Saturday, November 24, 2018

HEAD PIECES #9


11 comments:

Tom Wilds said...

Wally Ross

Chic Silber said...


A youthful Tommy on the left

Chic Silber said...


These were Tony Diano's elephants

After Tommy was sold to the Felds

he was billed as "King Tusk"

Tommy died in 2002 at age 58

Chic Silber said...


The empress is Ninette Theron

Chic Silber said...


She later married Lester "The Great" Parker

Charles Hanson said...

Chic....Didn't Lester "The Great" Parker meet an untimely death on a break away sway pole accident?

Chic Silber said...


Yup Charles he was in his early 40s

Breakaway pole really broke in the

mid 70s on a Fair date somewhere in

South Carolina & he died instantly

leaving his wife Ninette & 2 girls

Chic Silber said...


Jacqueline Zerbini's brother

Pierre Souren had an accident

with his breakaway pole but

was left with only paralysis

of his legs after recovery

Pierre went back to Paris to

become a Bateaux Mouche boat

captain on the Seine where

I saw him a few times

Roger Smith said...

Pierre's accident happened at Jungleland. One of our operators, Tex Scarbrough, had the bright idea to add a skyride, and workers formed up massive concrete base pads for the towers supporting the cables from which gondolas would hang. Tex's was not the biggest such ride, but at a then-enormous $90,000, it was the biggest boondoggle the Compound ever had. Since Goebel opened the place to the public, in 1929, there had never been a need for mechanical rides. But Tex was a carny, thus the skyride. Before other rides could be placed, to compete with the major parks in Southern California, this thing died the death of a dog. It was torn down. Pierre was booked in with his break-away sway pole, and set up on one of the pads. His pole was released on the wrong sway, and he came down forwards. He could not pick up his legs to avoid crashing them into the concrete, and he was so badly broken up, everyone knew he would die. His survival was a miracle.

Chic Silber said...


There's a little more to the story

about the pole's hasty set up with

a shorter lower section due to his

late arrival at the park which he

told me in detail in San Juan with

Jimmy Harrington's date where he

accompanied his sister Jacqueline

Pierre's 1st wife Maya was later

married to Robert Zerbini

Roger Smith said...

Everyone at Jungleland took note that when his then-wife's expectancy was due, Pierre sent her down to Tijuana so their child would not be born an American. The sway-pole accident came after this, and to be frank, among those at the Compound, his injuries were met with general indifference.