Saturday, April 23, 2011

From Jerry Cash #1

Buckles;

The 1959 Cristiani Bros. Circus is the first circus I remember seeing as a kid. My dad was a friend of the Cristiani Family from the days he was on the 34 Hagenbeck Wallace Circus. We spent a few days on the show at the Pan Pacific Auditorium parking lot LA stand. The show made a big impression on me and because of it, I became a circus fan. Over the years, I have been doing research on the show and today I am building a 1/8 in. scale replica of the 1959 show.

I've enclosed some pictures I thought you might like to see. The first two are me and my brother on the midway and with Oscar and Daviso. I'm the one in the blue shirt. The others are my Cristiani Bros. miniature in progress. I just finished the side show banner line recently.

Jerry Cash

Posted by Buckles at 4/23/2011 06:00:00 AM

4 comments:

Ole Whitey said...

Jerry:

This is a coincidence. I was on the Cristiani advance when the show played Los Angeles. We billed and played a number of places in Southern California after Los Angeles and so I was able to get back to the show twice during that stand and I know what a great show you saw there.

One Sunday we were in Santa Ana and I caught the bus into L A and spent the entire day on the lot, seeing many people I already knew and also meeting many I had not known before.

Ken Maynard was at the matinee audience and was introduced. I've mentioned this on the blog before: my friend Vickie Cristiani broke her leg during that show. I don't know the name of the trick where the elephant spins around and the girl holds a strap. Anyway the strap broke and she was slung over against something, maybe the ring curb. Oscar immediately picked her up and carried her off.

This was the first time I had ever seen the great Con Colleano work- I'm so glad I had that privilege- I was surprised to see him as we didn't have any posters on him and I didn't even know he was on the show.

You may also remember that they parked the steam calliope up at the corner near the auditorium- I guess that's Beverly and Fairfax?- and would have a calliope concert at some point. I remember I walked down to the corner and listened to it as I had heard very few steamers.

What a great show and a great and successful date. It was promoted by this guy who called himself Tom Parker- not the Elvis Tom Parker, another one.

The old cottage ticket wagon now in Baraboo was still in the area (Maybe at Louis Goebel's place?) and was brought in to be used for this date. Many years later Mary Jane and I went to the CHS in Los Angeles and we all went to see the Kaleidoscape show one night. Several historic wagons had been sent from Baraboo for this date, including this old ticket wagon. I asked our group, "Who can tell me the last time this wagon was used at a circus in Los Angeles?" Several ventured educated guesses but only Rick Pfening yelled out, "Cristiani 1959."

23 April, 2011 10:58
JIM ELLIOTT said...

Off subject. I just found a website:antiquecarousels.com They have three(3) restored wagons listed. They say they were built for King Bros., yet they have Cole Bros. title painted on the skyboards.
Someone may be interested, so I thought I'd make this post.

23 April, 2011 14:49
Ole Whitey said...

Jim: These are very interesting wagons and I didn't know if they'd ever come to light again.

Some believe that they may have originated with Sig Sautelle. They were owned by the King brothers who operated two (10 and 15 car) flatcar shows during the last half of the twenties.

They worked under several names and juggled the titles around a bit. Their 1929 Gentry Bros on 15 cars failed and the 1930 their Cole Bros also went under. I believe these are from their 1930 Cole show.

National Printing took the show over for debts owed; they were sold to Doc Ingraham and Bert Rutherford and shipped to Peoria for their planned show, which like so many shows never materialized.

Somebody help me here- did Venice Transportation have them next? Then in 1936 George Christy bought them and in 1947 fan Arvil Allread of Red Bluff, California bought them.

They look like they've had a lot of restoration done- probably a good buy if somebody wants to sink some dough into a museum. But not me.

23 April, 2011 20:27
JIM ELLIOTT said...

Whitey;
Thanks for the info. They look to be in excellent shape to me. I hope they go to a GOOD HOME!

23 April, 2011 21:01

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