Saturday, May 12, 2012

From Chic Silber

URSTAMP by bucklesw1
URSTAMP, a photo by bucklesw1 on Flickr.

Please add this to "Fuzzy Wuzzys"

Here is the postage stamp that East Germany (DDR)

honored her with as this was before reunification.

Posted by Buckles at 5/12/2012 06:07:00 AM

15 comments:

Bud said...

Isn't this Beautiful & 1978 is when she relocated to Circus World

12 May, 2012 09:19
Chic Silber said...

Like so many of the folks that

came from the communist controlled

countries Ursula & Manfred were

paid a very small stipend with the

bulk of the funds going directly

to their governments (& cronies)

Trolle Rhodin was responsible for

most iron curtain country acts to

be allowed to perform over here

This financial arrangement gave

many of these performers incentive

to eagerly accept "cherry pie" in

order to try capitalism 1st hand

12 May, 2012 09:25
Little John said...

When Ursula came to the park Tommy started working the trailer parks with a 2'x2' plywood stage to balance his ladder on. His bag of tricks grew over the years and he has had a respectable little mud show for quite some time now. Son of a gun has worked his butt off for years.

12 May, 2012 16:51
Anonymous said...

Word was in that era, the East European acts got the going rate the circus industry normally paid, but that "small stipend" Chic reffered to, was rumored to be $7 per day per performer. According to those who spoke English that I talked to, their per diem was barely enough for two sandwiches a day from Pie Car, Jr. And yes--the balance of the salary went right back to the Communist bloc. Should America's freedom become attractive to them, a life of severity was continued. To make certain the performers remained under strict oppression, each faction had a Director, i.e., a Polish Director, a Bulgarian Director, an East German Director, etc., whose duty it was to make certain no one defected and sought asylum here. Where was the Ringling show ownership on this? They were eagerly complicit.

Another story for another time is the bitter regret we experienced at Jungleland with East Europeans whose defection came to us.

12 May, 2012 19:13
Chic Silber said...

In many of those cases Roger there

were family members back in the old

country to warrant the return

If show management didn't accept

the terms then these acts wouldn't

be allowed to come over & perform

Not that long ago & how different

from how thing are now

12 May, 2012 20:24
Anonymous said...

SPIN: Freddie was right, as far as he went. The East Europeans I spoke of had defected from the Ringling show. The contempt shown by them for those of us at Jungleland, for our initial welcome and efforts to help them, and pointedly for this country, was as explicit and perpetual as it was disgusting. The father taught their small son to walk up to us and say, "F**k your mouth." And he went further than that. He brought a wheelbarrow full of meat to the stage, and forked in feeds to a string of 16 cats, while I was inside working the lion act. All that saved him was 5 Compound guys holding me back while he escaped into hiding.

13 May, 2012 02:34
John Herriott said...

When I was ENT. director at Circus world is when Irvin brought me and my family, Ursala and Axel and Donna. Also Tommy Leibel had defected and had to leave the Red Unit [agreement between iron curtain countries and RBBB that no defectors could keep working] so we gave him a job at Circus World. He was doing OK until one day Kenneth called me and said we had to let Tommy go immediately that same day. It seemed Rhodin was coming on a visit of the annual big shots of the Eastern circuses and couldn't be embarrased that we had a defector working there. I felt bad but had to do it. Previously Tommy would hang out in my office and BS and I had mentioned to him that the campgrounds in the area looked ripe to book an act into and lo and behold he did just that with his juggling, unsupported ladder and one man band and the rest is history. I am referring to Tommy Leibel.

Ursala liked it at Circus World. They gave all of us big mobile homes to live in on a nice area on the property and she and Manfred had a car, so they lived the good life with every Monday off. I believe someone passed a little under the table scratch her way. But she was a fervent East German in her political thinking and wasn't quite comfartable. She seemed to be a not very happy person and was not personable at all. She and Donna Gautier became lifelong friends but Donna had a nice way with everybody. We spent a year all together. I got along with Ursala and Manfred. that was about it. She could get a little testy, but the act was awesome.johnny

13 May, 2012 07:24
Chic Silber said...

I think much of Ursula's demeaner

was that she was under constant

threat from her DDR cronies that

if she wasn't in full compliance

they would take away her bears

She hadn't had a pleasant life

She wasn't easy to deal with

13 May, 2012 08:39
Chic Silber said...

Many of the Bulgarians seemed to

be under less threat than those

from other nations & were mostly

a friendly & hard working group

13 May, 2012 08:42
Chic Silber said...

A few years back I was heavily

involved in a brand new circus in

Lima Peru where we had several acts

from North Korea that were awesome

The entire group were under strict

control & constant observation by

a large security detail much worse

than anything we had with RBBB

They were all housed in the North

Korean embassy compound & brought

to the building in their private

bus & had their isolated dressing

& holding area off limits to us

13 May, 2012 08:54
John Herriott said...

Those first Chinese acts that came to RBBB. They could only work half the sweason and then shipped back and replaced. They all learned tje essential acts. THey had very separate train accomodations and their own cook house, so never got American acclimated in any way. Also language was a big problem. I recall the first ones with Carson-Barnes also being very isolated. In earlier years the bJim Wong Troupe. George Wong troupe, Tensi lui. Chai and Somay were well liked and [part of our circus fraternity. Even quite popular , but loved to gamble in the dressing room.

13 May, 2012 10:28
John Herriott said...

Chic as I recall the Bulgarians were from the poorest of those countries and the least paid, [five bucks per day] The Hungarians had the most freedom and even negotiated their contracts in some ways. They were always well dressed and had money. Think Juicy, Alec Sebastian and other who hustled extra bucks as well. We always enjoyede the Hungarian people on Ringling. Very talented, wonderful sense of humour and seemed to fit in our American lifestyles more. Very casual with very little of the German aloofness. [guess this is the right word.]

13 May, 2012 10:37
Little John said...

In September of 2007 I discovered a free Circus at The International Market Place (Flee Market) in Auburndale Florida; this was serendipitous because I just spent a lot of my expendable cash getting my clown back together. I asked if I could be in the show just to try out some old gags and stuff in front of an audience. They said that I could and low and behold Tommy’s kid Tony was performing and running the show. (I thought the bleachers looked familiar.) It seemed like the entire cast was from Eastern Europe, I felt a “don’t ask don’t tell” atmosphere back stage, and me being a bit recluse I never inquired about their situation. It was obvious they were circus veterans, and on some days we had one hell of a show. In a few weeks I had some stuff that was working and I think that I earned their respect because the cast agreed that I should get my take out of the tip bucket, (about 4 dollars a show.) The cast sold glowing, twirling, inflatable, crap after the show and I put together a “Little John the Clown” coloring book. However, they didn’t want me to cut into livelihood and would not let me sell my books. That was OK with me because I only made a few prototypes, and my Disney gig was demanding me to work weekends. Also the main reason I blew the show was that I felt unethical not being paid my worth in clowning because there are still a few clowns out there trying make a living. I got everything that I was after that summer and the only reason to stay with the show was that I was having a blast.

13 May, 2012 13:44
Chic Silber said...

Quite a few of the Bulgarians were

some of Bobby Johnsen's best help

Mama Slavovi became a seasonal

visitor to Bobby's house for years

Sasha Balkansi & his dad worked in

my shop during a few layoff weeks

I believe his son Sashko is up in

Williston with the Zerbinis

13 May, 2012 13:45
Chic Silber said...

The Hungarians were terrific cooks

13 May, 2012 13:46

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