Number One Passes! (From Jack Ryan)

Hi Buckles, Concerning circus press passes issued with #1 -- that little gem goes back at least to Dexter Fellows. From a piece I wrote several years ago for Spectacle Magazine: "Charlie Schuler, a contemporary of the great Dexter Fellows, told me of Dexter’s gambit involving “working press passes.” Back in the day, these cards were given to media friends for access to the backyard. They were numbered in sequence. Fellows always had fifty or so printed “001.” Dex would pull one from his personal stash for favored scribes, whispering, “I saved this keepsake just for you,” all the while pitching a story for the Sunday paper. You had to be careful – only one “keepsake” per city, please." I confess that during my Ringling years I always kept a stash of #1s.