. . . his being "discovered" and signed by the Felds . . . |
Sunday, December 15, 2013
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22 comments:
Trolle Rhodin was the 'patch" in
primary negotiations with Carola
Their attempts to purchase all of
the assets of CW (the original)
never came to fruition but in her
wisdom Carola agreed to lease the
main elements for 2 years & then
extended for many more years
Jeanette & Gunther long divorced
were both disappointed with their
inheritance upon the sale of much
of the leased equipment & animals
to the Feld organization
In the agreements all of the CW
personel including the performers
became employees of Big Bertha
They were all an incredibly tight
knit group that worked as a well
oiled machine but weren't an easy
bunch to work with & I believe
they used their declared language
barrier to advantage
These 3 were all about the same
height but few other similarities
This time of year when the Ringling units opened around here, me and Ben or Chico would always drop by the animal area on closing night, compliment them mightily on the performance (tho we hadn't seen it) and afterward proceed to load the pickup with the abandoned hay.
One reason was the quality, having been shipped in from out of state it was vastly superior to the swamp grass available locally and another reason was it was free.
Inevitably while in the process of doing this I would hear someone in my staff mutter, "I told that damn Irving Feld what he could do with this show......!"
Anyway early in 1982 when we arrived at the Lakeland Arena Gunther was waiting and said, "Good to see you I want to give you an elephant....." which he did.
So break the suspense & tell us
which elephant that was
"Eva".
John Ringling North had been after Gunther for some time, but was unwilling to pay the fee Gunther wanted. As Chic pointed out, the Felds got around this by leasing the main elements of Circus Williams (which, besides Gunther, included 18 elephants, seventy-five horses and fourteen tigers.)
AKA Peggy?
Much other equipment & trappings
came along as well & a sizeable
contingent of support help too
Among the rolling stock were 3
super utility vehicles built by
Mercedes called UniMugs that we
were amazed by for their power &
their incredible manuverability
Of the best things included was
the late Henry Schroer (RIP)
He could do almost anything
As I mentioned all of the people
although arranged by Carola were
on separate individual contracts
Buckles, do you have numbers on the stock that came with Gunther ? Wasn't it more like 8 elephants and 6 tigers ?
No Larry as I don't recall that
many horses Eric's other numbers
are very likely although as we
all know there are many versions
of sworn history
During most of the 70s both herds
were very similar in size I think
The keeper of the scrolls knows
I got those figures from David Lewis Hammarstrom’s book BIG TOP BOSS, JOHN RINGLING NORTH AND THE CIRCUS. Some of the figures do seem rather high, but they might represent what animals Circus Williams had available and not what was actually brought over.
Your friend Hammerstom is a show
queen with much published crap
I've been told of many fictions
Chic, you say Gunther was the part of financial negotiations in his money terms. Not at all. He was an employee of Carola,alebit,an important one, but it was the whole picture of horses, elephants, a new tiger act to be trained,[he had the single tiger and two elephants that was a great act], plus a bird act and a pony and some stuff. The circus [Williams] obviously needed alot of stuff. The bull tubs were a bunch of big one, short ones , different kinds, in bad shape, etc. Harness and head pieces were in bad cracked shape, Elephants needed a little more hay[however when I was on an extended visit to European and British circuses I noted all elephants on the slim side. I noted those planks they all stood on were pretty well bare during the times we saw them/. Anyway, the Ringling contract was pretty nice and am sure Carola was favorable to negotiate. Gunther did have a living trailer semi pulled by A single axel light Mercedes tractor and a Mercedes sport car tat he soon swapped for a used Tornado. Jennette had a German small house trailer and pulled it with a newer Pontiac as I recall all this living and waorking alongside all of the in Qtrs. They soon. Irvin that is, put a lock onthe gate after stuff was disappearing and gave each of us living tere a Key. We were the only non-German so I referred it as Stalag 17.So I was pretty much right where it was all happening and as Asst. perf.drtr. I had list and legal names of all performers, etc. I noted that Gunther and his wife and daughyter Tina were Gebel.So anyway it was the beginning of a long run.A side note. When after a few short years when Feld bought the animals up untl that time the principals ,Gunther, his wiufe and Jeanette and maybe Henry were all paid out of Carolas contract, so Gunther was extremely happy that Irvin gave him a sizeable increase in wages to be sure.But then again the Gebels were not too pleased of the income of Seigfrid and Roy who were also part of the Feld Co.
Chic, those little Mercedes "doodlebugs" were here before as part of the entire bunch of equipment that made up the European tour of the GSOE. It alol had been engineered and assembled by Lloyd Morgan in Europe and was a carbon copy of the Red show and when Feld brought it all to our shores it became the Blue Show. Rubber aerial frames, etc. so in effect other than assemblinh RR cars it was an indoor circus ready to go. As we know for that first year they re-used old wardrobe etc.johnny
I believe John Ringling North had already seen the GGW Williams stuff and was interested, so Rhodin made Irvin aware and it fit right in with his two shows format. Seems like the saw them in Italy as part of the Spainish circus Co. In other words Circus Williams was not showing as itself but part of a conglomerate so naturally America sounded pretty goid. No expense at all in moving, staffing and maintaining a circus. In fact gww HAD PRETTY MUCH BECAME mgr., supt.,head honcho gradually after the death of Harry Williams.I am sure Rhodin and Feld were quite aware of all that.
Chic, those little Mercedes "doodlebugs" were here before as part of the entire bunch of equipment that made up the European tour of the GSOE. It alol had been engineered and assembled by Lloyd Morgan in Europe and was a carbon copy of the Red show and when Feld brought it all to our shores it became the Blue Show. Rubber aerial frames, etc. so in effect other than assemblinh RR cars it was an indoor circus ready to go. As we know for that first year they re-used old wardrobe etc.johnny
Thanks John for your corrections
& all the additional information
I didn't say that Gunther did any
negotiating at all as it was by
Carola & her advisors but the
show created contracts for each
of the people so as to allow them
to be covered by insurance & also
workman's comp & unemployment
Each was given some form of tax
number as they had to pay Federal
income tax & Social Security tax
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