Buckles Blog: CLYDE #11

Wednesday, January 02, 2019

CLYDE #11

14 comments:

Chic Silber said...: That's a tube type audio

amplifier shown behind him; 02 January, 2019 09:54
Chic Silber said...: Must have been pretty chilly

for him to be wearing gloves; 02 January, 2019 10:07
Roger Smith said...: Gloves were part of his wardrobe throughout his career. He felt they gave him "scant protection", provided a better grip on the whip and chair, and lent the finishing touch as a style point.; 02 January, 2019 23:34
Charles Hanson said...: ROGER: If one has been gifted with a Pith Helmut...Is there anyway to identify if it was a Beatty Helmut? Thanks.....; 03 January, 2019 00:25
Chic Silber said...: Didn't he wear white gloves Roger

If everybody that's told me that

they have a Beatty helmet then

there must (& could) have been

hundreds of them but I don't

Not all of the helmets he wore

were of the same exact style; 03 January, 2019 02:01
Chic Silber said...: Notice his white gloves

in the #7 image above; 03 January, 2019 02:10
Roger Smith said...: CHARLES: Jane Beatty told me the last of the two white helmets he wore in 1964 and 1965 had been given away. She didn't say where they went. At the late Hertzberg Collection, since she grew up in San Antonio, she gave them a white uniform and the khaki-covered helmet with the leopard-print band he wore in the 1953 film, PERILS OF THE JUNGLE. The Collection people didn't know that on the manikin they used for the uniform, they placed his hat on backwards, and when I made mention of it, being townie librarians, they were pointedly indifferent. The Hertzberg, as most of us know, is now crated up in the basement of San Antonio's Witte Museum, with the edict that it will not be available to anyone again.

CHIC: He did wear white gloves over the years, which he usually found in truck stop stores, but when I was there, his gloves were tan. In the Airstream, after each performance, he fastened them to the screen of a small electric fan with clothespins to dry them.

In '64, whitening his helmets was among my chores. This was accomplished with white shoe polish, and was a routine job. As for different styles, he had 2 that year. One was covered in plain cloth, and was one-inch thick pith cork, with regimental strapping across the top and across the front bill. The other was covered with quilted cloth, also with the two straps. This style is known among the British as The Pigsticker. The label inside this one read, "Asian Hat - Bombay".

Beatty fans will remember him running forward upon his announcement, saluting the audience with the helmet, then tossing it aside onto the nearby elephant tub, before crashing through the Safety Cage. I first saw him do this when I was 4 years old, and never forgot it.; 03 January, 2019 05:13
Chic Silber said...: That rapid run in started

exactly the moment he heard

"Beatty" at the end of his

intro announcement

I only saw that for the 1st

time in 61 when I worked

a spotlight in Commack but

I will also never forget it; 03 January, 2019 09:54
Chic Silber said...: Actually depending on who

was the ringmaster at the

time it sounded more like

BAYYYTEE; 03 January, 2019 09:56
Charles Hanson said...: ROGER: Thanks for the info....Your comments only confirm my opinion of Museums.....The helmet I have was gifted to me by Joe Frisco, Sr., who had his own cat act at one time....A nice conservation piece anyway....Thanks again.....; 03 January, 2019 15:38
Roger Smith said...: As he noted of his name, the "e" is silent, the "a" is long, and as he did, all the surviving family in Ohio pronounce their name as BAY-tee.

I have 3 helmets I wore for my entrance (never in the cage), all finished out, and 6 new ones not yet treated.

Joe Horwath, Chet Juszyk, Trevor Bale, and Jules Jacot all wore helmets, or some headgear, during their act. I never saw how anyone could work an act and stay under a hat, but to each his own.; 03 January, 2019 16:22
Charles Hanson said...: I meant to say "Nice conversation piece"; 04 January, 2019 00:18
Tony Greiner said...: The Witte Museum in San Antonio closed a circus exhibit just before Christmas. According to this website

http://sanantonio.culturemap.com/news/arts/10-24-18-step-right-up-to-witte-museum-magical-new-circus-in-the-city/

At least some of the exhibit was from the Herzberg Collection, including some gear of Mr. Beatty, Alfredo Cordona's trapeze, and some posters.; 04 January, 2019 01:03
Roger Smith said...: Before I departed San Antonio in 1998, I got in one last visit to the Hertzberg, a favored haunt of mine since 1957. The City had a new library by then, and the Hertzberg claimed the entire old San Antonio Public Library building, at 210 W. Market Street, all to itself. The staff there consisted of degreed librarians, not circus historians. They had hung Codona's fly bar in the lobby, but didn't know what it was, and called it "some kind of swing".

A newspaper columnist, David Anthony Richlieu, wrote of expansive new plans for the Hertzberg and of exciting renovations for the old building. Little did he know what Leonard Farley told me about the City's attitude. When the Senator died, in 1940, his collection was willed to the City. Leonard, curator there from 1956 to 1968, said the locals had to smile and say "thank you", since he was their senator. But in private, they winced and said, "OK, now what do we do with this shit?" They kept it and maintained it, but never wanted it, and at last found the day to close it.; 04 January, 2019 06:28

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