WALLENDAS RE-CREATE 7 HIGH PYRAMID · BACK YARD is published twice monthly-(15th & 30th) by...

Volume III, Issue #39 March 15, 1998

BACK YARD CHANGES HANDS

Greetings everyone! I have been"given the reigns" by Frank to continuewith his publication. These are mightybig shoes to fill but I hope, with yourhelp, to expand this great newsletter. Iwould appreciate any circus news thatyou would care to send in; routes, articles,any circus sites on the Net that you enjoy,and especially any interesting storiesabout your experiences with circuses,both past and present, to share with theother readers.

Your memories of trips to the cir-cuses and of your performing days areprecious and should not be forgotten.With your help, we can make this publi-cation grow! And that would make Frankvery proud.

For those of you that don't knowme, I was "flying" before I was born. Myparents were George & Lorraine Valen-tine of the Flying Valentinos. I made mycircus debut at 3, on a single, portable,trapeze rigging, with my mom & her part-ner, Sue Pelto, after my dad could notcatch anymore. I was on Clyde BeattyCircus from 1975 to 1984; then to the BigApple Circus until 1988; then with Great

American Circus and I was with CircusFlora from 1992 to 1994. I now work fulltime at Illinois State University, in the His-tory Department. I get much encouragementto write! You all know how historians are!I know that I have met many of you onmany circus lots. My partner in this greatadventure is Brian Nunn. He has been writ-ing about his experiences in some of thepast issues. I hope all of you will take ad-vantage of this opportunity to send me yourcomments and please write with any sug-gestions or criticisms that you might have.***********************************

WALLENDAS RE-CREATE7 HIGH PYRAMID

The Wallendas have successfully performedthe famous seven person, three-tiered pyra-mid at the Detroit Shrine Circus. They havenot performed this achievement in Detroitsince the tragedy in 1962.As the family did in 1962, the troupe isworking without a net. Jenny & Mario Wal-lenda have flown to Detroit to be with thefamily during this great event in circus his-tory. The troupe includes Delilah Wallenda,Rietta Wallenda, Tino Wallenda-Zoppe,

(continued on page 8)

BACK YARD

is published twice monthly-(15th & 30th)by Cherie Valentine, 1522 Clinton Blvd.,Bloomington, IL 61701. Phone 309-828-0737 (no collect calls, please) My E-mailaddress: cdvalen@acadcomp.cmp.ilstu.edu

Subscription rates are $25.00 per year, for24 issues, within the USA.

Closing dates for ads are 10th and 25th ofthe month (five days before publicationdate). Advertising rates, payable in ad-vance, with your copy, are:

Full page $50.00Half page $30.00Quarter page $15.00Eighth page (two inches) $10.00Minimum ad (one inch) $5.00

The column, "The Fox," is written by JennyWallenda. Other material is written byCherie Valentine, unless otherwise identi-fied as to author. Reprints from other pub-lished material are identified as to source.

Comments by writers are their own and donot necessarily reflect the opinions of thepublisher.

Back Yard is a pro-circus, pro-animal pub-lication, which supports the use of animalswhich are legally held and properly caredfor, in the American circus.

#2

RUMBLINGS FROMTHE CRUMMY

By Brian Nunn

A couple of old show guys walkingby the place of another showman, that hascircus posters up all over the place. Oneguy says to the other, "I've been run off afew shows, but this guy has been run off'email!!!

A proven showman was told by aveteran clown, "You'd make a good trampclown." The showman did not like thatvery much. But the veteran clown said, "No, you got me wrong!" It takes characterto be a good tramp clown! You gotta have"panash" to be a good clown."

This story took place at the Sara-sota Parade. I forgot what year it was, butthere was Dumbo, Misty, Ronnie, Siam,Tyke, Ben and me. We were behind theHemisphere wagon with a live band andGunther was waving to the crowd on topof the wagon. (It was a great parade). But,(and I don't want to get in trouble here),the man that was driving the 8 up hitchcould not drive! He'd either have to havethe big old horses stopped, or just let 'emgo off at will. (Well, anyway, no one gothurt!) But, Ben would have to bring thebulls in line and wait; or go ahead fast tokeep up.

