Thursday, December 20, 2018

TOP #6


9 comments:

Chic Silber said...


The reflection in front

of the Calabana on left

suggests a flooded track

Chic Silber said...


Or at least wet macadam

Chic Silber said...


Looks like a Penny Farthing

up on the high wire pedestal

Roger Smith said...

No reds or blues for the quarters.

Roger Smith said...

It's a Penny Farthing, all right, the only one I've seen on high wire. This was the first two-wheeler to be named a "bicycle". Mounting the damn thing was a skill of its own, quite a feat for high wire.

Roger Smith said...

Your calabanas are what Hubert Castle called his hockey-dashers.

Chic Silber said...


Calabana was a trademarked vinyl from

the Astrup Company in Cleveland that

was the prime supplier of canvas duck

for circus tops & was sewn up by Leif

Osmundsen to face the hockey dashers

& bcame the common name for them even

if they were of other materials

I had the great opportunity to become

a trusted friend of Leif's for years

In later years with "Leaf Tent & Sail"

he was cursed with early Alzheimer's

& wrote millions of notes that he kept

on every surface in his shop & office

knowing that it would get worse

Leif was 1 of the kindest & friendly

folks who taught many many of us many

things regarding tops & rigging

He followed in his father's footsteps

aas masters in big canvas

Chic Silber said...


I think it was Tommy Clarke or

Bob Reynolds that brought that

term "Calabana" to the Beatty

Show which was used on Ringling

for that striped skirting

I've heard it used on many of

the older tent shows but I'm

of that age & proud of it

Dashers or Dasher Boards are

specific to hockey rinks

Chic Silber said...


In the old Gardens (NY & Boston)

as well as other buildings with

hockey rinks the skirting faced

the dashers but on tent shows

short pipes on stakes supported

the skirting lengths