Monday, October 24, 2011

Clippings and Articles #1 (From Buckles)



More odds and ends from my mother's scrap books.
I had always regarded Mr. Gentry as a rather Elmer Fuddish looking circus owner from the past until I read a 1967 Pfening article in Bandwagon regarding the demise of the famous bull elephant "Snyder" in 1920 at Salina, Kansas when Gentry was the Sells-Floto manager.
Included was a lengthy letter written by Frederick Bonfils co-owner of the show who was on the lot that fateful day, of which I will include a few paragraphs.

Mr. H. H. Tammen
c/o The Denver Post
Denver, Colorado



Dear Harry,
".......I want you to remember the following: I have never seen two more loyal and brave men in my life than Henry and Frank Gentry. I would not have done what I saw them do with eyes yesterday, for all the money in the United States.
I had to absolutely prevent Henry Gentry from taking an elephant hook and starting to subdue the furious beast. It would have been certain death for him to have attempted it.
Frank Gentry just escaped by almost a miracle. The elephant ran after him and struck at him, just grazing his back. Frank dodged and doubled and before the elephant could turn, he had gotten behind a wagon."

".......Now in seeing these things with my own eyes and seeing what Henry Gentry and Frank did, I am sure that no other two men in the world would have so repeatedly risked their very lives as these two men did yesterday.
There was not another show man on the grounds who took a chance except these two men. I can never forget such loyalty under such circumstances. I would indeed be base if I did."

Always yours,
Frederick Bonfils



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6 comments:

Buckles said...

I wonder if Henry and Frank were invested with a "Laurel and Hardy handshake?"

Anonymous said...

The saddest part of this is that people have lost the ability to write in such an admirable and fine way. Now with internet and texting people are losing their ability to write or speak well at all. I believe I heard on the news that grade schools are beginning to drop penmanship (?!) from their curriculums.

How long will it be before the human race is too lazy to get up, get out of the house and go see a Circus? I feel very sorry for today's generations.

Paul Gutheil

Anonymous said...

PS God Bless your mother for the treasure trove of history she created.

Paul

Anonymous said...

Don't forget that Henry Gentry also served as the front man for the Corporation to buy out Charlie Sparks. He reportedly took advantage of a decades-long friendship. The pay-off was becoming manager of Sparks.

Towards the end of the season the Gentry show would also ask the children in the audience if they wanted to keep a dog or pony through the winter. Raised hands revealed the desirous. The costs and upkeep, of course, were the responsibility of the parents.

Dick Flint said...

Letters of Sparks to the Corporation offering his circus for sale to them exist and so the supposed refusal of Sparks to sell his show to the Corp and his being duped by Gentry need to be re-considered. The principal or perhaps sole source of that legend is E.W. Adams of Atlanta. Clearly, however, we know Sparks regretted selling his show at all (not necessarily to specifically Gentry or the Corp.) from the series of letters to Bert Cole that appeared in Bandwagon a year or more ago.
In short, this bit of history needs to be re-evaluated.
Dick Flint
Baltimore

Anonymous said...

Billboard scribe Charles Wirth wrote in his Sawdust and Spangles column that “the Sparks Circus, passed out of his [Charles Sparks's]hands so suddenly and went into hands other than the ones he expected.”

That surely underscores the activity of Henry B. Gentry. Was Wirth duped by Adams, too?

The editor of the Bert Cole letters fully subscribed to the "legend" as you term it, so perhaps you could divulge where the Sparks to ACC letters are ensconced to set the record straight.