Friday, November 26, 2010

James Bros. #1


Scan13267, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

While on this outdoor tour we had a lay-off in Muskegon, Michigan and
as previously elaborated, boarded our car on a ferry the 5th of July and crossed over to Milwaukee to catch the Red Show where John and Mary Ruth showed us around.
On our return I proclaimed to one and all, "Shake the hand of the man who shook the hand of Gunther Gebel-Williams!"

Posted by Buckles at 11/26/2010 06:10:00 AM

5 comments:

Frank Ferrante said...

That would mean that I shook the hand of the man who shook the hand of Gunther Gebel-Williams... WOW and GOLLY GEE WHIZ! ~frank

26 November, 2010 11:38
Anonymous said...

Several questions about this circus.First how big was the top?How many show owned trucks?How good was the promotion?

26 November, 2010 19:57
Buckles said...

Show was owned by Sid Kellner, high line West Coast promoter.
He bought the Mills Bros. top and equipment. The tent was 120' with three 40's with two rows of quarter poles.
Erik Jaeger would have the details, he put it up and took it down.
I'll have to run some pictures.

26 November, 2010 21:00
Anonymous said...

Buckles is right on the beam. The last big top Uncle Sid used was purchased new in 1974, from Leaf. It was a 120' round with 2-40' and 1-50' middle sections. The second half of the 1976 seson it was used with the one-50' middle, one ring format, except for his big Ohio dates, then back to the three-ringer. Dory Miller and the Hugoites purchased it after Sid closed in 1976.
We moved the show with a jump set of stakes, and used seven seat wagons. The newest seat wagon was built by Chester Cable (had a nice visit with him in September). We spooled the top until the spool truck finally gave up in 1976. It was to later resurface on one of Gopher's shows as a trailer unit. The moniker "Tow Truck Brothers Circus" was used by Sidewall and myself when referring to the show in the final days!
Erik Jaeger

27 November, 2010 11:45
Roger Smith said...

I had taken the Jungleland lions out for Uncle Sid for brief forays in 1968 and early '69. We were going to be booked for this tour. Our Jungleland acts were so advised, and practice and painting was underway. But the operators had raked off the DR. DOLITTLE money from 20th Century-Fox, and had kept Louis Goebel stiffed until after five years of patience, he foreclosed. Under Federal court order, we underwent a two-day auction. On October 9th, 1969, Werschow Auction Company rapped its gavel for the last time, and at 6 p.m., the padlock was snapped on the gate.

Many old-timers there easily moved into retirement, but the rest of us were turned out with nothing. Up in Martinez, Uncle Sid, thankfully, had time to book for this tour, and he and I exchanged thoughts of establishing a show-owned cat act. The sell-off of the lions I was working proved the intervening factor, and alas, it was not to be.

It is good to remain in correspondence with Uncle Sid to this day.

Thanks, BUCKLES and ERIK, for re-kindling memories of that old 120.

27 November, 2010 18:27

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