Boom-Boom Browning, Bubba Voss, Ramon Escorcia, and Merle Evans himself all told me of the annual battles in Winterquarters over the placement of the bandstand for the coming season. Evans wanted it beside the performer's entrance, so he could more easily see all 3 rings and the acts in the air. He usually was spotted in the blues, but in this case, his band was split by an aisle, the musicians in front of two sections of the audience. Incredible that a legendary bandleader was given no better respect than this.
Twice in '64, the lawn mower fritzed, and a simple whisper got around to Buck Nolan, our Side Show giant. At least by the next town, we'd look up and there came Buck, cheerfully pushing a new one, liberated from somewhere downtown. A gratuity silenced the occasion, until next time.
5 comments:
Well over 20 musicians
I can still recall live
circus music
And the smell of a canvas tent with fresh cut grass.
p.j.
Boom-Boom Browning, Bubba Voss, Ramon Escorcia, and Merle Evans himself all told me of the annual battles in Winterquarters over the placement of the bandstand for the coming season. Evans wanted it beside the performer's entrance, so he could more easily see all 3 rings and the acts in the air. He usually was spotted in the blues, but in this case, his band was split by an aisle, the musicians in front of two sections of the audience. Incredible that a legendary bandleader was given no better respect than this.
Your mention of fresh cut grass
PJ reminded me of Red Hartman
using a decrepit gas push mower
to whack ring 2 before putting
up the arena & being a 2 cycle
engine he would add too much
oil in the gas which resulted
in a tremendous cloud of smoke
that filled the big top better
than I ever could have with my
theatrical smoke machines & so
that obliterated the canvas smell
Twice in '64, the lawn mower fritzed, and a simple whisper got around to Buck Nolan, our Side Show giant. At least by the next town, we'd look up and there came Buck, cheerfully pushing a new one, liberated from somewhere downtown. A gratuity silenced the occasion, until next time.
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