Circus Historical Society
Bandwagon, July 1956
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Bandwagon, Vol. 4, July, 1956. Note: Only some articles are included in this online edition. Illustrations are not included. The Circus Historical Society does not guarantee the accuracy of information contained in the information in these online articles. Information should always be checked with additional sources.
GARLAND, Texas, April 26 - Excellent weather, slim matinees and full night houses have been the story for Al G. Kelly & Miller Bros. Circus since the season debut Sunday, April 22 on a lot at quarters near Hugo, Okla.
Performance is stronger though show is traveling lighter than past season. Bareback act (6 persons) worked up in quarters by Alphonso Loyal shows excellent possibilities and 4-bear act broken in quarters by Bob Mock and worked in center ring without a cage is adequate with an excellent routine and bears are already getting used to the band and crowds.
Show owns the bears and also two young chimps, broken and presented by Mock to excellent applause here. Baranek's Toy Shop Dogs (10 animals) is best-dressed and flashiest dog act ever carried by Kelly-Miller.
Early opening as soon as show hits the lot gets money in with snake show and gorilla show, both owned by Frank Ellis, and giraffe show, little horse and live pony ride owned by circus, plus circus diner and five other center stands.
Lightening the load even with a stronger performance has come about by carrying only one liberty act instead of three and cutting the elephant herd to 14, including a 5-bull act of small elephants and a small African that is exhibited only (does not work) plus eight big bulls. Menagerie tent has not been set up so far due to small lots and may be returned to quarters. Six-pole sideshow tent contains all caged and lead stock except performing bears and is billed "Wild Animal Menagerie and Museum" with 7 double banners. No side show acts are used.
Program here and for few more days is minus 5-bull act booked with St. Louis Police Circus. Three manage riders were lacking here, which will give 10 manage riders.
Performance included:
1. Opening spec.
2. Slide for life: Tommy Bentley, center ring and hippodrome track.
3. Aerial display (7): Ora and Lucille Eagleman, iron jaws; Muggsy and Bonnie Gallagher, Jerry Presley and Bobby Jane Miller, swinging ladders; featuring Alphonso Loyal in swinging and revolving head balances.
4. Elephant singles (4), hippodrome track, plank walks, rolling globe, hand stands (only 2 worked here).
5. Bounding rope: Mary Jane Miller.
6. Rings 1 and 3 pony drills worked by Flo McIntosh and Vernon Shearer; ring 2 Kelly-Miller Bears (4) trained and presented by Bob and Waltraud Mock.
7. Clowns (4): Lou Walton, producing; Mike Lyons, Robert A. Kelly and Pete Lindeman, Jr.
8. Elephant singles, all rings: Ring 1 Jerry Presley; ring 2 Lilia Loyal (replacing Shirley Logan until her act rejoins show), ring 3, Bonnie Gallagher.
9. Clowns.
10. Concert line-up.
11. Florenz Trio tight wire (Flo and Grace McIntosh, Tommy Bentley).
12. Clowns.
13. Alphonso Loyal Troup bareback riding act (6): Alphonso and Lilia Loyal, Bonnie and Muggsy Gallagher, Pete Lindeman, Jr., and Shirley Logan (Shirley did not work here).
14. Ring 1, Baranek's Toy Shop Dogs (10) worked by Waltraud Mock; ring 3 Kelly-Miller Chimps (2) trained and presented by Bob Mock.
15. Aerial display (7): Webs (6) worked by Jerry Presley, Bobby Jane Miller, Muggsy and Bonnie Gallagher, Ora and Lucille Eagleman; featuring continuously revolving trapeze over center ring with Grace McIntosh, ending with a muscle grind.
16. Liberty Horses (6), worked center ring by Tommy Bentley.
17. Clowns.
18. Tight wires: ring 1, Jerry Presley; ring 3, Maurice Marmeljo.
19. Single trap, over center ring, Shirley Logan (now away from show).
20. Second concert line-up.
21. Manage (10 horses-riders) on hippodrome track: Tommy Bentley, Vernon Shearer, Bennie and Jimmie Rossi, Flo and Grace McIntosh, Muggsy and Bonnie Gallagher, Jerry Presley and Shirley Logan (Shirley out here).
