Mills Bros. Circus, 1963, from the collection of the late John Cutler. |
Friday, January 29, 2010
Mills Bros. backyard 1963 #1 (From Jim Cole)
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9 comments:
How big was the top that year?
Sid Kellner had the last Mills Bros. top 120 with 3- 40's when I worked for him (James Bros.).
I liked it, two rows of quarter poles gave the impression a big show.
Buckles,
I wonder if Sid used that same top for his Greorge Matthews Great London circus???? I never saw James Bros. but the Great London plated near me one year.
And Sid Kellner was great to us fans and I remember all those chocolate bars in airconditioning in the office wagon.
I got to shoot 16mm movies of the whole show and Sid got us in a tall Hotel by the lot we shot a great wide shot of the whole show in Houston, Texas.
They gave me the arrows and I arrowed them to the next town by me. Always nice to help a circus when needed.
That Great London tent looked like a 120 with 3-40's.
The perfect tent to me is a 170 with 3-60's what Hagenbeck-Wallace had in 1934 and Cole Beatty had in 1937.
Harry
That top wouldve been about the same size as the Hunt Brothers top used on the 1972 Hoxie show,It had been in storage for 20 some years when Hoxie bought it.230 by 110 or close to it.
I worked under that top. Uncle Sid booked a number of acts from Jungleland, and I took him the Fighting Lions. This was my first time to meet Buckles and Barbara, and one day in the backyard we were talking of the history of Beatty's lion-and-tiger riding Anna May, and the Woodcock's Anna May, named for the Beatty elephant. I casually mentioned I had never ridden an elephant. Buckles quietly walked away and returned with Anna May. He instructed me on how to mount, and to look out as we went under the eaves so as not to get raked off. My announcement came, and I entered on Anna May to great appreciation from the crowd. What a day, and what memories. Sad to say, from that tour on, I never worked again under canvas as a performer. I was on the Big Stage at Jungleland, in buildings, or on racetracks, rodeo grounds and ballparks, but Uncle Sid's was my one and only Big Top.
How much was Mills Bros. capacity?
I recall a Mills Bros. tent being used on Carson & Barnes in 1969. It still had the MBC logo at the top. When one would ask what that stood for, the Carson & Barnes people would say "Mighty Big Circus"
Kellner also purchased the seat wagons so I couldn't say with much accuracy. Maybe 3,000.
I got a letter from Sid some time ago (snail mail). I'll have to ask him.
Uncle Sid had a 120' with 3-40' middles built by, I believe, United. We spent a fair amount of time working on the cabling system. In 1974 he bought a new orange and white top from Leif, I went to Sarasota, along with Matt Kellner to pick it up. It was a 120' with 2-40' middles and 1-50' middle. In 1976, the final year, we used it with only the 50' middle, except for the big Ohio dates were we went back to the three-ring format. We had six of the slide down style seat wagons, built on car carrier trailers. Most of these came from Mills and one seat wagon that Chester Cable built, for a total of seven. In 1977 or 78 the show came out of Hugo as Circus Genoa, I believe a venture involving Dory Miller and Johnny Fraizer.
Erik Jaeger
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