Wednesday, August 29, 2018

CURB #15


Posted by Chic Silber at 8/29/2018 12:06:00 AM

3 comments:

Chic Silber said...


The Beatty Show with

Dave Hoover's props

29 August, 2018 11:50
Roger Smith said...

OK, I can't help it, I never liked a cat act coming in from the damn back door, with the cages hooked up through Ring 3, and the act set facing the far round end. I know the logistics behind why this was done, and I know they got this from RB doing it, but you don't copy what RB does--well, did. You have the props putting the animals on the back wall of the cage turning their back to half the seats.

All Beatty show veterans remember how Mr. Beatty's tunnel ran from the back yard, through the Performer's Entrance, across the track and connected to the back of the arena, where I manned his tunnel door. Beatty worked to the Long Side, and even the Short Side seats, looking through the back of the arena, had a far better view of the act.

29 August, 2018 18:24
Wade G. Burck said...

Roger, no way, you can have a tunnel. Used one for year's with Hawthorn and nothing but trouble and needing additional help to run the animals the length and into the rolling cages as well as much longer to get them out and into the cages. It was used ""back in the day" because the "beast wagon's" could not be brought into the tent and became impossible in buildings with small doors. Ringling trainer's(Charly, GGW) had to develope a unique style of turning the act "sideways" so that the act faced front while coming in the side. The animals sat around the cage instead of in the back which was standard. Instead of calling them off their seats into example a lay down in the middle, they were pushed off their seats and swung around into the middle. We had to use a chute on Ringling with the Hawthorn White tigers because like most designed act's of the time there was a pyramid in the middle that the animals got on from the back where their seats were located. In order for them to come in the side(so as not to block the back track with cages) the whole act would have had to be turned so that it was facing the end of the building instead of the front. Jewel News act was one of the only Ringling trained act's that faced the end instead of the front as they were "called" instead of swung around. Recent act's from Europe worked at the end of the building facing the side as they were trained to come in the back and not the side and there was no need for a chute if you were not blocking a back track.

Wade Burck

29 August, 2018 20:36

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