Sunday, June 09, 2019

MORE STILTS


7 comments:

Chic Silber said...


I believe that Carmen

is Jimmy Hall's sister

Roger Smith said...

Right. We have Jimmy, Irving, Carmen, and Nini Hall, whose parents were Mel and Aurelia Hall. Everything that family did, and they were--and are--just about unlimited, was strictly 1s Rate. Be it Jimmy's ongoing bear act, or their high unicycle juggling, no one outdid them.


Aurelia Hall was known as The Godmother of the Circus, a legendary Matriarch, on the order of Mama Cristiani and Mother Hanneford. What she achieved can be summed up in one word--respect. The Halls were great friends of mine for 2 seasons on Castle.

I caught this act of Carmen's--My-Immba's Baboons--on RB. One can see from this photo, Carmen truly took command of Center Ring.


(I may have misspelled My-Immba's. Bear with me. It took me 2 tries just now to get this posted rather than vanished.)

Roger Smith said...

WAY OFF SUBJECT: ROLAND RAFFLER, whose domestic animal acts have been posted here, has died in Thousand Oaks, California. Details are incomplete, but his age was given as 90. Roland was a friend from my first days at Jungleland, and remained so, calling me to visit just weeks ago. He had an act of trained pigs on the Beatty show, in 1960 and 1961. At our Compound, he trained ponies, goats, and exotic birds. He had a long list of film credits. At Jungleland's close, Roland retired on a large parcel of land in the canyons South of Thousand Oaks. His neighbors were Jungleland veterans Hubert Wells, Doree Sitterly, and Cheryl Shawver. Roland immigrated to America as a youth from Germany, and never married.

Jim Alexander said...

Baboon acts where more common before WWII. After that, thanks to portable heating, advanced drugs, etc. chimpanzee acts became more popular. Carmen's act had seven adult intact males, 2 Hamadryas, 2 Geladas, 2 Drills, and a Mandrill. They'd bound into the center ring and do serious tricks. Glad I had an opportunity to see it, never see anything like it again.

Mr.Lee said...

Carmen Hall's act arguably one of the Greatest animal acts that ever was, in my opinion one of the top five this country ever produced ! Unique in every way ...

Paul Gutheil said...

Love and respect the whole Hall family.

BOBBY'S LITL BRO. said...

THE HALL FAMILY !! AKA YOU CAN'T DO THAT !!!