22. Clowns.
23. Juggling, center ring: Alphonso Loyal, closing with catching and balancing balls thrown from stands.
24. Elephants: ring 1, John Carroll and Bonnie Gallagher working 3 bulls; ring 3, Red Compton and Flo McIntosh 3 bulls; ring 2, Freddie and Shirley Logan (absent here) working 5 elephants; close with long mount on hippodrome track.
Vernon "Oklahoma Shorty" Shearer and wife Beulah, Chief and wife Tillie Keys, head up concert which has been drawing 400 to 700 nightly. Tractor-elephant pull is given at each concert.
Band Director Charles Cuthbert and his 12-man band do excellent job before and during show and play concert, too.
A partial list of personnel includes: Obert Miller, general manager; Kelly and D. R. Miller, co-owners; Art Miller, general agent; Syd Stevenson, auditor; Pete Lindemann, 24-hour and purchasing agent; Frank Ellis, legal adjuster; Tommy Bentley, equestrian director; Charles Cuthbert, band director and big show announcer plus local banners; R. O. Scatterday, national advertising representative; Pete Smith, general superintendent; Freddie Logan, supt. of elephants and Red Compton and John Carroll, assistants; Wm. (Red) Farraher, supt. ring stock and Otis Hill, assistant; Jack Fairchild, supt. of menagerie; Dave and Deacon McIntosh, supts. of transportation; Louis (Spike) Ferrando, supt. electrical department, and Rex Hickey, assistant; Jessie (Corky) Clark, prop boss; Ione Stevens, concession supt. and Donald McIntosh, assistant; Keller Presley, boss canvasman; John and Lillian Long, steward and pie car.
Out front, lot layout at Grand Prairie stand, coming from parking lot toward big show marquee, looked like this:
Down left side: live pony ride, Vernon and Beulah Shearer; snake show, Frank Ellis; polar bear cage exhibit (Frigidaire tie-up); menagerie and museum managed by Guy Smuck.
Down right side: Gorilla show, John Grady for Frank Ellis; giraffe show, Tommy Chamberlain; little horse pit show, Tom King; red ticket wagon, Syd Stevenson; white wagon, Kelly Miller; concessions cold drinks, Ione Stevens.
Down the center (5 stands): circus diner, Charles (Red) Bentley novelty, Norman Shearer; cotton candy, Chuck Robinson; snow cone and apples, Johnny Walker; popcorn, Dean Lester.
By John G. Quinius. Bandwagon, Vol. 4, July, 1956, pp. 6-7.
Written in 1900 by John G. Quinius. Furnished the Band Wagon by his son Herman M. Quinius, CFA of Bette Leonard Tent, Wichita, Kansas. Please note these stories were written and published for childrens entertainment over 55 years ago.
About an hour ago we finished our daily parade and got back to our show grounds, the large commons on the corner of Thirty-ninth and Allegheny streets. I tell you I was warm and tired. It was awfully hot driving through the streets; but here in Philadelphia, as well as at all other places, be it hot or cold, there are always throngs of men and women, boys and girls, and even "babies in arms," lining the streets as we pass by. No wonder, for nowadays, nearly all the cages are left open and the animals are seen at their best as they are drawn through the streets and pace to and fro, for some of the excitement of the hour seems always to be imported to them and it is no doubt this feeling which keeps them on the move.
I want to describe to you our line of march. Starting at the show ground we passed down Allegheny Street to Fifteenth Street, then down Chestnut Street to Fifth, passing the fine United States postoffice building and Independence Hall and the home of the Liberty Bell, then passing the Third National Bank, the fourth richest bank in the world, we come to Market Street, thence to Broad Street, passing Wanamaker's great store, which covers one solid square each way, and is eleven stories high. I hear that, "from the days of William Penn" the site of Wanamaker's store has been historic ground. It was here it was believed that Penn intended to seal his original treaty with the Indians. On this ground the tents of many military encampments arose during the Revolution. Market Street was at that time called High Street, because it was the highest point between the rivers. Well, I must stop chatting about the town, and tell you something about our big cats, the lions and tigers and leopards.
The best-known of all the lions is the South African lion, the male being about four feet high and measuring nearly eleven feet from tip of nose to tip of tail. Then comes the Gambrian lion, living on the west coast of Africa, not quite so large as the other but in color about the some. From Asia we get the Maneless lion, a species rarely shown, and also the Black lion, so called because its mane is much darker than that of the other varieties.
