| The above photo is Anna May and myself; few know that I was Ben's understudy on his days off. This particular day a severe cold spell gripped Circus World and I had to wear a heavy snowmobile suit over my loin cloth....pity, but this is the only photo I have. Mike |
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Clown College recruit.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Max Gruber (Fron Mike Naughton)
| Maximilian William Gruber |
Adele Gruber
| Adele "Della" Bono Gruber |
Oddities of the Jungle
| Veterans of the entertainment circuit, Max Gruber and Adele Bono married in 1896 in Norway, and together they traveled with a variety of carnivals and circuses in England. In the winter of 1901-02, Gruber served as Equestrian director for the Humphrey E. Brammall circus. |
Buffalo Bill Cody letter
| Originally, the act featured Minnie the elephant, (acquired in 1899) a horse, and a pony. The animals were well-known as performers on the vaudeville stages of America, and over the years had toured with a variety of shows including Buffalo Bill Cody's show in 1913. |
Joe and Myra
| Residents of Muskegon knew of the animals because of their frequent visits to Lake Michigan Park, and Minnie's strolls in the lake. A member of the Rotary Club and the Muskegon Exchange club Max and Minnie would make appearances around town. She served as official mascot for a number of Actors' Colony baseball games. |
Little Eva
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Bud E. Anderson Circus
| In 1936 and 1937, Gruber and the act toured the nation with the Tom Mix Circus. In 1938, the Grubers retired from performing, selling the circus, including "Little Eva" the elephant, and Topsy the zebra to "Bud" E. Anderson of Emporia, Kansas, "once a famous cowboy film star." Anderson's company later toured the country as Jungle Oddities and 3 Ring Circus. |
From Buckles
| This is my favorite Gruber picture. |
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Dorothy Herbert RBBB 1934 (From Chris Berry)
| This poster looks quite provocative from a distance. Were the artists at Erie Litho pushing the limits of 1930s censorship with this design? |
From Rodney Huey
| Buckles: |
Dorothy Herbert 1930 RBBB poster (From Eric Beheim)
| In the summer of 1940, Herbert J. Yates, the head of Republic Pictures saw Dorothy Herbert perform while the circus was in Los Angeles. Wearing a silver dress and riding on a big black horse, she first made one complete turn around the hippodrome track at a full run, her blond hair streaming out behind her. As she passed by a big five-foot spread jump, it burst into flames. She then laid back on the horse as it made another turn around the track, headed for the flaming jump, and sailed over the top of it. Suitably impressed, Yates instructed his staff to arrange for Dorothy to appear in the studio’s next serial, which was due to start production shortly. |
Dr. Satan Main Title Card
| Titled THE MYSTERIOUS DOCTOR SATAN, it had originally been planned as a Superman serial, but the studio was unable to come to terms with Superman’s owners. Since the script was already written, it was decided to use it and substitute a conventional masked hero in place of Superman. (Republic would later make ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL, which featured a Superman-type character and which was quite successful.) |
Dorothy Herbert Chapter 1 Optical
| Filming for THE MYSTERIOUS DOCTOR SATAN took place between 9/20/40 and 10/29/40. Since Dorothy would only be in town for a short time, her scenes were all filmed early in the production. Years later, the serial’s director William Witney recalled that she was a very nice person and an adequate actress. |
Doctor Satan
| This remote control device is coveted by Dr. Satan, a criminal master-mind (expertly played by character actor Eduardo Ciannelli) who wants to use it to control an army of robots, which he plans to use to take over the world. (In the original Superman script, this army of robots was to actually march on Metropolis. In the revised version, however, only one prototype robot appears.) |
The Copperhead
| Opposing Dr. Satan is the Copperhead who, in reality, is a young man named Bob Wayne. Wayne’s father had originally worn the Copperhead mask while engaged in vigilante activities back in the Old West. (His “calling card” had been a little copper figure of a coiled snake.) In order to set the record straight about the true nature of his father’s work, Bob continues to aid the forces of law and order as the Copperhead. (Unlike Superman, Bob doesn’t need to find a convenient phone booth whenever he wants to change into the Copperhead. He merely pulls out a copper mesh mask from an inside coat pocket and puts it on.) |
