Friday, September 04, 2009

Barrel Rolling Tiger, 1984


Barrel Rolling Tiger, 1984, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 9/04/2009 06:04:00 AM

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is "PB." (Pat Anthony trained her & said she was a "Pain in the Butt"). She also did a rolling globe trick but the globe was a huge monstrosity of dead weight and usually stayed in Hoovers truck!
:-)
Cindy Potter

04 September, 2009 12:32
Roger Smith said...

Cindy is spot on. It was funny. Somebody gave Hoover a big logo from Hoover vacuum cleaners, and he posted it in his carry-all, with which he and his family went down the road, and which pulled his trailer. Pat's ball, he told me, was formed out of 2x4s, and was roped. Eddie Firlein, Four-eyed Tommie, and one or two other Beatty show boys went to Pat's winterquarters in Riverview, Florida, to pick up the last of Pat's act when he was terminal with cancer. This was after the disastrous 1980 Winter Tour, and we were starving to death in DeLand, living on rice and beans, served at 6-ounce servings only twice a day, so the highlight of going to Pat's was Hoover springing for McDonald's. We each had 3 Big Macs, double fries, and 2 milk shakes. Hoover bought the cats and props Pat had left by then, on the premise that the cats had to work for Hoover for the final payment to be made. To make sure of this, nearing the end of his energy, Pat came to DeLand and tried to school Hoover to his animals. Pat's ball was on a track made of pipes and elbow joints, and Dave never gave the ball much of a go. As I recall, this ball was a 36"-er, and blocked most of Hoover's rear-view vision. But we rolled it into his carry-all, and there it rode out the season. The tiger considered here was variously known as Phoebe, Pee-Bee, or PB, and maybe we're not sure which. Also broke to this barrel side-by-side with PB was Shorty, the lion. Hoover never presented them together,as broken. Pat, with no time to lose, did all he could to bring these animals into Hoover's act. The ball was all but ignored and never became part of Dave's presentation. Hoover stationed PB's seat directly above his man-door, against the excited advice of Pat Anthony, who told him no one would come in for him with that lion up there, but there she stayed.

Speaking of balls--Mabel Stark gave me hers, which she had kept since her Barnes show days, made of solid oak, and roped. When Jungleland closed, I had no way of moving the ball and it became part of the auction. Don McLennon got it and sold it to Hubert Castle for a reputed twelve dollars and fifty cents. I worked Hubert's Goldie tiger on that ball for two years. When the time came for reluctant transition, Hubert sold out, and the ball is believed to have gone to his buyer, along with the last Clyde Beatty arena, built in DeLand, in 1960.

05 September, 2009 20:59
Anonymous said...

Rog:
I was the person who got those HOOVER vacuum decals! I was putting paper up in a store front in Dover Delaware and talked the dealer out of those decals!
:-)
Cindy Potter

06 September, 2009 15:42
Anonymous said...

P.S. That was the winter that me & Ned worked at Baudy's, right after we got married. SSOOO glad we missed that indoor show, but when we got back to Quarters I learned to love beans & rice REAL QUIK!!
:-)
CP

06 September, 2009 15:46
Anonymous said...

Roger,
It is always enjoyable to read your first hand comments about what happened when we still "very"
young. Hope we meet again in the big lot when our time here is over.
Bob Kitto

06 September, 2009 19:19

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)