Thursday, October 25, 2007

Sells-Floto Circus #1


Scan000010373, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

"Sells-Floto Circus. Bill Curtis raising all 4 center poles at the same time. First time in the history of the circus world.
Town So. Bend, Ind. Sept. 7th 1913."

Posted by Buckles at 10/25/2007 06:42:00 AM

14 comments:

Dick Flint said...

What are the advantages (time?)/disadvantages of raising the center poles this way and any safety considerations/risk concerns of doing all at once? Anyone know the reason/s, when a single center pole goes up first, why it is termed the gin pole?
Dick Flint
Baltimore

25 October, 2007 12:28
Anonymous said...

Don't know why they call a gin a gin but I sure found it a lot faster doing all four at once. However it gets a lot more exciting when your dead man pulls or your snatch block comes unhooked.

25 October, 2007 17:01
Anonymous said...

By the way the first center pole up is not considered the gin that would be a pole any where from 10 to a 14 footer used between the dead man and first pole going up on the pull up side on your jigger line once the first pole is on her way up the gin falls and you are on your way

25 October, 2007 17:38
Anonymous said...

Dick,
I may have confused you in my earlier statement about using the #1 center pole as the gin pole, what I meant was that we used it to get the leverage for raising the other 3 together. We called the gin pole for raising #1 the "hijack", in Europe we called it the "goat", and 2 of my beloved crew called it the "gin bottle". When forklifts came into use we often used them as the gin pole. The simplest form we used were 2 side poles inserted into the pullup block as an upside down V. James is right on about pulling them up together being much quicker. I believe Cap Curtis pulled these up together from the side instead of from the end as James and myself are describing.
Erik Jaeger

25 October, 2007 21:53
24-HOUR-MAN said...

If you drive your guy line stakes square with the line of poles, leave a little slack in the lines, ther is no limit to how many you can do.
Eric, when you were with me, did we still raise the Kimris poles one at a time? I got tired of climbing up to hook up the ridge cable and laid both poles out sideways, attached the ridge, and raised them together. It used to scare the hell out of me, but it worked, & reduced the set up time.

I had discussed it with Cookie Arturo so he convinced me to try it. We did it firt with 40', then with 60', and finally with the 80's.

25 October, 2007 23:40
24-HOUR-MAN said...

In L.A. in 1967, Dobritch had to move out of the Sports arena, into the Coliseum because of the RBBB lockout. Then we had to tear down on Fri. night for a Sat. morning Track & Field Meet, then reset the show for Sat. night. The prop boss was drunk, so Slick took over the job of raising the ten center poles, with the help of about twenty wineos Dobritch hired off the street.All was fine except the poles went up & over the top & down the other side, they forgot to tie off the back end.

26 October, 2007 05:03
Anonymous said...

There are several differences between the conventional raising of one pole at a time and multiples at a time via the Curtis method. Raising one at a time means only one object is tottering up through the air, being lifted and stabilized against sway. When you're pulling up multiple poles, all of them are at risk simultaneously. If any of them break away, it's pick up sticks all over.

Most proprietors or boss canvasmen must have judged the risk not worth the savings. Their idea was not to put all their eggs in one basket. If you busted one pole going up, you could still show under a truncated tent. Bust them all, you're down to sidewalling and a huge replacement expense.

I suspect that the tensile strength of the ropes used may have precluded pulling the poles up together from one end. Each succeeding rope between adjacent poles, from the last pole forward to the one closest to the elevating drive experienced ever higher applied forces. With the geometry and weights known, one could readily compute the forces.

It's also possible that the horsepower, torque and radial force generated by the spool wagon rotational drives, which were used to elevate the poles, were adequate only to raise a single pole, or maybe two. Thus, a side pull was dictated. It meant changing the position of the mud block by 90 degrees. The tent master can weigh in on whether that change made a difference once the tent was standing.

One also wonders if the lowering sequence was also done in unison, or individually. It would have represented equal risk, and also required reverse powered rotation of the spool wagon drives to slowly lower the heavy poles.

It might not be applicable, but "gin pole" might be a corruption of "jib pole," which is a device utilized in construction, and before that on sailing vessels, to extend a sail-holding pole or whatever. They're used to erect tall structures, like broadcast atennas, a sort of "how'd they do that" device that is raised parallel with the primary structure. It wouldn't be the first time such adoption of altered terminology was heard at the circus. Remember, gunwale to gunnel?

26 October, 2007 08:57
Anonymous said...

You might note that the number of spool wagons was less than the number of poles being raised. That meant that diagonal lines reached from the raising drives to two adjacent poles in some cases, which made the operation even a bit more interesting. With the six poles of the menagerie the rope arrangement was even more complex.

26 October, 2007 13:51
Anonymous said...

Hey Cap't Jaeger
Don't you just love it when the rag is down and the spot help are told to go untie all the ropes and throw them on the top of the tent, And then mysteriously the centers poles start coming down?

26 October, 2007 17:37
Anonymous said...

Bill,
When I helped you, we pulled the 2-80' poles up together, all went well. I remember as we were laying out you made the comment I was the first helper you had that you didn't have to ask to move out of the way, so you could see down the line! It was always a pleasure to help with your own rigging and on Paul Kaye.
Erik Jaeger

26 October, 2007 19:05
Anonymous said...

I recall on the Vargas lot one night, I was B.S.ing with Rex on tear down night and heard one hell of a crash and the great sign and center poles hit the deck and all hell broke loose.
I do not recall who was the cap't of the top then or what town that was?

26 October, 2007 22:07
Anonymous said...

James,
I can't take credit for the Vargas incident, however, one of my own guys let #4 go on Uncle Sid's show, as I was standing by it unlacing the bale ring. On rainy nights I used to stay inside after we "let her go" to unlace from the underneath, before the days of high-tech raingear. We got to the point were we did not let the casuals untie. To anonymous, I have pulled up from the side before, and the mud block or base plate posistion had no bearing on the tent after it was up.
Erik Jaeger

27 October, 2007 08:35
Anonymous said...

Thanks, I knew you would know.

28 October, 2007 08:28
Anonymous said...

In regards to getting the big ones in the air;
When setting up big tops with lots of spot help, show owners always wonder why the top didn't go up in record time. You would try to explain that if you have enough house help to cover - one on each lace line on a four pole top, four guys that are wise in the way of lacing and half and rolling hitches, it becomes a down town deal. However, one cap't and a twenty spot "Man Power" crew - it "ain't hapnin" a point noted on the Toby Tyler show. I always got a kick out of fellow artistes complaining about the tent and seat crews. All I can say is, This homi done played that game and I have no problem tipping my chapo to that entiy of show business,
"Gray water" and all.
The closest I would want to get to setting up a top would not exceed laying out the lot.

28 October, 2007 15:23

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