Tuesday, December 27, 2011

1963 Cristiani-Wallace #1 (From Buckles)

12-26-2011 11;23;49AM by bucklesw1
12-26-2011 11;23;49AM, a photo by bucklesw1 on Flickr.

Posted by Buckles at 12/27/2011 05:53:00 AM

13 comments:

Chic Silber said...

Could this have been their last

year with this tent show & didn't

a few of them take out a smaller

mud show titled United Nations a

year or so later for a short time

When did Lucio & Gilda go to the

Beatty Show with the "Franconis"

I would guess it was about 67

27 December, 2011 15:28
Jimmy Cole said...

1964 - 1968 were the years that the "Cristiani" riding act was on Beatty-Cole. Rex and Ava Williams worked in the act as well. Yes, it was billed as the "Franconis" for some legal reason or another.

27 December, 2011 17:06
Roger Smith said...

Lucio and Gilda had the Riding Franconis, so named for a dispute over use of the Cristiani name, on the '64 Beatty show. With them were Rex Williams, a Digger Pugh girl, my friend Kathy Brooks, and an excellent young featured rider whose name I believe was Franconi. Earlier in the show, Gilda did the principal act. Kathy Brooks fell and was badly injured by the horses. Damned if I can recall the town. Herbie Weber carried the insurance papers in his trailer, and I was given the task of getting them to the hospital for Kathy's coverage. Aside from cuts and bruises, she suffered internal injuries. She later rejoined the show, and with careful practice, returned to the act, proving to all of us she was far more than just a "Limey broad showgirl."

Lucio was still completing his horse-to-horse back somersault then, and Gilda was among the most stunning women ever to grace a white horse in Center Ring.

27 December, 2011 17:31
Bob K said...

Roger,
As I recall, one of the Pugh girls took a bad fall and was out of the act for some time. Boom Boom saw me in the early 70's and said that she was on a New Orleans TV news program later on (as a newscaster?). I can't remember her name.
Bob KItto

27 December, 2011 18:50
Chic Silber said...

It was Raphael Franconi & the

reason for not using the family

name was a major hoohah with IRS

I don't recall Ava working the act

She did doors web & elephants

27 December, 2011 23:30
Roger Smith said...

Raphael, that's the Franconi I was trying to name.

After Darlene's birth early that season ('64), Ava's condition was precarious, and she was seldom seen outside the trailer. She worked the elephant act, but I never saw her accompany Rex with the riding act.

Kathy Brooks, who also doubled as the show nurse, was the one who was injured by the horses. She didn't understand my purpose in working for Beatty, and talked seriously to me about creating a hanging perch act. I took it as a sort of left-handed compliment when she noted, "After all, you still have your teeth."

Rather than Kathy, I heard it was Sue who made a new career in TV, in New Orleans, and that her show covered local events. Two surnames were attribured to Sue--Penbrooke, and Plowbridge. I don't know which she used on the air.

28 December, 2011 22:13
Chic Silber said...

That was Sue Plumbridge Taylor

& we got very friendly Roger

She had some elaborate stories

of what she had done in England

Of course it was easier to just

allow her to go on about them

29 December, 2011 09:30
Roger Smith said...

Kathy had some racy stories, also, about recent events in England. This group found it expedient to become Digger Pugh girls and shoot the pond during the Profumo scandal.

Plumbridge, that was Sue's name. Thanks, Chic. Then there was Virginia, who married Big Bob Raborn, then a candy butcher. Chic, could her name have been Penbrooke? Both Bob, 53, and their son Steve, 14, were electrocuted by a downed hot line on the Royal Bros. lot, on Prince Edward Island. Virginia joined out with us on Castle for a time after this, in '73, but had retired as a performer. Then in widowhood, she remained a beautiful and gracious lady.

The only one of our English girls whose fate I know is Norma Wilford, who died in Sarasota, in 2005.

29 December, 2011 18:00
Chic Silber said...

The Diger Pugh girls I recall

best from the early years were

Jill who married Lothar Geyer &

her best friend Heather Clements

who married Deacon (a butcher)

There were Quiet Joan & Mondo's

Joan (1 of them married Lloyd Jr)

There was Toni Williams that used

to tend bar a few blocks from my

office in Sarasota that married

a butcher also named Williams

We all had really good times

29 December, 2011 19:06
Bob K said...

Thanks, Roger.
It was Sue. I got in trouble for giving her a ride to the next town.
Boom Boom gave the news and added that you should never stop on the route for supper, if you had anyone with you.
Bob Kitto

29 December, 2011 19:37
Ava said...

Hi Chic,
On the Beatty- Cole I worked the elephants and the riding act with Lucio and Gilda, also some Shrine winter dates. 1964-1965
I never did doors and web.
Ava

30 December, 2011 11:09
Chic Silber said...

My apology Ava as it seems that a

few memory cells work better than

many others

Happy New Year to you & family

30 December, 2011 11:57
Ava said...

Happy New Year Chic, All my Best to you!

30 December, 2011 15:39

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