Of tigers we have some fine specimens of the Royal Bengal, or striped, variety, always magnificent and beautiful. Then we have a beautiful specimen of the White tiger, very scarce and rarely seen in or out of captivity.
In the cages occupied by the leopards we have three of the spotted, two of the black; and of their cousins and relatives, one ounce, one jaguar, one serval, one puma, one yagonarondi, one each gray and painted ocelot, two margays, and one chati, the latter being the smallest of leopards. Quite a variety you will admit, and I am proud of their looks. Their keepers feed them well and they are always in good shape and condition.
The lion is said to be the "king of beasts," and is supposed not to be afraid of anything, but there are times when he, too, is scared at trifles. I heard a man tell of a little mouse that was put into a big lion's cage. The lion, instead of killing him instantly, began to play with him, tossing the little fellow about with his big paws. The mouse got tired of this by-and-by, and instead of running when the lion lifted his paw, sprang into the air straight at the lion's head. The lion, terrified, gave a great leap back, striking the bars with all his weight. Then he opened his jaws and roared and roared again and again, while the little mouse, still squealing, made his escape. Of the two the lion was the more frightened.
Since Bostock and Hagenback have been touring our country nearly all of you have seen how perfectly all animals of the cat tribe may be trained. Madam Heliot, Bonarvita, Pianka, and a number of others have succeeded in teaching them to perform and do many wonderful things.
While I am writing of trained animals, I might mention that one of the clowns traveling with our show has perhaps the most unique collection in the world. This man, whose name is Brown, has a company consisting of a rooster, a goose, a turkey, a duck, and a pig, and he makes them do some very funny things, judging from the way the crowd laughs and cheers when they are performing. Another lot of animals that always seem to please the people are the performing seals. They are great at balancing feats. One among them balances a billiard ball on his nose, on top of that a long stick, and on top of the stick a piece of fish. He balances all on that small nose of his, carries them safely and carefully across the platform, then climbs onto the stand still balancing all, gives all three a shake causing them to fall, and as the piece of fish comes tumbling down, he catches it in his mouth and of course eats it.
Perhaps in my next letter I'll write about our trained elephants, camels, dromedaries, and bears; but now I must hasten to close, Already I hear the noise of the side-show callers outside; and that means that it is almost time for all of us to shape up and put on our best looks; for very soon the signal will sound for the opening of the doors of the big tent, and then the people will begin coming in; first in ones and twos, but soon in a steady stream, so strong and steady on this beautiful day, that I am sure, quite sure, that the sign "standing room only," will very soon appear at the entrance of the second tent, the tent in which the acrobats and trained animals all perform. Farewell; I'll write you again, from the windy city, Chicago.
When it comes to celebrities, Burma, star pachyderm now traveling with Mills Bros. Circus, is no different from the Fifth Avenue debutantes or the Hollywood movie stars. She has had her share of publicity plus a long list of impresarios.
When or where she first saw the light of day is not known, but it is believed that she has yet to reach that age of "Life Begins At Forty."
Her debut in the Circus World came in 1921 when William P. Hall of Lancaster, Mo., bought a young female full from Louis Ruhe, New York animal dealer. She was first named Virginia, but was re-named Burma in 1935.
During that same year, Hall sold Virginia to the John Robinson Circus, then owned by the American Circus Corp., and she remained there for several seasons. When first with this circus, she was so small they moved her from city to city in one end of a cage wagon. During the day she would be placed with the herd. Sometime later she was transferred to the Sells-Floto Circus.
With the Sells-Floto Circus, she received her first bit of publicity. While this circus was playing Cransbrook, B.C., Canada, Virginia and six playmates decided that there were greener pastures and took off for the tall timbers of British Columbia. Zack Terrell, then manager of Sells-Floto, was compelled to hire several elephant trainers before the seven ladies were corraled ... this was in August of 1926.
In 1929, Virginia found herself with a mud show having been purchased by E. E. Coleman of Dayton, Ohio. She spent the season on the E. E. Coleman Circus. Then it was back to the Hall farm in Lancaster.
In 1930, she was with the Gordon Bros. Circus, owned by the Brunk Family, then to Fred Buchanan's Robbins Bros. Circus in 1931.
Hall sold Virginia to Russell Bros. Circus in 1934, however, the stay was short and she was traded back to Hall for Margaret. In 1935 she was sold to Nellie Orton and was worked on the Atterbury Circus by Col. William H. Woodcock.