Plus, Dumbo had this thing aboutgrease spots and man-hole covers. She hadto zig-zag around them! It was funny; the

(Continued on page 9)

(Continuedfrom page 3) find enough comic books to read betweenVALENTINE'S VAULT... - shows...New feature in the Alzana act, withThe Sept. 25th issue Ms an ad that reads: Harold and Hilda both ascending and de-"Thanks, to my many friends for their scending from the wire by walking a wirekindness in trying to locate my chil- from the dead end to the pedestal.drenThis was signed by Terrell Jacobs, Dorothy Storey rePorts from Circo

Hutchison, KS. P.S.: I hope to locate them Americano that the tragedy of the Circo Raz-some day " zore was Qu^e a blow to our personnel as we

From Polack Eastern: Two of the were a11 acquainted with them. Our headWilson girls celebrated birthdays and re- canvasman, Cristian, was the hardest hit asceived many beautiful gifts. They are his sister' the wife of Sr- Razzore> and his

thinking of opening a dept. store!!...Trudy meces and nephews went down in the boat,and Penny left the show to resume their From KinS Bros" Mr- and Mrs- Fehx

school work...Emil Pallenburg had 7 Morales, doing trampoline and head slide,stitches taken in his finger, the result of be- are a recent addition to the big show pro-ing clawed by Fu...Fu, Emil's motorcycle gram,.From Cole Bros.: Since Hubert Cas-riding bear, is a life member of the Royal tle bou§ht that Palomino it's become thePalm Motorcycle Club, Jacksonville, style to own one- Latest to accluire Palomi-F1...AI a Halloween party, Linda and nos are Daviso Cristiani, who bought one forJoanne Wilson came dressed as hula his daughter, Antonette...Everyone wasdancers...Connie Wilson celebrated her shocked to hear of the death of Eddie Sil-birthday last week...From Oct. 16th issue: bon...Baby elephants for Hunt Bros, arrivedThe Great Barton has a new Buick con- on the Clty of Swansea, docking at Boston,vertible... From Ringling, Mary Jane Nov- 10- A new elephant barn was madeMiller reports that Jack Bray joined and is ready for the arrivaL The "nloading form thedoing the catching in the Flying Artony boat was televised.

. , . . **********************************act...Frenchie Wolthing getting plenty ofribbing about her cheese sand- BOB BLACKMAR CATALOGwiches...Ernie Burch is very proud of hav- I am interested in purchasing for my owning his picture taken with Carmen Mi- collection, anything related to Side Shows orranda. Ernie wore his new Carmen head- the exhibiting of anything or any one odd orpiece in the pic..Jean Carson and the unusual. Let me know what you have andwardrobe ladies threatening never again to what you want for it in cash or trade. Sendwash the plastic spec dresses...Since Curtis 55£ for Circus & Side Show items catalogGenders left for Sarasota, the grown-ups in to: Bob Blackmar, POB 283, Carrboro, NCthe back yard have quite a time trying to 27510 Ph. 919-929-2753

#4

WHIP CRACKIN' mgty like Shirley Temple's; -both of whichby Frank Thompson were my motner's idea, not mine. He there-

When I was a child, (if I ever was a child!) fore decided that these toy whiPs were a

my idol wasn't Babe Ruth, it was Clyde waste of time- One day he came home Wlth

Beatty! I first saw Clyde at about the age of an eight foot bul1 whlP' made of real

4 or so, when he was with the fabulous rawhide> wi* a real popper on the end. IHagenbeck-Wallace circus. My father took was in heaven!

me to North Adams, MA, to see this circus The whi? was a bit heavier to handle than l

which had one of the best and one of the should have had' but l was determmed andlast real circus parades. It was an unbeliev- eventually learned to pop it. More work-able show, but the Number #1 feature with along Wlth several cut ears' bruises on mythem was Clyde Beatty. He went into the rear' and other assorted P1^68'1 began to

big arena and handled some 34 lions and teach myself the basics of how to cut off

tigers, twice each day. I believe that I went Pieces of a rolled newspaper as I crackedat the age of four the first time, but cer- the.whip. This was quite difficult, since mytainly when I was five I went, and I know suPPJy of willing volunteers had gone toit because I still have a program from that Just about zero as l leamed to contro1 the

year's show whip. I had quickly learned to avoid myToday, I know that Clyde Beatty wasn't older brother during these practice sessionsnecessarily the best animal trainer of all since he had an unfortunate habit of grab-time, but he certainly was the best show- bmg the whi? out of my hands and beatin§man among the top animal trainers. For me half to death whenever I accidentallysome three or four years of my young life I snaPPed hls fmger- M^ older sisters seemed

