Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Gentry Bros. 1920


SAVE0044, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

A corresponding picture to the card above,
well after it had passed from the hands of the
Gentry Family.

5 comments:

JIM ELLIOTT said...

Looks as if the patches missed some of the holes, on the bigtop.

Anonymous said...

Now, that's a real rag bag!
Bob Kitto

Harry Kingston said...

Bob,
I just noticed all the patches and tears in the tent.
They must have had a real good blow down and did not finish the patch job.
Harry

Anonymous said...

Ön a wing and a prayer with that tent.

Roger Smith said...

This is the sight that greeted Emmett and Eva Kelly when a John Robinson contract fell through and they took a crack at Gentry. In his autobiography CLOWN, Kelly recalls, "It was too late to fool around any more, so we packed up and went to Fort Knox, where in deserted army buildings the Gentry show had its winter quarters. The show was already in rehearsal and the band was playing in the big top, a patched and ugly-looking spread of canvas if I ever saw one. I called aside an old trouper I had known on another show and said, 'Give me the low-down; what about this thing?'

"He looked around to make sure nobody could hear us and replied, 'You can see it's a gypsy camp. And it looks like we got half the 'lucky boys' (the nickname for grifters) in the business.'

"I then went to look at the sleeping cars which were cramped and shabby. Then and there, Eva and I decided that no matter what we might have to do on the Robinson show, it would beat this."

This photo proves Kelly's point. He and Eva caught up with Robinson and were given an understanding welcome home, where they remained for several seasons.