Buckles Blog: 1940 RBBB Program #4

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Ole Whitey said...: Hubert told me that had been billed as Hal Silvers prior to this but when he arrived at RBBB he discovered that JRN had already had his paper printed as Hubert Castle.

I beieve his real name was Smith.; 06 October, 2010 10:18
Wade G. Burck said...: Ole Whitey,
It was sure lucky that JRN jumped the gun on Mr. Castle's paper. If not, the circus world would have had a James Silvers Hall, or God forbid, a James Smith Hall. Folks would have thought he made cough drops, instead of being a great unicyclist and bear trainer!!!!!
Wade Burck; 06 October, 2010 13:15
Roger Smith said...: My old boss was James Albert Hal Smith, out of Enid, Oklahoma. In the early lean days, and during the Depression, he went out as Hal Silvers, letting on his real name was Silverstein, to woo the Jewish booking agents, and it worked. How could they not book a fine Jewish boy? He was Silvers during his Barnes, Tom Mix, and Cole era. Mr. Johnny might not have known of his wirewalker's volatile reputation when he casually handed him a new name. But we were talking about the advent of the Felds when Castle said, "Look,I was a center ring solo for four years on the Ringling show when it was an honor to be there. Zetta [his tough elephant] couldn't drag me to center ring for these music business kikes."; 06 October, 2010 16:38

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