Monday, September 29, 2008

World of Mirth wagons 1986 #1 (From Hal Guyon)


wom aba-14, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Buckles,
Here are some of the photos Bob Cline was referring too, These were taken in June of 1986 in Eastover, S.C., about 15 miles east of Columbia. These wagons were left on the fairgrounds along with about 6 other wagons when World of Mirth left Columbia for the last time in the spring of 63. There was a restaurant in Eastover at the Coronet Motel at the intersection of highways 378 & 601 named The Circus Room, at one time it was a great place to eat, one of the best steaks around. The wagons were put there to promote the place, there were 4 of them there. The restaurant also had a lot of circus memorabilia inside, I don`t know what happened to all the stuff. Some of the area circus fans tried to buy some ,including myself, after the place closed, but the Indian guy that owned the motel at that time would not sell any of it. These wagons were used for the scooter ride, and had been filled with concrete at the motel, I guess to keep them stable. I do know that some of the wagons left at the fairgrounds contained the German Carousel. My Dad had a chance to get a couple of the wagons, but he had nowhere to store them. I wish he had been able to have gotten one it would be a treasure to me now.

Hal Guyon

Posted by Buckles at 9/29/2008 12:58:00 PM

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a side note, none of these wagons are still there, they just rotted away. I presume that the wheels were junked. Also the World of Mirth wintered in Columbia at the fairgrounds during the winter of 62-63, thats the reason that they were left here. I also have some photos of some of the wagons that were left in Winston- Salem NC, I`ll look them up and send them.

Hal Guyon

29 September, 2008 14:24
Anonymous said...

In circa 1977-79, I discovered some old show wagons on ranch property on a lonely country road between Dallas and Fort Worth. I took the time to trespass across a bob-war fence for closer inspection. One was obviously built for a girl show. The bally stage folded up against the side and was chained in place. Inside were found the autographs of some of the girls, a few with some personal observations of their boss, the show, and life's provisions when working on a girl show.

I had the opportunity to take Leonard Farley with me on a run up there, and our trespassing was resented by a big herd of snorting cows and a red-eyed bull. We made it to the wagons, there were about seven or eight of them, and gave them a good looking over, with me keeping an eye on the restless cattle. I seem to remember taking snapshots, now long buried in my trunks. Leonard felt certain these were abandoned, bought, or stored, having once belonged to Gene Ledel. Our visit done, I shuddered to remember Leonard was no spring chicken by then, so I bade him get ahead of me as we all but ran for our lives to scramble through the fence ahead of that bull.

Anyone knowing of old show wagons in that area at that time may nail their origins. They were barely in better shape than these depicted hereon, with license plates missing and tires rotted to rags. All show titles or traces of identity had long since faded to the elements.

Roger S.

30 September, 2008 01:18

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