Saturday, November 03, 2018

MIX #5


Posted by Chic Silber at 11/03/2018 12:10:00 AM

3 comments:

Roger Smith said...

The background seen doesn't look much like Rochester, Indiana, but this is a Corporation show arena. It's the correct 12' in height, 6' wide, with the reinforcement engineering of 2 stands of 3 close bars in each section. This was the era in which circus men were serious about their wild animal acts and the arenas and props took no shortcuts.

For Ringling's 1934 Hagenbeck-Wallace, this style of arena was designed and built at the Nipple Factory of Chicago, for the Big Act worked by Clyde Beatty. When he departed that title, Sam Gumpertz refused to sell the act or the equipment to Akins and Terrell's new Cole show. So an emergency order arrived at the Nipple Factory, and they duplicated this cage with around-the-clock shifts of craftsmen. Beatty himself, given the best menagerie men, also worked overtime, and opened with an all-new Big Act, not just for the Cole show opening, but for their pre-season winter dates serving as a shake-down cruise for the new Miracle Show of 1935.

05 November, 2018 17:38
Jim Clubb said...

THE LAST REMAINS OF THE ALFRED COURT ACTS 1947 AT SARASOTA.JIM CLUBB

06 November, 2018 12:48
Roger Smith said...

OK, this explains why this cage is there--a long-time relic that was soldiered out for use at times. It always belonged to RBB, and here they are using it. I'm left to wonder where it could be today.

CFA Harry From Texas told me the last Beatty cage lays on a slab on a Feld property, exposed to the elements of Florida's climate.

06 November, 2018 20:01

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