Chapter 1 escape #1
| Since there were no horses in the script, the writers had to come up with two riding sequences in order to showcase Dorothy’s talents. The first occurs in Chapter 1 “Return of the Copperhead.” Dr. Satan’s minions raid Scott’s Lohman Park estate to steal the remote control device. Dorothy is captured and left tied up in the estate’s riding stable. Even with her hands tied behind her back, she is able to escape by mounting a horse and, holding the reins in her teeth, jumping it through a pane-glass window and thenn over a fence. |
Chapter 3 #1
| Dorothy next appears in Chapter 3 “Undersea Tomb.” Bob Wayne and Scott’s daughter Lois are submerged inside of an underwater diving bell, trying to locate an important component of the remote control device that is on board a sunken yacht. Dorothy is topside onboard the support ship talking to them via a telephone when Dr. Satan’s men show up and hold the crew at gunpoint. |
Chapter 3 #2
| Using a convenient rope, Dorothy swings and knocks the gunmen off balance, initiating an elaborately choreographed fight sequence. Meanwhile, Bob and Lois are still trapped inside the diving bell, which has sprung a leak and is rapidly filling with water. |
Chapter 8 #1(at Panamint Pete's)
| Dorothy’s second big riding sequence comes in Chapter 8 “Highway of Death.” She and Lois ride horses out into the back-country to get information from an old prospector named Panamint Pete. |
Chapter 8 #2 (captured)
| Captured by one of Dr. Satan’s heavies, the girls turn the tables on him and make their escape on horseback. |
Chapter 8 #4 (performing the Russian drag)
| During the subsequent chase, Dorothy performs a Cossack drag, a maneuver where she swings off one side of the horse, turns backwards, and locks a knee under the saddle fender so that she is hanging on the side of the horse, facing the horse’s rear and with both hands free so that she can fire a rifle at her pursuer. (Just prior to the filming of this sequence, the studio received a call from the Burbank Police Department. They had picked Dorothy up on the bridle trail in Griffith Park, where she had been practicing for this stunt by riding backwards on the side of a horse and firing a rifle while at a full run. When asked what was wrong with practicing on a public park bridle trail, the policeman responded, “She was using live ammunition.”) |
Monday, September 01, 2008
From Richard Reynolds
news from Zoo Atlanta. Giant panda Lun Lun has delivered a cub! Lun Lun gave birth on Saturday, August 30 at 10:10pm in a specially-constructed birthing den in the Zoo's giant panda holding building. Both mother and cub appear to be doing well. That gives Atlanta four (4) giant pandas. Yang Yang and Lun Lun from China in 1999, cub Mei Lan born in 2006 and now this one. Altogether there are now thirteen (13) in USA - - - - four each in Atlanta and San Diego, 3 in Washington (National zoo), and 2 in Memphis. In, let's say, 1958, had anyone told me there would be giant pandas in the Atlanta zoo during my lifetime I'd have suggested that they be committed for psychiatric study. For beginners, back then the USA had no relations whatever with the Communist China of Mao Zedung (spelled Tse-tung back then). That year (1958) the Austrian animal collector/dealer Heini Demmer had managed to trade 2 giraffes, 2 rhinos, 2 hippos, and 2 zebras to the Chinese ( for the Beijing Zoo - -spelled Peking back then). He shipped them from his station in Kenya. In return he got a lone female giant panda named Chi Chi. Chi Chi was supposed to be sold by Demmer to the Brookfield zoo for a huge sum. But the US Treasury Department banned the transaction because it ran afoul of the embargo on all trade with Communist China and the Dept. would not allow an exception even for a beloved giant panda. So after being shown by Demmer on a temporary basis during the summer of 1958 in the zoos in Berlin and Frankfurt/Main, Germany and Copenhagen, Denmark, Chi Chi was placed in the London Zoo in September 1958 and eventually purchased by the zoo. She lived there until her death in 1972. Chi Chi was the first giant panda shown outside the so-called Iron and Bamboo Curtains since male Mei Lan died in Brookfield zoo in 1953 (Note that the first Atlanta cub was given the same name, quite by accident as it happened). Richard Reynolds |
Reuben Castang (From Joey Ratliff)
| Rueben Castang elephant act, New York Hippodrome 1907. Joey
Buckles |
From Mike Naughton #2
| Herr Seeth |
From Robert Perry #2
| L to R Frank Holden My Dad Alby Perry in white t shirt my Brother Alby Perry & sitting on chair Perc Bullen. both Perc Bullen & my Dad passed away in the month of august. |
Bubble Machine #1 (From Chic Silber)
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