Sunday, August 26, 2018

GLOBES #3


12 comments:

Chic Silber said...


I hope someone recognizes

these girls as I don't know

Chic Silber said...


Interesting balance & revolving

ladder single upright rigging

Mr.Lee said...

The Wilson sisters. Trudy, JoAnn ,And Linda

Chic Silber said...


A pair of wide angle speaker horns

shown in the lower right corner

Chic Silber said...


Thanks Lee

Roger Smith said...

Among themselves, the Wilson girls did every feature circus act you could name, and 90% of the "2nd and 3rd" acts.

Chic Silber said...


I know JoAnn & Trudy & I knew

Penny but I never met Linda

Justin banse said...

i always love the globe acts, quick question for anyone on here, what were the materials globes were made out of and how were they made to have elephants or any big cat balance on?

Chic Silber said...


Early rolling globes were

of laminated blocks of wood

Later some were a fiberglass

shell or ultra high density

polyethylene filled with sand

Elephant globes wer segmented

aluminum welded together and

also filled with sand

Chic Silber said...


Motorized mirrored globes

were supported by their

internal shafts & needed

no filler for weight

They only had to support

the heavy glass mirror

& not the animal above

Chic Silber said...


I still have the mold for

40" fiberglass globes in

my warehouse (of course)

Roger Smith said...

One day at Jungleland, Mabel Stark led me to her shipping crates behind her cageline. She had used these for her props in her crossings to Japan and South America. When she had me open one, she told me the 36" solid oaken globe inside was mine. I kick myself to this day that I didn't get it off the lot right then. This globe later became wrapped and stapled with rope and painted red. It went into 2 different cat acts at Jungleland, and when we were auctioned off, it was tagged for this federal sale, and I couldn't touch it. Then, in the winter of '71, there it was on the Castle show, when I took the act over from Red Hartman. The story was that Don McLennon had bought it at the auction and sold it to Castle for $12.50. I rolled Goldie tiger on that ball for 2 seasons. Larry Allen Dean told me years later that the globe went to Tarzan when he bought the Castle show, and then was sold with an act to a Mexican circus. Wherever it is now, I doubt I'll see it again, but that damn globe is still mine.