It's a beautiful sunny day to get some work done. Marv Gauger took a lot of photos of the happenings at the Circus World Museum. We are incredibly fortunate to have one scrapbook full of his photos to share with all of you.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Circus Juventas
I'm sorry that this is so late, but we got this at the CHS Convention last week. There is still lots of time to see this amazing show.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Ohio State Fair
Can you believe it? The Ohio State Fair opened yesterday and runs through next weekend. That means the Pied Piper of Wisconsin will be getting ready for his big dates up in God's country as well! Have a great time Jim!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
RBBB WQ 1952
Here are a few pictures from the old Sarasota Winter Quarters. A lot of these old wagons had Al G. Barnes backgrounds.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The Flying Trapeze
The last day of the CHS Convention was dedicated to the Flying Trapeze and the deep rich history of the Bloomington YMCA, the Eddie and Mayme Ward acts training in the "Barn" and the Gamma Phi Circus which just added the flying trapeze to their performance a couple years ago thanks to Al Light and Tony Steele.
A documentary on Tony Steele was viewed later in the day. As the evening got closer, the weather couldn't make up its mind so I left my camera in the hotel room. At the very last minute, they decided to fly on the Illinois State rigging anyway. We enjoyed a few passes by the Illinois State flyers then had the privelege of seeing Terry Caveretta fly over to Juan Vasquez before the lightning became a factor and it was all out and over.
The Greatest living flyers.
Special Collections Director, Maureen Brunsdale introduces Flying Trapeze Historian, Steve Gossard. Steve's book was available and all these gifted flyers were gracious enough to be signing copies all day long.
The Greatest living flyers.
L to R: Terry Caveretta, Richie Gaona, ( Tito couldn't make it ) Miquel Vasquez, Tony Steele, Juan Vasquez, and Al Light who lead the Gamma Phi Circus at Illinois State for many years and has now joined the Florida State University Circus.Sunday, July 25, 2010
Can't believe it!
Say it isn't so! After calling home tonight, I found out the airlines called my home in South Carolina to say my flight from Chicago to Charlotte was cancelled....... three hours before the flight. Am I missing something here?
CHS Convention
The CHS Convention has gone down in the history books as one of the best! The Board of Trustees met this morning for three hours and then it was time to head for home. Got to Chicago in good time, returned the car and caught a shuttle immediately. I'm going home!
NO, not exactly....... The storms that closed Chicago on Saturday, closed Philadelphia today. Our plane couldn't get here from Philadelphia so the flight home was cancelled and rescheduled for tomorrow. After some serious pleading and begging, they got me on a different airline to Knoxville to make a connection to Charlotte.
Only problem was that the plane was 1 1/2 hours late. By time we got to Knoxville, my plane was gone and I'm stuck in Knoxville for the night. But hey..... The Convention was fantastic!
I think it's about time for a Budweiser!
Day 3 of the CHS Convention
Day 3 was dedicated to the fine art of the flying trapeze. We started the morning with a film introduction of all our honored guests by Steve Gossard. Next we had all the living legends of the flying trapeze sit in on an open panel discussion taking questions from the convention goers and reminiscing at the same time.Later in the day was a 80 minute film all about Mr. Tony Steele, his life, his love and his amazing career. Finally closing the day was a visit to the Phi Gamma Flying trapeze practice rigging where Al Light and Juan Vasquez took turns catching while some of the Phi Gamma flyers were joined by Richie Gaona, Miquel Vasquez and Terry Cavaretta high aloft.
Unfortunately, my film card died ( I had seen it coming ) so the new one I used isn't being recognized by my laptop. ( This happened before. ) So the experts pictures will all have to wait until I get home tomorrow.
In the meantime, here's a few more posters from the wonderful Milner Library Collection at Illinois State University.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Day 2 of the CHS Convention
CHS Vice President John Polacsek opened the morning slot with a few announcements and then on with the show!
Speakers
Bob Cline ( that's me ) spoke on the life and times of Wm. P. Hall. A good time was had by all!
Speakers
Mr. Fred Dahlinger, one of the most highly regarded Circus Historians in the USA, gave an insightful look into the development and existance of Circus / Water shows in America.
Speakers
Bloomington's very own, Cherie Valentine, spoke about her family and the flying trapeze. Cherie also brought a small collection of her families costumes and rigging from over the years.
Speakers
Kim Baston from LaTrobe University in Australia brought forth a paper about the evolution of new aerial performances and riggings.Panel Discussion
Research, collections and locations as well as methods have all changed greatly over the years. Offering their thoughts on how to adapt, search and find, were Matt Wittman on the left, Debbie Walk of th Ringling Museums, Fred Dahlinger in the back, Janet Davis of the University of Texas-Austin, and Maureen Brunsdale from the Milner Library.
Banquet
As our featured guests started arriving , we find Al Light in the black shirt with his wife, Miquel Vasquez in the gray shirt and his brother Juan Vasquez in the blue shirt. Terry Cavaretta was stuck in Chicago in the storms and Tony Steele was sitting beside me so I didn't get any pictures of him tonight but I took a couple videos to post next week.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Wlcome to the 2010 CHS Convention
President Judy Griffin welcomed everyone to the 2010 Convention. Huge Thanks go out to Steve Gossard and Maureen Brunsdale for all they have done in preparing and planning for this great time. By the way, The CHS Convention was front page news in the Bloomingon papers today! It's going to be a great day!Speakers
Dorita and Walter Estes spoke about life on the road and growing up on the RBBB show. Her parents were both in the Art Concello flying acts. Their presentation was called We owe a lot to Short Man with a Cigar.Speakers
There's no such thing as a bad bag of peanuts when impressario, Mr. Ward Hall gives the peanut pitch to the delight of young and old alike!Speakers
Author and college Professor, Janet M. Davis Osbourne spoke about the animals their treatment and what was acceptable and what wasn't through the years. Her presentation was called from the Cocking Main to the Center Ring: A History of American Animal Welfare and Popular Entertainment.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Milner Library
Maureen Brunsdale welcomed us all to the Milner Library at Illinois State University for the afternoon session. The fantatsic work this Library is doing includes currently digitizing the nearly 10,000 slides of the Sverre Braathen collection.
CHS Auction
Immediately following the supper hour, the annual Fundraising auction began with the lively stories and auctioning of professional showman, Al Stencell. Al was graciously helped this year by Kristin Spangenberg and John Polacsek.CHS Auction
There were two checks of each design. All four sets were signed by one Ringling brother or the other. All of them brought over $400.00 combined while being sold as seperate sets.
CHS Auction
This group of 10 John Robinson Circus and Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus badges sold for $500.00A Request
Wow! I have never had a special request before. I'm always glad to oblige. Hey Jim, I'm not at home right now, does the bloggers manual require us to charge extra for special requests?
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Beautiful Baraboo
I finally got to go see the Al Ringling Theater. I had never been there as many times as I have been to Baraboo. My pictures don't do the place justice. This was fantastic! A couple more hours in the Library again this morning, then it's off to Bloomington, IL and the 2010 CHS Convention!
Beautiful Baraboo
This is one of the original front fourteen rows of chairs, all emblazened with the Al Ringling mark.
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