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Wednesday, September 09, 2015
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7 comments:
This is the 79 Spec with GG & Prince
on Kongo & Dave King at the organ
Those lighted clown head pullups
were intended to be jack in boxes
Fabric was stretched over hoops
that collapsed fairly easily
That 79-80 Red Show Spec featured
a tribute to Lou as "Mr Clown"
I'll send a photo of him in it
Dave King came as a youth with
Keith & Kathy Killinger but he
stayed on for years after them
One of the nicest musicians I
have ever met in the business
& there were plenty of others
The 78 Blue & 79 Red were absolutely
the very finest editions of TGSOE in
the years I've been in the business
Of all the Ringling specs I have seen or played for, this one was my all time favorite. Themed “Circus Toyland” its music score was comprised almost entirely of melodies that would have been as familiar to circus audiences of yesteryear as to those in the 1970’s. Here are their titles: “Toyland” (Victor Herbert), “Circus Toyland” (an original song), “I Can’t Do the Sum” (Victor Herbert), “Twenty-Second Regiment March” (Victor Herbert), “March from The Fortune Teller" (Victor Herbert), “A Slippery Place Rag” (Phil Hacker, 1911), “Doll Dance” (Nacio Herb Brown), “Mister Clown” (played when Lou Jacobs was introduced), “China Doll,”” March of the Toys” (Victor Herbert), “Manhattan Beach March” (Sousa), “The Teddy Bear Express” (an original song used for the miniature train that carried children from the audience around the arena), “The Toyland Menagerie” (another original song), and an ending that seamlessly combined “Toyland Menagerie” and Victor Herbert’s “Toyland.”
As seen in this image, the band in San Diego was set up at the far end of the arena, right on the floor and close to the performers’ entrance. The sax section was situated so that the tenor sax chair was next to the barrier that separated the band from the performers and animals going by on the hippodrome track. On the last note of the spec, Kongo would always be standing right next to my chair, almost within arm’s reach. I would look up at Gunther and the tiger (and sometimes the tiger would look down and make eye contact!) Of course Gunther didn’t waste any time getting him down and back into his cage, but the thrill of being that close to Gunther and his uncaged tiger remains one of my most cherished memories.
I was one of the dancing dolls, I had so much fun it was rarely a job.
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