Saturday, July 27, 2019

TRUCKS #3


7 comments:

Chic Silber said...


From another wonderful & colorful

storyteller the late Bobby Snowden

In his later years he would come

by my office to cut up jackpots

Chic Silber said...


Bobby was 1 of several folks

that I enjoyed the visits of

while I had my morning coffee

Jack "The Ripper" Molinari

was always railing about some

local issue that disturbed him

He along with a few other show

retirees lived in McCown Towers

just a block from my office

Roger Smith said...

Snowden took out this show in 1960, opening on June 25, and closing on October 8. It moved on 7 trucks, showing under a 70 round with two 30s. Matt Laurish had the 3 bulls. It is all but forgotten that among the one-finger stand artists was Johnny Jessick over there. Both Roger Boyds, Senior and Junior, had the Side Show. The Duke himself was born Benjamin Francis "Whitey" Ford, who was widely popular as a country comedian. He passed in 1986, in Brentwood TN, at age 85. (Source: "Circus and Sideshows")

On the 1981 Beatty show, we had a Jack the Ripper among our butchers. One night we pulled into Fall River, Mass., and Fred Logan's boys put the bulls out on the picket line. One stood guard and the rest laid down for sleep. Jack was on a roaring drunk nearby, and launched into loud, protracted, hysterical laughter that had all the elephants waking up and standing alert to the madness at hand. Would this be the same Jack the Ripper?

Chic Silber said...


Yup same fellow Roger

He had been a rigger on

Ringling before he had

a panic attack up high

then he became a butcher

Many stories about him

Just ask Kenny (he knows)

Roger Jr must have been

pretty young back then

Chic Silber said...


I see Bobby's widdow Lucy

from time to time at the

ShowFolks Club Lucy is 1

of the DeRizkie sisters

Jim Royal said...

My first full season on the road was in 1967 with Bob Snowden on his International Cavalcade of Stars. We did half the season in buildings and half in the former Robert G. Earl Circus tent. It was a delight to work with Bob and Lucy.

Chic Silber said...


Read more about Bobby in Charles Hanson's

several comments under Trucks #4 below