The very last time I worked for Ringling was in
1994. That was the first year the show
was using its own self-contained band, which traveled as part of the
company. To ease the “sting” on local
musicians, the circus hired 5 local “standby” musicians who got paid just to
show up and be on hand. (I think this
arrangement lasted for two years.) Anyhow, I was called as one of the
standbys. Once the show started, we were
free to watch the performance, read a book, write letters, etc. I liked to spend my time by the back door
watching the animals – especially the elephants – having their blankets put on
and being led in and out of the arena.
On several occasions I brought along my camera. (This was back when they
still let you take photos out in the backyard.) I was using a 35mm Stereo
Realist camera, which takes large-format stereo (3-D) photos. (Once when I was standing at the backdoor
with my camera, Kenneth Feld arrived from the airport. As he walked passed me, he did a double take
at my camera with its two lenses.) That
was over twenty years ago! Some of these
photos were the very first ones I submitted to Buckles to post on the Blog. Recently, I re-scanned all 20 images and also
cropped them to improve their appearance. Buckles should be able to provide
information as to who and what is being shown.
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Sunday, October 05, 2014
1994 Blue Show #1 (From Eric Beheim)
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15 comments:
Eric: You were lucky for at least one day as far as the weather goes. Diane and I were down in Philly visiting for 3-4 days and it rained most of the time. I did take a lot of photos though and the pic of Buckles in the bull tent on the blog a couple days ago evidences that.
As I recall that was the year the show was supposed to have a Native American theme, but due to a dispute there were no American Indians, just spec wagons , bull blankets etc.
I believe that, sadly, this was Sue & Rudi Lenz last season with RBBB and perhaps on the road.
Oh, and that's got to be Shannon in the pic.
Best, Paul
That wasn't the 1st time that a
band traveled with the Feld show
In the late 70s when Irvin had
a blowout with Local 802 in NY
(a long story) they created a
new musicians union & traveled
a band by seperate transport &
had a security team to escort
them in & out of a side entrance
It was called "Caspet Music" &
we had banners made up for them
Local 802 came to their senses
& renegotiated during that year
The beef had to do with paying
overtime for a rehearsal with a
group of musicians & then having
different players show up to do
the opening performance
The musicians union is not a team
player with all the other unions
representing Broadway folks which
is a real shame & causes heat
Everybody who works on Broadway
has a specific "call time" that
can be anywhere from "half hour"
to "hour before half hour" but
the musicians call time is only
"the downbeat" (very arrogant)
For some reason, the elephant blankets that year appear to have been inspired by Southwest Indian blanket designs. I don’t recall that an Indian theme was part of the spec. And the music that year was wall-to-wall jazz-rock, played very loud and fast for everthing. (Even for the flying act!) It was awful!
That dispute occurred in 1977 and involved ALL of the American Federation of Musicians locals. It all started when Ringling approached the National Office to negotiate a first-time-ever national contract. (Prior to that, it had to deal with each Local’s requirements, which differed from city to city. In some cities 30 or more local musicians had to be hired!) After negotiations broke down, Ringling brought in non-union musicians, which traveled from city to city. Surprisingly, none of the show’s other unions complained. There was even talk that the Teamsters’ Union would represent the show’s musicians. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, the AF of M gave in to all the circus’ demands.
Eric I thought flying acts always
worked to waltz tempos
The show had been trying to get
a national agreement with AFofM
for a few years but the straw
that broke the elephant's back
was the overtime rehearsal in
the NY Garden The ersatz local
for Caspet's musicians actually
was sanctioned by the Teamsters
under a unique temporary binder
(I vuz dere Charlie)
After the dust settled, the Circus got the following from the A.F. of M.:
1. The size of the band and the number of local musicians hired would be the same for all the cities where the show appeared.
2. The number of touring musicians that traveled with the show would be increased from 3 to 5.
3. Local musicians would be paid according to a new 3-tiered wage scale (established by the Circus) that was based on box office returns
4. Wage scales would be based on a 4-hour call. (Since no Ringling performance ever ran much over 3 hours, this eliminated for all time the possibility of the Circus ever having to pay overtime.)
5. The Circus would no longer pay local musicians for the 2-hour rehearsal that was held prior to the start of the first performance.
6. The Circus would no longer pay a local union contractor double scale to hire the musicians but would do all the hiring itself (using information gathered from W-2 forms!)
7. The Circus reserved the right the bring in musicians from outside a particular Local if that Local’s musicians were not capable of playing the show’s music.
8. The Circus would not have to pay local musicians extra if audio of the band was used by local radio and TV stations as part of their news coverage of the Circus’ appearance in town.
Eric,
Was your Stereo Relist with the f3.5 or the f2.8 one.
I wish I could have afforded the rare Custom with the Kangaroo skin and rare earth lens.
Did you shoot Kodachrome or Ektachrome slides.
I took pics of the grand canyon with my realist with the f 2.8 lens as well as many circuses in Kodachrome.
I sure miss those days when you could get Kodachrome processed and you had a Kodak lab in L A.
Harry in Texas
Harry in Texas
Your #5 Eric is not quite correct
They had to pay for the rehearsal
but at continuity & not overtime
Chic,
After the new agreement was signed with the A.F. of M The rehearsals were NEVER paid for in San Diego.
I'm pretty sure Eric that in NY
they were paid continuity time
I recall their beefing about how
the rate was far less than before
Could that rehearsal time stay
within the 4 hour call Eric
In NY there was a break between
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