was determined that I was going to be just to have a dlstmct dlshke for bem§ zappedlike Clyde when I grew up. I started prac- m the arm under the gulse of "helping."ticing, sans animals, by wearing a white, AlonS about this time, my oldest sister hadpith helmet, just like Clyde's, on hot sum- acquired a suitor. Herb was a consistent,mer days. I also wore out three or four of steady ̂ and> thinSs bemg what theythose little toy whips you used to be able to were m the depression years, he didn't havebuy at any circus, just in case you needed the cash to take Betty out much' though he

to train some big cats. dld have a steady Job- Also' y°u've 8ot to

My father thought for quite a few years that remember that Vermont was not exactly aI was going to be more than a little effemi- tr°Pical resort durm§ most of the year- As

nate when I grew up; a result of my debut a result' the two of them' Betty and Herb'in a tap dancing school performance, not to became a dependable fixture on our livingmention a head of hair that looked amaz- room couch; permanently.

(Continued on page 6)

#5

(Continued from page 5)WHIP CRACKIN'...Herb was in love and wouldn't dream of of-fending his loved one's little brother. Voila!I had a paper holder!Our living room in those days was a big,long room, perhaps 30 or more feet long.The couch on which Betty and Herb hadstaked their claim for the period between7:00 and 10:30 each night, was against thelong wall, roughly in the middle of theroom. This allowed a whip cracking,slightly crazed, little boy plenty of room inwhich to do his thing, so long as no one elsewalked across the room. As I recall, I evenwent to the trouble of rolling several news-papers before Herb arrived each evening, soas to have a ready supply.I would crack the whip in the middle of theroom several times, then hand the firstnewspaper to Herb. He held them verysteady, unlike my timid older sisters. Inretrospect I suspect that he was closing hiseyes, but I can't say for sure at this latedate. Night after night, for about 20minutes-or a half dozen rolled papers-Iwould crack the rolled papers like a profes-sional. Well, almost. I missed occasionallyI'll admit, but when I did it was on the sidefurthest away from his fingers. He gradu-ally developed a false sense of security, Isuppose.On the night in question I had alreadysnapped off perhaps four rolled papers insuccession. I had even, on the two preced-ing tries, managed to cut two pieces offfrom each paper before Herb reached for

#6

another. I always cracked the whip at leastonce in the air before the grand cutting ofthe paper, and this try was no different. Ican't remember doing anything differentuntil I cracked the whip and the popper hitthe paper. There was a sudden YEOW!from Herb; a really loud yell for agrownup! Then came a delayed reactiontype of screech from Betty, and quite a bitof blood. I remember the blood most, be-cause I had the feeling that perhaps I hadjust cracked my last whip, at least insofaras my family was concerned. There is noway of saying it much differently; I hadjust snapped off Herb's thumbnail.It wasn't as though it was a major injury.The way that Betty acted you'd think that Ihad just cracked her future husband's neckor something. There was a lot of discussionand some really bad threats from her, whilemy mother bandaged Herb's thumb. I wasglad when Mom was finished and startedin on me and my whip, 'cause it shut mysister up for the moment. Mom and I had adiscussion. and that was it. I wanted to goto bed early anyway; a future big cattrainer has to get his rest, you know.

From the New York Clipper, June 14, 1884 ,page 206. Geo. Bayley registered in Fargo lastweek as an advance-agent of Forepaugh's Cir-cus. He contracted for boards, etc., and de-parted leaving a stable-keeper to mourn hisdeparture. Bayley was an imposter. The weekbefore he had used another name and repre-sented himself as an agent of Barnum's show!(From the collection of Steve Gossard)

*********************************A Reckless Era of Aerial Performance;

The Evolution of Trapeze"Just how important is it to be the first todo a thing? How important is it to do themost, to go the highest, the farthest? HowImportant? Some people have died for it."**Did you ever wonder who first swungfrom a trapeze? Did you ever wonderwhen the first aerial somersault wasthrown? Did you ever wonder how thecomplex team aerial performances weredeveloped and who invented them? If youhave, you are not alone.**In 1985, circus historian Steve Gossarddiscovered a conflict. Two different citiesin the United States had taken credit forthe invention of the particular type oftrapeze performance called ihe flying re-turn act. Since then Gossard has been fix-ated on finding the source of the inventionof the flying return act and solving themystery. He has spent thousands of hoursscrolling through 19th century periodicalsin tracing the evolution of the varioustypes of trapeze performances.**What he uncovered is more than histori-cal study. It is an adventure. It is a mys-tery. It is the story of A Reckless Era ofAerial Performance. Share the author'ssense of discovery as he traces the evolu-tion of the daring and beautiful art form,and chronicles the exploits of dozens oflong-forgotten foolhardy aerial daredevils.Please send check or money order for$25 to: Steve Gossard, 10 Siesta Ct.,

Bloomington, IL 61704

***********************************BACK YARD GOSSIP

A new show is staffed and ready to go, buthad to delay opening by 30 days. Reason?The advance agent had not booked anytowns!

