Buckles Blog: RAIL #4

Thursday, January 03, 2019

RAIL #4

15 comments:

Chic Silber said...: The original Sarasota WQ

off Beneva Road that had

been the fairgronds but

was land swapped with the

current fair site along

Fruitville Road; 03 January, 2019 10:09
Chic Silber said...: I believe it was late 59

or early 60 when they

were forced out & went

down to the Venice airport

I never saw the original

as my 1st Ringling project

was in 1965; 03 January, 2019 10:12
Roger Smith said...: Art Concello took a world of heat for the move to Venice, but many agreed he fought the City and County of Sarasota until their intransigence was no longer worth his time.; 03 January, 2019 15:19
4pawfan said...: They broke their contract with the city when they stopped putting the Sarasota ad in the program and it gave the city a way to move them out.; 03 January, 2019 20:17
Chic Silber said...: There was major revolt among residents

that moved into new housing very close

to what had been a wide open prairie

& then complained about animal noises

There was also a beef building with the

County tax "Revenooers" that felt the

show was way undervalued; 04 January, 2019 01:30
Chic Silber said...: Although the Venice Airport

was within the county limits

there was some Federal help

What plagued the show most

in Venice which was also

what trigered the final out

was the damn Seminole Gulf

railroad that had purchased

the southern tier of track

from the Seaboard Coastline

which was the survivor of

the previously competing

East Coast railroads

Part of Irvin's dream for

the Haines City park was

to lay plenty of sidings

for most if not all of the

rail cars; 04 January, 2019 01:39
Larry Louree said...: Moving WQ to Haines City might have saved the park.; 04 January, 2019 09:36
Chic Silber said...: Yup Larry but losing control

of the park to Mattel was the

the death knell of his dream

& a great setback to Irvin; 04 January, 2019 10:09
4pawfan said...: Irvin announced plans for CW in Sept 1972 after the show was sold to Mattel in January of 1971. Before that, Judge Hofheinz opened Astroworld in 1968 on 57 acres of the 116 acres that he owned across from the Astrodome. He had spent 25 million on the park. This is were the Ringling wagons from Goodman's are taken to open a circus theme section of the park. I had spoken to Mel Miller after the Judge's stroke in May of 1970. They had main line rail service, 59 acres of vacant land next to the park, shops, and the Dome and Astrohall are empty between the end of football season to the time of the Fat Stock Show and Rodeo in the spring. I have never seen anything in writing of this and only what Mel told us. But the fact they would have room for the show to repair and rehearse on property that was already theirs, plus the Judge was the lease holder of the Dome property. The show could share the expensive of the property with the Park which would have saved the show a great deal of money. But the Judge's stroke in May of 1970 was the end of Hofheinz's dreams and without his leadership, his holdings collapse. His family sells Astroworld to Six Flags in 1975. Astroworld is closed after the 2005 season and never had a losing season. Six Flags had estimated the remaining property (they had sold the frontage on Loop 610 to car dealerships over the years) was worth 150 million and tore down the park. The property doesn't sell for years and then sold for only 77 million which cost most of the board at Six Flags their jobs. The Houston Live Stock Show purchased most of the former property for parking and storage of their tram cars. p.j. holmes; 04 January, 2019 13:00
Chic Silber said...: The Felds were East coast guys

The Texas site was only spoken

of to keep the judge in the game

which eventually fell apart when

the judge fully recognized how

he was bamboozled & made a non

disclosure agreement with Feld

to protect his position with the

Wells Fargo Bank

Mattel took the park control away

for the same reasons as Hofhienz

left the card game; 04 January, 2019 13:20
4pawfan said...: Betty Siegel (Hoxie Tucker's daughter) was the only one who made money on CW. She handled the original land deal.; 04 January, 2019 14:07
4pawfan said...: Later, Hofheinz was part of the group that brought a class-action suit against Mattel for 30 million and won in Nov of 1975. Of course Mattel had lost 32 million in 1972, 32.4 million in 1973 and 5.4 million in 1974.; 04 January, 2019 15:13
Chic Silber said...: That later litigation had

nothing to do with Ringling

It was about Mattel's issues

with finugeling finances

which is what compelled them

to buy the circus when they

did as a hopeful disraction

I believe the Handlers had

done some risky business

& were under investigation

Arthur Spear became CEO &

Chairman & he put them on

the straight & narrow; 04 January, 2019 17:29
Chic Silber said...: I have a lovely letter

from Spear commending me

on the Monte Carlo Tour; 04 January, 2019 17:30
4pawfan said...: It was in regard to the sale of their stock from May 1st 1968 to Dec 31 1974. They overstated the value of their stock and would have involved them when they purchased the show. Yes, all the head people at Mattel got canned that did the stock price manipulation. Ringling shareholders received Mattel stock when Mattel purchased the show. please google "New York Times Nov 5 1974 Mattel settles Lawsuits"; 04 January, 2019 18:23

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