Following the brief stay with Atterbury, she was purchased by Col. Woodcock and Spencer Huntley. Under the tutelage of Col. Woodcock, assisted by Huntley, she made another debut under the name of Burma and was heralded as the finest single-elephant act on record. This was the start of her climb to fame. During this ownership, Burma traveled with Harley Sadler's "Bailey Bros. Circus" and the Goldmar Bros. Circus.
In 1936, Woodcock sold out to Huntley and Burma become the sole charge of the late Spencer Huntley whose name still remains in the "hall of fame" among elephant trainers. Huntley had her on the Joe B. Webb Circus, Bailey Bros. Circus, Kit Karson and others.
Jack and Jake Mills, co-owners of the Mills Bros. Circus, bought Burma from Huntley during the winter of 1942-43 and since that time she has been one of the top attractions of this circus. Under the Mills Bros. ownership she has received column after column of publicity which reached a peak in 1953 when, in all her glory, Burma was a major part of the inaugural parade for President Dwight Eisenhower.
Although her history is long, she is still young and will continue to thrill and entertain the "children of all ages" for years to come. No doubt her name is better known among towners today than any other living elephant.
Authors note - information for this article was obtained from Col. William H. Woodcock.
On Sunday, April 30, 1956, there passed away a famous old elephant called Alice. This elephant was very well known throughout the length and breadth of Australia and New Zealand for the wonderful way in which she loaded and unloaded the trains of Wirths Circus. It can be truthfully said that in Australia no other elephant has ever done this kind of work in such an able manner as Alice.
Literally she was a genius, if that word can be applied to an animal. She was beloved by all who knew her and was a kind of mother to the herd with which she lived. According to Wirths management her age was one hundred and ten.
And now as a sequel to this comes an amusing question as to what to do with her carcase. She died on a Sunday evening and the circus had to leave that night to catch its routine dates and it seems that a couple of haulage contractors were engaged to remove Alice to a boiling down works but when the two men arrived at the works on Monday morning they were told that the elephant was too big to handle. The men then offered Alice at an outer suburban rubbish pit where filling in deep excavations was in progress but the local council refused permission to take it. They next asked an excavating contractor to dig a deep hole in which to bury Alice but the contractor wouldn't take the job.
And now the men think they will have to charter a special ship and give poor Alice a sea burial.
By now Wirths are a couple of hundred miles away and have left the men holding the baby.
That's as far as I've got with the news, what the finish of it will be is anybody's guess.
Editor's Note: I hope Sid will let us know what finally happened to Alice.
Von Bros. Circus opened its 1956 tour at Stroudsburg, Pa., on April 21, 1956. After playing a week in Pa., it entered New Jersey for a week of one day stands before starting its annual tour of Pa. and N.Y. Business has been above standard for this time of year considering the weather conditions. After completing the first ten stands the show reportedly missed making the nut only once.
All trucks are in good condition and sport good paint jobs. Some are painted white and lettered in red and some are painted red with white lettering. The truck list is as follows:
SEMIS
49 Cage
42 Sleeper
45 Horses
- Gibson's horses
- Miller's ponies and calliope
41 Light plant
40 Big top
50 Bull and lead stock
STRAIGHT TRUCKS:
46 Office
47 Concession
44 Props
43 Cookhouse
- Sleeper
2 Bill car
The big top is a seventy with one forty and two thirty foot middle pieces. It was new last year but is still in good condition. Annex is at present a small push pole top but it is to be replaced with a sixty with one thirty. There is a twenty by thirty pit show top and a twenty by forty cookhouse top plus a large marquee to complete the canvas lineup.
At present the annex contains one large cage containing rhesus monkeys, black bear, two large cranes and a buffalo. There are six small drop cages similar to those used in wildlife shows. Another cage truck is being added as the show has a shipment of animals on the way including a tapir and large snakes. Lead stock is a llama, two caracul sheep, guanaco and the one bull, Judy. Pit show has a midget horse and cow, alligator, sloth and a cage of South American birds. There is a small banner line on the pit show but none on the annex.
