Beatty-Cole 1960's-70's #5

Beatty-Cole sewing, 7-3-65, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. PHOTO 5 (Beatty-Cole sewing, 7-3-65) This is a sight not to be seen again! A small roll of white canvas and some thread are ready to patch a hole in the Beatty-Cole big top on July 3, 1965, again in West Springfield, Mass. An open pen knife rests by the canvasman's right knee and a leather palm lies by his left side ready to be used after he finishes threading his big needle. I remember a few years later visiting the Carson & Barnes lot somewhere in Wisconsin with Bob Parkinson after a blowdown and there was Dory Miller sitting at a large and ancient sewing machine with the longest neck I had ever seen feverishly pushing torn canvas through the giant stitcher just brought up from Hugo. Today, the plastic tents are repaired with heating irons.