Wednesday, February 15, 2012

1963 Grotto Circus #8

Grotto%20Circus-8 by bucklesw1
Grotto%20Circus-8, a photo by bucklesw1 on Flickr.

Posted by Buckles at 2/15/2012 05:35:00 AM

12 comments:

Buckles said...

JFK is remembered as using a rocking chair in the Oval Office due to a war injury.
Happy Kellums found one somewhere and used it the walkaround with a sign "Deliver to Wash. DC".
He had no way to transport it and went to my dad who told me to put it somewhere in the back of the bull truck.
After unloading the elephants in Cleveland and exchanging pleasantries with Bert, Pinky and Buster Hayes, my dad gave me the high sign and I brought out the chair and without missing a beat, sat down and continued the conversation.
Got a bigger laugh there than it did in the walkaround.

15 February, 2012 07:05
Chic Silber said...

I recall when Struppi was elevated

from merely a Princess to Empress

What a beautiful entrance in the

horse drawn carriage in white fur

Muy elegante & very regal

15 February, 2012 10:50
Chic Silber said...

Was there really an Arialetta or

was that just a generic filler

15 February, 2012 11:10
Eric said...

When I saw her act in 1964, she was using Russian music. (Someone said that her Indian music had been misappropriated by another act; maybe Joe Zoppe’s “Indian bareback riders.”) She made her entrance in a big sleigh and was hoisted aloft while the band played the finale from the 1812 Overture. While this was going on, machines mounted near the ceiling produced tiny bubbles that looked like falling snow.

15 February, 2012 11:21
Chic Silber said...

Those machines were cast aluminum

"Bubble Wonders" like on Lawrence

Welk's TV show & the bubbles were

not so tiny Eric

I have at least 1 of these here

Maybe more in the warehouse just

in case anyone is interested

15 February, 2012 16:14
Mike Naughton said...

Hi Chic,
Ethel Jennier's act was billed as "Aerialetta" and then the stage name was revived when her daughter, Joanne (?), began doing trap.
Joanne presented a sea lion, Sunny (?) also.

16 February, 2012 00:28
Chic Silber said...

Was Jennier her maiden or previous

husband's name Mike

I knew her as Jack Joyce's wife

in the mid 60s on Beatty

16 February, 2012 09:40
Mike Naughton said...

Hi Chic-
John Herriott knows much more than I regarding Ethel and Jack, so I will yield to him. I believe Ethel worked with the Jennier Family and became known as a "Jennier".
The last time I saw Ethel was on Beatty-Cole when she presented her greyhound dogs, part of the music was "I'm Allabammy Bound". Now when I hear that tune, which isn't often, I think of Ethel. It's funny how one thing will trigger a memory.

16 February, 2012 10:47
Roger Smith said...

Jack Joyce's mother was also named Ethel, and lived two doors down from me on Crescent Way, in Thousand Oaks. I knew I had a friendly old lady neighbor, but not who she was, nor that she was gossip pals with Mabel Stark, and tattled on me to Mabel almost every day. I couldn't figure out how Mabel knew when I came home with a 12-pack, or a girlfriend. One afternoon, a colleague arrived at my door with a local girl of some renown, and Mabel raised hell with me about it. She said, "There's a little old lady who knows everything that goes on around here, and I'm not talking about me!"

When Mrs. Joyce died, Jack and Ethel (his wife) asked me to be among her pallbearers, along with an old elephant man named Whitey. It was even after this that I tumbled to whom Mabel's informant was, and couldn't help but smile.

18 February, 2012 23:16
John Herriott said...

Ethel Jennier or later Joyce was kind of a young orphan who was taken in by the Haag family [Mighty Haag circus] and she became quite close to them and also the Siklverlake-Fisher Family and they would be like family to her all thru the years. Ruby Fisher would marry Harry Haag [son of Mighty] and Josephine would marry Brownie Silverlake [great mud show talking clown]. Walter and brother Roy, [later head keeper at the Nat. Zoo in Wash, D>C>] came from the Jennier tent circus operated by their mother and were versatile performers performing a fine double trapeze act. All overland circus people and young Ethel would meet and marry older Walter. Walter would eventually perfect sea lion training and trained a one seal act that was a sensation in training and showmanship presentation billed as "Walter Jennier and his highly educated sea lion Buddy" and Ethel perfected an equally good single trapeze under the name of "Aerialetta" Finish trick being standing swinging ankle drop and then dismount with swinging somersault to a web. They played the top indoor Shrine circuses but each summer would book with some tented circus for the season. They were fine pleasant show people and in demand for there good acts. Eventually Walter develped a two seal act presented by zing persinality Ethel and it got booked with Ringling. There she got reacquainted with handsome Jack Joyce and the marriage fell apart and she Married Mr. Joyce. She and Walter had two children daughter and son and Walter went with daughter to present a single seal act and she also re-created her mothers trapeze act. They appeared on tented shows up until Walters late 80s. Jack and Ethel developed a nice little exotic mixed animal act and Jack trained and recreated the old time "leaping Greyhounds" From Ringling to Beatty-Cole and the marriage fell apart and divorce. Ethel would continue on with the animal acts and did a sword balancing act up into her late sixties. Now long gone to that celestial circus its a pleasure to write about old friends and associates, Walter, Ethel, Jack and those wonderful overland show people tgat my family were a part of. Hopes this epic goes thru on comments I am still gun shy. regards Johnny

19 February, 2012 08:52
Chic Silber said...

Thanks John for a manificent and

very detailed account of several

overlapping lives

Was able to see the ever lovely

Heidi with that exceptional horse

at the show a couple of days ago

Hope all of you are doing well

19 February, 2012 11:42
Wade G. Burck said...

John Milton,
Relax, friend. You did just fine. :)

Wade Burck

19 February, 2012 11:49

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