Big show runs about one and one-half hours, and is presented in three rings. Music is supplied by Mrs. Jean Fuller with an organ and air calliope. Program is as follows:
1 . Spec
2. Ponies and riding dogs
3. Ladders (3)
4. Clowns
5. Acrobatic turn, Estrada Family (4)
6. Menage - The Gibsons (2)
7. Banner announcement
8. Clowns
9. Dogs, rings 1 and 3, goats in ring 2
10. Clowns
11. Rolly Bolly
12. Pony drill
13. Neck loop, Dorothy Hill
14. 2nd concert announcement
15. Liberty horses (4), the Fullers
16. Candy pitch
17. Wire acts (2)
18. Bull
Princess Tanit Ikao presents the concert. It is the some solid act that she has done with the Hunt and Bailey shows in the past and she still sells it well. General admission is $1.10 and $ .50. Reserves are $ .35 and the concert goes for $ .25. At present the show only puts up enough lumber to seat about a thousand. They are about equally divided between nine high blues and nine high reserves, red planks.
Downtown bally is very strong this year with two calliopes making the daily run. Miller's calliope and 8 pony hitch are a new addition this year and make a strong flash. Fullers truck mounted calliope also makes the run. Show uses two sizes of window cards and a large variety of stock paper. No date sheets are used. The bull is to be used on some occasions.
The midway is clean and well painted. Beside the pit show and annex it has a white ticket wagon, large concession top and a floss and novelty stand. The calliope is also spotted on the front of the midway and a concert is given during the come in.
Most of the staff has been with the show for several years. It is as follows:
Henry Vonderheid, owner and manager
R. J. Staver, agent
Mrs. H. E. Vonderheid, office and mail
Ray Everett, bill car
Bill Hill, big top
Gene Burr, concessions
Jack Todd, pit show and utility
John Kokel, electrician and mechanic
Bill Cody, side show canvas
Although the big show is a little weak due to an act that failed to show up, it will be strengthened with the addition of a feature act in the near future. Also coming on in June will be Freddy Vonderheid who does a very strong trap act and a good rolly-bolly turn. Show has props for an Indian finale but has not used it to date due to a shortage of help.
All spots are played under auspices. I have talked to four committees and they were all well satisfied with the show and wanted it to return in the future. This all points to the fact that there is still a place for the small show that is clean and free of grift.
Major additions this year are a new light plant, some trucks and major animals. Still to be brought on from quarters are another cage and a larger annex top previously mentioned.
A goat tethered outside a storeroom, and a newspaper announcement that the goat was to be fed to the twenty-seven foot snake on exhibition inside the store when the snake become hungry. That was one way in which Gus Lambrigger advertised his traveling zoo and freak show. Such stunts would cause local organizations to denounce the proprietor for cruelty and, in one instance, to have him arrested. But he was released when the judge learned that the cruel deed had not actually been perpetrated.
Augustus S. Lambrigger was born on June 15, 1859, at Naperville, Illinois, of a French immigrant mother and a Swiss father. Most of his boyhood was spent in Chillicothe, Missouri. He left home as a boy to sell balloons on a circus that exhibited in his town. After some years on various shows, he entered the employ of Benjamin E. Wallace, with whom he remained some twelve years in the side show department. His first wife, Julie Boisegrain, whom he married about 1897, was a snake charmer in the Wallace Circus side show.
In 1896 Lambrigger launched out for himself with a show entitled Lambrigger & Warren's Traveling Museum, exhibiting freaks and small caged animals in storerooms. In succeeding years, his show was advertised as Gus Lambrigger's Zoo. It appears that he always traveled by rail, at first shipping his cages and other equipment as baggage or express. In 1901 he bought a forty-foot car for the transportation of his equipment and personnel, replacing it the following year with a larger car. So, for as known, his show never grew beyond one-car size.
After exhibiting for some years in storerooms, Lambrigger's Zoo became a tent show. No large animals were ever carried, with the exception of large snakes. Lambrigger usually managed to have a large python, which on dying added its skin to several others on display. His star animal actor was Tony, a trained chimpanzee.
Among the strange people shown from time to time were Tom Sapp, the ossified man, Harry Jones, the living skeleton, a fat lady and others. When exhibiting under canvas at Logansport, Indiana, in 1909, the show advertised that the public would be admitted continuously from 1:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M., to see "twenty-three cages of animals, Master Tony, educated chimpanzee, and the big snake, twenty-seven feet long, weighing three hundred pounds." The admission fee was fifteen cents for adults and ten cents for children.
