Thursday, April 23, 2020

RINGMASTER #6


5 comments:

Chic Silber said...


The welcoming voice of gazillions

of "Children Of All Ages"

Harold "Hal" Ronk

Roger Smith said...

He inspired all of his era, and all who came after him.

paulniebauer said...

Roger, I couldn't agree with you more! Can't wait to visit with him in the next world!

Roger Smith said...

PAUL: We know Harold studied with Sigmund Romberg, the genius creator of indelible operettas. Harold got shorted badly in the filming of GSOE. He was the RB vocalist at the time, but got moved over by Hollywood publicist Norman Carroll, whose voice we hear singing "Picnic in the Park", etc. Carroll's belted falsetto could not approach Harold's talent, but he had extensive dark influence around the studios. When better casting originally had gone to others, Carroll could have them paid off, stood aside, and told not to make waves, as he advanced himself and his closer associates.

Jim Royal said...

As a teenaged circus hopeful I would track him down and chat with him when the show played Chicago. He was always pleasant and tolerated this pest. Years later when I was a ringmaster with Hoxie Bros and was visiting friends on RBBB, he made a trip up to the balcony where we were seated to say hello. He had been told another ringmaster was visiting. What a wonderful ringmaster he was, the best.