Thursday, October 30, 2008

Beatty-Cole late 1960's #11 (From Eric Beheim)


CBCB-19, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 10/30/2008 06:00:00 AM

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seeing this photo...I truly Hope in my Lifetime they get the bugs out of the "Flux Capacitor" So I can hook it up to my '97 Ford {can't afford a De Lorean} and travel back in time.. to this Show.. That I Believe was the Peak of the American Motorized Circus.....

30 October, 2008 11:00
Anonymous said...

Didn't Col Harriott once say something like "Beatty-Cole was the Sells-Floto of our generation?"

30 October, 2008 12:52
Buckles said...

As young men, while enjoying an adult beverage and discussing the state of affairs, John and I decided that RBBB would be the best choice for a career but if your tastes leaned toward mud shows, Beatty-Cole was head and shoulders above the rest.
I don't recall Sells-Floto being mentioned but like I say, we were enjoying adult beverages.

30 October, 2008 13:57
Anonymous said...

I would vote for Circus Vargas in the early to mid-1970's as far as quality of performance and acts go, and yes, we were in mud often enough when I was with the show.
Neil Cockerline
Minneapolis, MN

30 October, 2008 15:21
Anonymous said...

For those of you that don't know, this office wagon(former Sparks Show) is in Baraboo, stored under a shed, rotting away. Too bad.

30 October, 2008 15:59
Anonymous said...

Adult beverages?

I should have tried one of those when I was young.

Now I guess it's too late.

30 October, 2008 17:39
Anonymous said...

Although my duties and the general rules of the day kept me from frequent views of the Front End, this shot brings back many memories. Whenvever it was taken, it wasn't very different in 1964, or upon my return for 1981. I once was encouraged to propose to Johnny Pugh the donation of the Sparks ticket wagon to a private collection, and he advised it wouldn't be sold for a million dollars. When it sat discarded in back of Winterquarters, in DeLand, I had occasion more than once to help myself to private tours of the wagon, to sit inside and envision its glory days.

31 October, 2008 14:01
henry edgar said...

during the beatty-cole peak years, there was no other contender. not just the performance, which was often filled with acts that had just left ringling, or acts on their way to ringling (gaonas, elvin bale)liberally sprinkled with legends like herbie weber and lucio cristiani, the operation itself was so solidly professional. very, very strong staff, very well-organized. the show moved like clockwork, every day, welcome back the next year. in some ways beatty-cole was a smoother, more professionally-run operation than ringling. no inner turmoil, no show-splitting drama. never any problems like so many other shows -- missed or late paydays, missed shows, open time in mid-season, embarassing blunders by management, divas not tolerated from the top down, no in-fighting among management causing problems. if you did your job right, you were treated well; if not, you were history. the top management set a standard when the beatty show was reopened under the mccloskey/kernan team, with floyd king running the advance, and that standard of class, quality and professionalism lasted a long time.

31 October, 2008 19:08
Anonymous said...

What a shame.

In Private Hands it could have enjoyed a nice state of preservation.

Some years after it went to the Boo, I asked about its still being under the shed and was told that the holdup was whether to restore it to its railroad era state or to its truck show era state.

I guess they never got that debate settled.

31 October, 2008 20:14

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