's covering up last year's work: The C&B paper is for the WEDNESDAY Sept 29 date, the CBCB paper was for TUESDAY Sept 29.

I'm sure he didn't forget to also cover up the "Clyde Beatty in Person!" artwork before moving on...

06 January, 2007 12:28
Anonymous said...

No it was the same year- you're looking at the Beatty-Cole number 29. He's just now "doping" or applying paste to it before applying the Carson & Barnes number. The Carson & Barnes date was all on white paper whereas the Beatty-Cole was yellow.

And yes he did cover anything with the Beatty name on it. But look at that nice Globe six-sheet of the clowns and the firecracker- we got to use that for free !!!

06 January, 2007 12:57
Bob Cline said...

Interesting Billing. I'm assuming this photo is from 1959 with the Clyde Beatty - Cole Bros. Circus title being used for the first time and making use of the previous year's left over papers with the Clyde Beatty Circus title. Mr. Price, what's your take on this?
Bob

06 January, 2007 15:48
Anonymous said...

Bob: I'm not that old. You can call me Dave. It's true that I remember Roosevelt but it's Franklin not Theodore.

Yes you are correct. I was on the Beatty advance much of 1960-1963 seasons and we continued to use "Clyde Beatty Circus" paper as long as it lasted, though management frowned on our use of the long streamers saying "America's 2nd Largest Railroad Circus."

That was a great time to work for the show.

07 January, 2007 23:54

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