Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Cole Bros. Shows


Scan11530, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

On the back of this route card was written"

"5/12 Bowman sending 1 Wall, dates 25 26 27 to Phila.
As I figure you will get in at night you will have time to stencil dates and this might be late getting to Camden."
EHJ

Maybe Dave Price can make some sense of this.
Buckles

Posted by Buckles at 4/08/2009 06:04:00 AM

8 comments:

Ole Whitey said...

Well, of course Camden is right across the river from Philly and Elmer had the next set of dates (without towns shown) shipped over there. There must have been another card or note enclosed telling what those towns would be so that Bowman could stencil the correct names on the paper. This was necessary when the show "caught up with its paper" meaning there was little or no time between the date the town was booked and the date it was played.

I wonder if this still happens. I have had to do this a number of times though not with a stencil. Al Stencell (no relation) had a large-type rubber stamp outfit so that we could date our own tails (called "snipes" or "tags" on eBay).

It used to be fairly common to use "Here" paper when one or more towns were booked at the last minute, meaning the posters just said "Here" in place of the town name. Of course this sort of limits country routes.

08 April, 2009 10:57
Chic Silber said...

In theatrical lingo the word

snipe refers to a pasteover

to add or change the name of

a cast member or for another

correction such as winning an

award or changing the schedule

on one sheets or window cards

(14" X 22" posters)

Chic

08 April, 2009 12:17
Anonymous said...

If anyone might be interested, I looked up the sizes of these towns,as they are nearby. The average population of the 10 New York towns in 2000 was 2263. I think that they would have been the same back then as they are farm towns. It must have worth it to play those towns. Bill Galloway,Rochester,NY

08 April, 2009 17:42
Ole Whitey said...

Chic:

That's interesting. On the circus advance the paste-overs that you describe were called "cross-lines."

The term "snipe" had several meanings to old time billers, but I never heard any of them use it for tails, the date strips we pasted along the bottom of pictorial posters.

A snipe can be a small daub, like one holding three or four sheets.

The act of posting small daubs or even tacking small banner hits was call "sniping."

And best of all, the local guy who would often work with you and who had the daubs around town squared in advance was called "the snipe" or "the sniper." You would hear, "Who has the snipe here?" meaning who is the local guy who will show us around and introduce us to the owners of various walls.

The local snipe might actually own some 3-sheet boards around town but is not to be confused with "the plant" which meant the company that had the 24-sheet boards. You would only do business with the plant if the general agent had set it up, whereas the car manager could contact the local snipe and give him a couple of days' work.

I'm sure all the old snipers I knew are dead. They were old men (meaning my present age) in the 1960s but they existed in many many towns and often had circus experience so there were always a few Jackpots cut up when they came around, mostly about guys who had been on the Corporation or RBBB advance cars before I was born.

08 April, 2009 20:14
Chic Silber said...

Hi Whitey

Aren't we lucky to have lived

through those golden years

The tails were the unprinted

bottoms left blank for local

information such as dates &

locations I think that term

is the same for most bills

& cards even to this day

The largest paper I ever

saw going up I think was

a 13 sheet (could that be)

Somewhere in my assorted

accumulation of everything

is some older Beatty paper

Chic

08 April, 2009 23:01
Ole Whitey said...

Chic: A large bill is figured at so-many sheets long (wide) times so-many sheets high. I cannot think of two numbers that would result in a 13-sheet.

You may be thinking of a 12 or 15-sheet?

With window cards we usually had the date info printed at the top because otherwise it would be hidden when you put it in a display window that had anything on the floor next to the glass.

The great thing about lithos with stickers was you could go up high above the guy's display.

I remember when kids actually got excited when they saw circus posters going up in a window or on a barn.

Gone are the daze.

09 April, 2009 21:56
klsdad said...

To Ole Whitey: With all due respect..

Huh??
Don't you believe for a minute kids and folks aren't excited anymore with circus "paper"!

Go on the Ringling web site and you'll see modern day "paper", with videos, where dates/places are changed by the typing of a few computer keys. And watch the great ads on TV. And they all come into millions of homes.

And.. watch out. At the rate TV screens are growing, they will soon be as large as the side of a barn. (Some already are on Times Square and in ball parks.)

Yes.. gone are "those daze" and here are the new!!

klsdad

09 April, 2009 23:38
Chic Silber said...

Thanks Whitey

A mind is a terrible thing to lose

Sometimes I'm amazed at what I

can remember (often enhanced)

fortunately I forget the worst

Chic

10 April, 2009 10:35

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