Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Mirrored Balls #2


8 comments:

Chic Silber said...


This was the 1st mirrored ball

I built for Charly & Kismet in 65

It was my entry project into the

strange world of TGSOE many thanks

to Victor Gaona & Trolle Rhodin

Chic Silber said...


But certainly not the 1st

I had ever made as I might

have named Sunshine Studios

"Balls R Us"

Chic Silber said...


Doesn't "Shangri La" ring in your ears

I'm sure it does for Eric

Larry allen Dean said...

A question for Chic.
Do you know what year that was and who built that arena ?

Chic Silber said...


I built this ball in 64-65 but this

might have been taken another year

It is Kismet on the ball however

During 65 & 66 Charly trained 2 more

cats to revolve on it sitting up

Charly asked for a 2nd ball & to

have it revolve in the opposite

direction for a different pattern

of reflections which made sense

When I brought the 2nd ball in 67

none of the 3 tigers would remain

on the 2nd ball when it revolved

Hence the collar between the ball

& the platform as I had to create

a sleeve pipe so as to allow the

platform to turn the same direction

as the 1st ball but the ball itself

to remain in the opposite direction

This early square pattern mesh arena

was woven with great difficulty as I

am told (I wasn't there) in Venice

on the floor of the building with a

fair amount of drawn blood that was

due in part to alcohol consumption

It was a curse to all who ever came

in contact with it for many years

By nature of its pattern it would

never pack easily in the ring curb

It spent it's senior age at the park

in Haines City as folks remember

We could jackpot at a Beefy's Brunch

Bunch gathering maybe next month LAD

but this is likely more than needed

Chic Silber said...


As you can see here many of

squares didn't remain square

but whiskers were the worst

GaryHill said...

I still have scars from that damned cage..:)

Chic Silber said...


I'm ashamed to admit that I do also Gary

Never should have gone near the damn thing