Saturday, February 28, 2009

Circus Music #11


Day at the Circus, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

"Day at the Circus"

While on the subject of Ringling-Barnum Circus 78-rpm records, mention should be made of A DAY AT THE RINGLING BROS. BARNUM AND BAILEY CIRCUS, which came out about 1947. It consists of F. Beverly Kelley describing a tour of the Circus lot, using sound effects “recorded on location” to help listeners visualize in their minds what he is describing. Among other things, this album preserves for posterity the sounds made by the cook house dish washer and the diesel generators, the yowls of Gargantua, and the voice of Felix Adler, who is heard doing a short comedy routine with his pet pig “Gloria.”



All of these records have the potential to turn up on e-Bay or some other on-line auction site, and if you’re patient enough, you might be able to collect them all.

Posted by Buckles at 2/28/2009 05:51:00 AM

3 comments:

Eric said...

If you don't want to wait the weeks-months-years it might take for this particular album to turn up, you can order it on a CD from Peter Muldavin in New York City. You can contact him at:

kiddie78s@aol.com.

28 February, 2009 10:49
Anonymous said...

This is a re-issue, as the original had a different cover.
Bob Kitto

28 February, 2009 19:05
Eric said...

This particular album was undoubtedly produced because of the overwhelming success of Capitol's BOZO AT THE CIRCUS, which came out in 1946. (There is even an ad for the BOZO album in the 1947 Ringling program.) BOZO AT THE CIRCUS went on to sell millions of copies, while this one is quite rare. Perhaps if a few photos or illustrations had been included it might have done better.

28 February, 2009 21:37

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)