Saturday, June 16, 2012

The Greatest Show On Earth #2

scan0554 by bucklesw1
scan0554, a photo by bucklesw1 on Flickr.

Posted by Buckles at 6/16/2012 06:28:00 AM

4 comments:

Wade G. Burck said...

Buckles,
Wow, that is neat. I have never seen an overhead view of a complete "Court" set up before, just closeup's. Thank you for sharing it.

Wade Burck

16 June, 2012 14:57
Frank Ferrante said...

It really was 'a city unto itself.'

17 June, 2012 02:55
Richard Reynolds said...

This is 1940, obviously in the Garden. The spec, “The Return of Marco Polo” is on the track.

Note the elephant at the left with the big gold chest on his back, no doubt filled with treasure and rare oriental spices. I saw the spec in Atlanta and verily recall that bull carrying the gold chest - -seems as though there was more than one of them.

A big feature of the procession was a long Chinese dragon. It had a head that swiveled all around. The long body was of cloth (“dragon” green) and underneath one could see the shuffling feet of numerous workingmen. That got my attention. My Dad told that there were roustabouts underneath.

This was the last time RBBB ran its spec as the opening number. In 1940 it was followed by aerial turns. That was no doubt to provide a distraction upwards, as Court’s three rings of animals came through the chutes to get ready for spectacular 3-big cage number. I well recall that process in Atlanta. It was far more fun to this 6-year old to see the animals come thru the tunnels that to watch the aerialists.

Note that the center arena for the small cats (leopards et al) is of much smaller diameter than the other two.

On the track at the base of the grandstand (left of the pic) we see the shifting dens for the Court animals in ring three. I think we see the same in the distance against the wall behind ring 1. The leopards’ shifting dens were in the passageway way opposite the center ring. At least that’s the way I have it figured.

17 June, 2012 14:50
Chic Silber said...

Richard I got a warm feeling from

your "obviously in The Garden"

Althought it was neither the 1st

nor the current nor any of the

other gardens around the country

The building on 8th Ave between

49th & 50th Streets will always

be remembered as "The Garden" to

some of us old crusties (thanks)

17 June, 2012 18:33

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