Friday, January 14, 2011

From Roger Smith #1

L to R: Frank Buck, Clyde Beatty, and Bud Abbott listen to a wild tale from Lou Costello between takes on AFRICA SCREAMS, 1949.

Posted by Buckles at 1/14/2011 06:13:00 AM

1 comments:

Richard Reynolds said...

Africa Screams was released in 1949 when Frank Buck had only a year to live. He died on March 25, 1950.

There are lots of stories about Buck, some not very complimentary. One tale said he went 50-50 with a partner to import some blackbuck antelopes from India. The guy stayed stateside while Buck went to get them. Losses at sea were great. When they arrived, Buck told his partner - - too bad, but it was your half that died!

When he was on Ringling in 1938 he was called “Two buck Buck.” Why, because he never tipped the train porters more than two bucks even though he drew a big salary and had a private car. Even the lowliest performer was expected to give two bucks a week to the porters.

This was told me by Paul Ringling, Alf T’s grandson who was on the show that year with Buck.

Buck really made hay in animal importing after World War I when Hagenbeck was wiped out. Buck had it to himself, particularly in South Asia, his specialty. Ruhe did better than Hagenbeck because he had operations here and elsewhere.

14 January, 2011 18:24

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)