From Jerry Digney #1

002, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Here are some random shots from Carson & Barnes, 1969, the year it absorbed the assets of Al G.Kelly-Miller Bros. and the original K-M was retired from the road by Dorey and his dad Obert. I joined the show in 1972 as the announcer (Ray Dirgo sketch here). Compared to the 1972 show, this was a pretty modest outfit. Only 9 elephants, in contrast to 35 that ended up on the '72 edition (by then, Dorey was on an elephant buying spree). They used an old Mills Bros, tent in '69--we had a newer red striped tent. They billed the show as a five ring, "European Styled" show (see ad)--don't know what that means--never saw a 5-ring European show! In '69, Harry Dann, perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most beautiful, makeup wise, white face clown ever, was the announcer (Harry died way too prematurely in Dec., 1970 at age 48) as he had been for a few years. The 1969 C&B marquee used Harry's clown character image atop its roof and Verne Langdon has a wonderful photo (attached) of Harry and his world-famous clown character, perhaps the most photographed white face clown ever. TV's Sky King headlined the show in '69 and the cookhouse was a semi with a small awning attached--by the time I arrived we had a full fledged cookhouse top as i recall with sufficient seating for several dozen. This show had two lion acts, Don Carr and Fred Logan. By '72, we had one cat act, all lionesses, presented by Eddie Kune (sp.?). Rosie Wright, as she did in '72, had her performing dogs on the show along with Buckles' mom, who also had a dog act and pony act. Rosie's husband Joe was the 24 hour man. Gladys and Whitey Black, as was the case three years later, had the midway novelty joint and Don "Sparky Washburn, who Bill Ballantine recruited for the new RBBB Blue Unit's clown alley in 1970, was in the '69 side show doing magic. Pete Konish, who i believe later worked for Roland Kaiser as a concessions manager on Ringling Red (and may have even followed Roland to Vargas when I was there in the early 80s), did a cloud swing act in '69. By '72 most of the program had changed with few holdovers except the Estrada brothers and the Swains (Snooks Plunkett on drums and Kennedy on trumpet) in the band. Jon Carrol of course was still working elephants--Ken Ikirk (sp.?) had come on by '72 as elephant boss to handle the ever burgeoning herd. "Mabel" was one of Jack Moore's original bulls on the first C&B in 1954 and two decades later (she was a fairly old girl by then) I worked her as the lead in a 3 act in Ring 5--she had one speed: slow! She was likely in her 40s when she came into my life and D.R. later sold her to Mexico (Gran Circo Union).