Tuesday, September 29, 2020

COFFEE #3


 

Posted by Chic Silber at 9/29/2020 02:28:00 PM

3 comments:

Rick Whelan said...

That's a pretty shifty headpiece Gene is wearing. Love him anyway!

29 September, 2020 20:42
Roger Smith said...

Never saw Gene Lewis wear that one before. Emmett Kelly @ C. Had to notice Charlie Bell is without his little Trixie.

30 September, 2020 05:34
Rick Whelan said...

Roger - When I was around nine years old, I wanted nothing more than to be a circus clown. I saw a picture of Gene in the newspaper and wrote him a "fan letter." He replied with a lovely letter and we soon became "pen pals." That lasted for a number of years. I grew up in Plainville CT, a town Ringling played in the 1950s to tap the central CT market while avoiding Hartford because of the terrible 1944 fire. Whenever Ringling played Plainville, we'd have Gene over for dinner between shows. In later years my parents and I would drive to NY where we visited Gene at the old Garden. I seem to remember in one such visit Gene let me try on that very same headpiece he is wearing in this picture.The last time I saw Gene was sometime in the mid-1960s, again at the Garden when I was a student at Columbia. He was a wonderfully kind gentleman. In later years I realized he fought his own personal battles ... but I'll always remember the kindness he showed me.

30 September, 2020 22:29

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