The Chipperfield family is having theirshare of bad luck. A report from Britain saysthat an employee there was chewed up by atiger, resulting in his arm being amputated.

Derrick Rosaire, Sr. and cowboy star HubHubbell were seen cutting up jackpots atthe Showfolks of Sarasota recently. Theyboth have had "meaningful relationships"with the hospital recently.

Vicky Cristiani read bits from her newbook at the CFA meeting in Sarasota re-cently. Based on her childhood memories ofgrowing up on a circus, the book promisesto be a hit when published. Her sister, Carinand uncle, Pete Cristiani, plus others of thefamous clan, were there to hear her talk.

Roberts Bros. Circus has opened al-ready...Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circuswill have a new top this year and, report-edly, with no quarter poles...Allen Bros.Circus opened March 2nd and is now tour-ing the Valley.

Ray Valentine, Jr. has his show out, and iscatching in the flying act.

(continued on page 8)

# 7

RINGLING NOW ON-LINE *****CIRCUS PAGES

Ringling Bros. Circus i^ finally on the In-ternet! Fans and performers alike can findout where they are, plus they have picturesof some of the great acts!Their address is: http://www.ringling.comThis is really a great site!

They have ticket information, show sched-ules, pictures & biographies of the per-formers, a Ringmaster's Quiz, and a spotfor you to e-mail them! And, believe me,they answer you right away!

See them at the following cities:Blue Unit:Uniondale, NY: Nassau Coliseum:March 17-23

New York, NY: Madison Square Garden:March 27-April 13

Red Unit:Baltimore, MD: Baltimore ArenaMarch 12-March22

Washington, DC: MCI CenterMarch 2 5-March 29

Landover, MD: US Airways ArenaApril 1-April 5

Washington, DC: DC ArmoryApril 7-April 19

AMERICA'S FASTESTGROWING CIRCUSSOMETHING NEW &DIFFERENT EVERY

YEAR!!

JORGE PAGESBOX 303

MYAKKA CITY, FL 34251PH. 941-322-9501

**********************************

(continued from page 1)WALLENDASand his family, Alida, Andrea, Aurelia andnine-year old Alex. Pictures of this specialmoment have been in newspapers all acrossthe country. Congratulations to all thosewho performed this tremendous feat. Theywill be performing at the Shrine Circus un-til March 22.**********************************

BACK YARD GOSSIP (from pg. 7)Someone had their elephants tested for TB,BUT the veterinary sent the tests to a hu-man lab for the results and they got back 2positives! The tests have since been redoneand reports are that all is OK....(From USDA news release)ManueIRamos was fine $10,000 & had his Oscar-ian Bros.Circus' USDA license suspendeduntil the violations are corrected, for viola-tions of the USDA animal care regulations.$7500.of the fine was suspended providedhe has no further violations for 5 years.

# 8

RUMBLINGS FROM THE CRUMMY(continued from page 2)

rest of the elephants followed her trail!Holy Smokes! What a comedy. Ben & Iare sweating bullets. We get all the way tothe end! Yeah, thank God. We bring theelephants in line; next to the elephanttruck. Then, a balloon conies bouncing by.Just then, Tyke reaches out to see it andpops it with her hairy beak. Her headcomes up; ears go out. And Ben says realcool, " Load her first!" We got back towinter quarters with no problems.

Late at night, Tusko would go tobeating up on the "girls" (the females), soJoe would go up over the top of Lottie,and give Tusko a good poke, and thatwould slow him down for awhile. Some-times, Lottie would duck to give Joe aclearer shot.

I walked into the menagerie tentsometimes late at night to see how thingswere. The night watchman usually sat atone end of the tent. But, we had just got-ten some new elephants, so he had hischair in the middle of the herd. Well, oneof the new elephants was named Gyp. Shewas a "belligerent" cow. She would nothurt people, but she would demand andflirt with you. (And drive you nuts!)

She had tossed hay at the guy totry and get him mad and then she threwmore hay at him. Well, the man was tired,what with the new elephants and all, andother things going on at winter quarters,he had been working all day and now he

has the night watch.He was asleep in the chair; which

was OK, 'cause there was enough of usaround with nothing to do, except towatch the elephants. Anyway, I walked inand all I saw of the man was big pile ofhay,(looked like a big furry teepee). Youcould tell someone was under there be-cause you could see the hay move whenhe breathed.

