Sunday, November 07, 2010

1949 Ringling-Barnum #5


5, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 11/07/2010 05:39:00 AM

7 comments:

JIM ELLIOTT said...

Excellent seat wagon pix.

THANKS for sharing.

07 November, 2010 07:26
Anonymous said...

Tom knew where to point his camera all those years ago so that we could enjoy them today. Dennis

07 November, 2010 09:16
Chic Silber said...

Along with his flying & management

skills Art Concello was 1 hell of

an engineeer (& story teller)

07 November, 2010 09:28
dpowhitetiger said...

Art Concell: Have always said, 'The real Ringling story taken from interviews with Art Concello was never written." Don't think anyone ever just sat down with Art with a note pad or tape machine. To bad all of that went to grave with Art..No doubt a great man in many ways...

07 November, 2010 19:38
Roger Smith said...

Seat wagon history was never better covered than by Fred Pfening's "Mechanization of the Circus--Seat Wagons and Canvas Spools", in the Nov-Dec 1994 BANDWAGON, which see.

The revered William Hanford "Cap" Curtis took his seat wagon concepts to a patent attorney as early as 1915.

After JRN's re-coronation with 51% control in 1947, he set Concello, who had bankrolled North, as the General Manager who would introduce an innovative seating system for 1948.
Co-engineering was former flyer Lester "Little" Thomas, who arrived at a design sufficiently different from Curtis's that infringement was avoided. The work was done by Lewis Deisel Engine Company, of Memphis, but did not include the actual seats. It will be of no surprise that Concello and associates invented them specifically for these wagons under his operating corporation's banner of Artony Company, Inc., named of course to include his wife Antoinette.

Curtis and Concello were friends and associates. At 75, Cap came on as Art's canvas boss for '48, and Thomas supervised seats. As sharp with the English language as he was with the drawing board, Cap retained a touch of professional jealousy, and penned a letter pointing out that Concello's seat wagons were not quite as good as his.

The rest of the story should bring you to Pfening's exquisitely detailed article, a contributor to which was one present-day historian for this blog, Richard Reynolds.

07 November, 2010 21:30
Chic Silber said...

Among the many company names that

Art had operated under over the

years it was Northart that was

on the door of his last office

on 16th Street in Sarasota

He had bought a stip of shops

& offices at the dead end of it

because there was a tail end of

usable tracks behind them & he

had to move his & Bud Montgomery's

rail cars from the siding on the

airport property across old 301

from the airfield where they had

been for many years

He would go to that office nearly

every day nearly to the end

The rail cars sat rusting away

for several more years after he

died & were only removed as scrap

a few years back (sad to see)

Kenny & I would visit him there

from time to time as Kenny became

very close to both him & Maggie

Interesting bits of fact & fiction

were heard on each visit

He certainly was a legend

07 November, 2010 23:54
Chic Silber said...

Correction

That ofice was at the dead end

of 15th Street not 16th Street

08 November, 2010 08:38

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