Sunday, January 05, 2014

Extra Bonus Picture!



An undated picture of the Stevens family when they ran concessions with Kelly-Miller, maybe John Herriott  was was on the show at the time.
I never got to know Little Bob until my folks got their elephant act and would join his show briefly in the late '50's. I recall him as a chipper little guy, always on the go and never discouraged despite the disaster of the day. You could hear him constantly humming or whistling some circus march or galop during his daily routine (a habit I have fallen into lately) my father said he been a musician and in fact I think I have a picture of him in the band with some show (Christy Bros.?) he was the drummer.
His wife Ione remained with Kelly-Miller after their divorce and continued to run the concessions for many years. In fact I worked for her several summers while on High School vacation. She was quite resourceful, swore like a sailor and I remember one night seeing her knock some guy unconscious with a bag of quarters.
I never heard of Bob's mother referred to as anything other than "Mud". We've all heard the expression , "Your name is mud!" in her case it was.

Posted by Buckles at 1/05/2014 05:25:00 AM

5 comments:

John Herriott said...

He was called "Little Bob" because in this time another Bob Stevens was quite active in the same circles of the tent show biz. Circus owner of Bailey Bros. Circus and a portly individual was naturally referred as "Big Bob". and both would be known as that until their dieing days. Little Bob had been a high stepping candy butcher on RBBB among other shows and with wife Ione they took over the concessions on KM and grew with the show until a divorce and the Millers had grown fond of Ione and also her take charge abilities kept her as their conc. mgr. Also Little Bob was serving in the military during the second war and Ione had run the operation during his absense. Yes he was a "Mommys boy" and "Mud", his mother was always with him. He had his little rag bag show and would marry a women named Clara who was fond of the grape. Later she would connect with butcher "stanley the polack" When we were on KM Little Bob and Dorey were both absent but did get furloughs and I got to know them. I believe Doreys furlough bordered on a little AWOL but he survived thst. Millers had purchased from George Christy a fine eight horse liberty that my father worked, however he had also trained the palomino and white horse act, so at seasons end not needing two liberty acts sold the act to Little Bob and my father. Bob had most of the scratch. and Dad proceeded to book it on some "winter dates" He worked some, but they both realized it was not lucretive and sold it to Clyde Beatty. It was nice black and white spotted horses and Johnny Cline would present them along with Jack Joyce with 8 sorrel-palominoes, but that is another story.

05 January, 2014 07:17
Ole Whitey said...

Big Bob's name was neither Bob nor Stevens. I've heard him called Leslie Stevenson and his brother Sid had the wagon on KM, but I'm not sure Stevenson was the correct name either.

05 January, 2014 14:10
Show Biz Books said...

A wonderful story - said to be about "Little Bob":

The show was tearing down in a pouring rain. Elephants were pulling trucks off the lot. One helluva mess. Little Bob, like the rest of the crew, is soaked to the skin. He looks around and says: "Anybody who doesn't like this life is a damn fool!"

05 January, 2014 19:16
Anonymous said...

I could think of a lot of jackpots about Ione and Donnie McIntosh. I worked the Floss joint with Donnie in 1964 on Kelly Miller Show.
Ione didnt mind telling people what she thought about them if they rubbed her the wrong way.
had a great time over there and learned a lot of things about Floss business from Donnie.

06 January, 2014 09:47
Anonymous said...

I could think of a lot of jackpots about Ione and Donnie McIntosh. I worked the Floss joint with Donnie in 1964 on Kelly Miller Show.
Ione didnt mind telling people what she thought about them if they rubbed her the wrong way.
had a great time over there and learned a lot of things about Floss business from Donnie.

06 January, 2014 09:48

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