Buckles Blog: CLOWNS #4

Thursday, April 16, 2020

CLOWNS #4

7 comments:

Chic Silber said...: What a great enhancement; 16 April, 2020 21:24
4pawfan said...: Laurel and Hardy on each side of the young lady.; 17 April, 2020 12:20
Roger Smith said...: 4PAWFAN may know more about this. This shot may come from the 1932 Laurel & Hardy film, THE CHIMP. If so, the pretty girl may be Estelle Ettere. The other clowns look far too circus to be Hollywood actors, but IMDb details are very sketchy for this one.

Many actors in these early films got short shrift when producers like Hal Roach worked them uncredited.; 18 April, 2020 00:28
Chic Silber said...: Yup a film still allright

Off to the right next to a

quarter pole looks like a

Bardwell McAllister large

movie fresnel on a stand

Not circus lighting stuff; 18 April, 2020 10:08
4pawfan said...: Roger, this film was made in January of 1932 and I bet used some of the clowns that worked on the Barnes show. From the stories I have seen, most of the Barnes crew lived in the LA area during the off season. p.j.; 18 April, 2020 11:50
Roger Smith said...: Barnes wintered at his Circus City in Venice CA, just down Washington Blvd. from MGM. There is great history about this location in the circus press. Later, Barnes Winterquarters was in Baldwin Park. There, in 1936, a 22-year-old Parley Baer came down from KSL Radio, in Salt Lake. He wrote extensive publicity on Mabel Stark, and became one of a handful of people truly close to Mabel until her death in 1968.

In 1933, Mabel worked her tigers in Paramount's KING OF THE JUNGLE, starring Larry "Buster" Crabbe, using the Barnes show equipment. That same year, Mabel doubled Mae West as Tyra the lion trainer, in I'M NO ANGEL, also at Paramount. So being the major circus nearby, the Barnes title padded the winter bankroll for the studio's circus and wild animal scenes.; 19 April, 2020 04:21
Roger Smith said...: One more on Hollywood clowns. Eddie Dullum told me Director Joseph Pevney was horrified at the clown makeups designed by Wally Westmore, for Paramount's THREE-RING CIRCUS, rejecting them as "God-awful Halloween clowns". He delayed shooting sequences with clowns until the real Beatty show clowns arrived on the Phoenix Fairgrounds location from their winter dates. Pevney also threatened to send co-star Joanne Dru home for her loathing to "Work with these...these circus people." But the usually tactless Jerry Lewis, in his writings, gave generous credit to "the Clyde Beatty Circus clowns", who graciously coached his performance.

PS: The split-up of the Martin & Lewis team began on this picture.; 19 April, 2020 20:34

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