Wednesday, January 02, 2019

CLYDE #8


Posted by Chic Silber at 1/02/2019 12:07:00 AM

5 comments:

Chic Silber said...


"Your Attention Now To The Steel Bound Arena" .......

I can easily recite the entire introduction

I had opportunity to be the out of sight

announcer in Commack for a couple of days

from the lighting booth while calling cues

as well as operating a Trouper spotlight

Nowadays they call that "multitasking"

02 January, 2019 00:50
Chic Silber said...


I also will always remember the

coloring book pitch as well as

the SideShow pitch but don't try

asking me about last weekend

02 January, 2019 00:53
Roger Smith said...

This shot came from a series taken at his Deming, New Mexico, Winterquarters, on the airport site. Another set was taken in his RING OF FEAR wardrobe, as some of the film was shot there.

Dave Price advised me the hangars Beatty used for quarters burned--mysteriously, I recall--and the ones still there, which I've visited, were not his. Nevertheless, you can still find how conveniently the old rails still lay, with the trackage serving right up to nearby ramps. I was saddened that local librarians, by 2001, didn't know a circus had ever wintered in Deming.

02 January, 2019 23:24
4pawfan said...

The fire was in 1955 according to the Perry Luth and Don Carson article in the Nov-Dec 1969 Bandwagon. Lost in the fire were many of the antique circus wagons that had belonged to Frank J. Walter of Houston and given to Beatty after Walter's death. p.j.holmes

03 January, 2019 11:56
Roger Smith said...

It was Frank Walter who bankrolled the Beatty Jungle Zoo, in Ft. Lauderdale. He was an ardent admirer of Beatty, and proved immensely valuable at times in the future. The Walter family was oil, cattle, and land rich, and lived in ultra luxury in Houston. Frank's mother had a suite of rooms set aside in their mansion just for Beatty, and kept a new car there only he could drive. When he wasn't there, those rooms were closed off to other visitors and the car was put up on jacks and forbidden to anyone else. Beatty visited there in random winters, and it was stated quietly that when he departed, Mother Walter handed him an envelope amply filled with the new season's get-away money.

Frank himself produced small kiddie circuses and tried some domestic animal training. He had a good heart and was Beatty's devoted friend, but alas, died of chronic alcoholism.

03 January, 2019 16:12

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