In 1907 the Reverend W. H. Sheak was on the roster as lecturer and press representative. (Mr. Sheak had been the official lecturer in the menagerie of John Robinson's Ten Big Shows in 1903, and chaplain on the Barnum & Bailey show in 1904). In 1909 Doc Waddell was lecturer and press representative on the Lambrigger show, where he passed out to the press many strange prevarications. (This was before he became a chaplain!)
1909 was Lambrigger's last season with a traveling museum. In the meantime he had invested in the construction of a motion picture theater in Orrville, Ohio, his home town. After retiring from the road Lambrigger took over the management of the theater and ran it until he sold out in 1927.
Mr. Lambrigger passed away on August 24, 1937. He was a thirty-second degree Mason, a Shriner, a Knight Templar, a charter member of the Massillon, Ohio, Lodge of Elks, and a Moose.
I am indebted to Miss Mildred M. Berkey, Mr. D. Ed Seas and his brother, and Chalmer Condon for assistance in compiling information about this old-time show.
When the Clyde Beatty Circus rolled out of Deming, New Mexico, last spring to start the 1956 season there was aboard a veteran of the White Tops.
Joe Applegate, for seven years boss canvasman on the Beatty big top was commencing his fifty-sixth season. He has seen shows come and go. He has been through the thick and thin of it. He has gone through fair weather and blowdowns. His story of more than half a century reads like a page from the history of the American circus.
This old timer will be seventy-four years old on his next birthday. He makes his home in the off-season at Riverside, California.
It was a 30 mile trip by horse and wagon to Nebraska City, Nebr., where he saw his first circus, the Forepaugh show. Something about it appealed to him and he remarked to his father "someday I am going to drive some of the pretty horses."
He realized his ambition when a few years later he joined out with the F. J. Taylor wagon show to work on stock and canvas. As he remembers it was two pole 80-foot round top. The Beatty show uses a 140 round top with three fifties.
His years of experience has taken him with the large ones and the small ones. You just mention it and he has probably been on the lot working.
Buffalo Bill's Wild West is one. He drove a team there. When the show closed the season and went into quarters at Bridgeport, Conn., he would always ride the train to North Platte, Nebraska, where the horses were put on pasture.
Soon after the turn of the century he worked for Campbell, a fast growing show. Lemen Bros had his services for a while.
Learning that the Joe McMahon Syndicate shows were in Council Bluff, Iowa, he went there and joined. That season this show of about 25 cars played through the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. He remembers that it was necessary to transfer the show equipment to the narrow gauge cars to make the towns. Although they had five trains of small cars, certain unessential equipment was left behind. The cars would only hold six horses placed lengthwise. He says it was very difficult in some towns to find mountain lots level enough to hold the show.
The Luella Forepaugh Fish Wild West on 20 cars was only out 90 days. Then there was another - the Smith Bros. Great Eastern Circus that used an 80 with three forties. He had a brief experience on the Howe show owned by Mugivan and Bowers.
He was a long string driver on Ringling Bros. before the consolidation.
When railroad circuses were replaced with truck equipment he switched to this field. In 1941 he was with Bud Anderson in charge of canvas. He recalls that show went out with wonderful equipment and new tractors. They enjoyed nothing but business. He remained there in charge of canvas several seasons. When the equipment was sold to Floyd King. He built the first King truck show in the winter of 1945-46 and remained with it one season.
Previously to that in 1936 he was with Barney Bros., a show owned at one time by George Foss and Tom Atkinson. They later dissolved partnership and each had a show. He had a brief stretch with the Montgomery Wild Animal circus.
Besides the circus he has had experience with other branches of the tented amusements. He was at one time interested in the Applegate & Hugo Dramatic company. The pardners had an idea to start a circus, but never did.
He was with the Fred Brunk Dramatic Tent show playing parts on the stage and in the band. That was the season they carried extra musicians, in fact enough for two shows. He recollects they enjoyed nothing but business.
Several winters he went out to Chicago with traveling dramatic shows. One was the Squaw Man starring Dustin Farnum; another St. Elmo.
In the late thirties and several winters after he owned and operated two tent motion pictures that played through Arizona.
His trade mark is his long whiskers. Says he grew these for the role of Judge Roy Bean in "West of the Pecos." He has never shaved it off. This makes him a personality about the circus. Any circus fan walking on the lot will recognize him by the beard.
He appeared in the Beatty motion picture "Ring of Fear."
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or means
Last modified December 2005.
without written permission of the author and the Circus Historical Society, Inc.