The elephants were put to bedwith a bale of hay a piece; that is morethan enough! Morning came and the ele-phants are up to their belly's in feed. Ittakes a while to clean them all up nice andexercise them. And have them back on thepicket line, with enough feed and water tolast until noon. Oh, yeah, they had itrough, them elephants!!

I don't mean to tell stories on theelephant man, but if I remember it right,he thought it was funny too!!!!!*********************************

ASHTONS CIRCUS ON-LINEThere is a new circus web site for you tolook up. It is from the Ashtons Circus inAustralia and it's address is:www.ashtonscircus.com I remembermeeting Lorraine Ashton at the SarasotaFestival in 1994. They are celebratingtheir 151st year in the circus business!There are a lot of pictures and tells thehistory of the Ashtons Circus. At present,they are touring Victoria and New SouthWales in Australia. One interesting photois of a circus truck & van in the late 50s.

#9

THE EXOTIC CATS OF THEWORLD

MY THANKS TO KAY ROSAIRE,KRIS ALLEN, THE HOFFMANS,

& C. BAUMANN FOR STIMULATINGMY INTEREST IN THE BIG CATS

I OFFER THESE BOOKS FOR SALEWild Cats World-Alderton $30.00Big Cats World-Badino 18.00The Animal Man-Baudy ' 30.00Facing The Big Cats-Beatty 25.00Training Wild Animals-Bostock 25.00In & Around The Arena-(Russian) 20.00Temple Tiger-Corbett 10.00My Wild Life-J. Chipperfield 10.00Lions On The Lawn-M.Chipperfield 10.00Lions 'N' Tigers-Cooper 23.00My Life With Big Cats-Court 30.00Wild Animal Man-Dhotre 15.00Vanishing Tracks(Snow Leopard) 25.00Of Tigers & Men-lves 6.00Chipperfields Circus-Jamieson 40.00Here Keller, Train This-Keller 25.00No Bars Between-Kerr 22.00How the Tiger Lost It's Stripes 24.00Spell of the Tiger-Montgomery 6.00World of the Tiger-Perry 25.00Lions, Tigers & Me-Proske 23.00Tiger Haven-Singh 25.00Hold That Tiger-Stark(autogrphd) 75.00Wild Cats of the World-Sleeper 50.00Wild Animal Man-R.W.Thompson 35.00Tiger Wallahs-G. Ward '24.00Untamed-G. Williams 15.00$2.50 shpg. 1st bk.-$1.00 ea. additionalJohn Bantock2531 E. Milmar Dr.Sarasota, FL 34237 Ph. 941-365-7052**,**•*****************************

***********************************After reading Mike Cecere's article lasttime, Brian found this article in the Jan.-Feb.1963 issue of "White Tops". "Is The CircusDying?" by Pierre Couderc.For more than 40 years now I've been hear-ing: "The circus is dead!"-or. "It's a lot bet-ter now than it ever was!" -and also: "Well,it's not what it used to be. I can rememberwhen-."I'm sure this perennial argument must havestarted when some of the Italian citizentrybegan lamenting the decline of the circus inRome. No doubt some of the older circusadherents who remembered the "good olddays" of Caesar, Nero and Claudius ex-pressed vehement criticisms about the laterprograms which Marcus Aurelius presentedat the Roman Coliseum. And so the argu-ment as to whether the circus is in a state ofdecadence or progress will continue to goon-perhaps forever!Since everybody likes to "get into the act",I'd like to say my two cents' worth, too.Having been both, a performer and a fan forsome 60 odd years. I might as well voice amild opinion on the subject-for, as BaronMunchausen used to say, "I vas dere, Char-lie!"No one can deny that public attendance hasdropped off alarmingly. But the cause ofthat can't be placed upon the shoulders ofany one group of individuals, for the majorfactor is a question of "ECONOMICS" -brought about by "CONDITIONS."As mentioned before, this is only one man'sopinion-which I suspect entitles the critics

#10

(continued from page 10)"IS THE CIRCUS DYING?"to have me declared "non composmentis!" But then if our "prophets ofdoom" feel privileged to keep hollering,"The Circus is Dead!", why shouldn't I beallowed to add: "LONG LIVE THECIRCUS!"(Please see this article in it's entirety in theJan./Feb. 1963 issue. Reprinted by permission ofthe "White Tops", the official Publication of theCircus Fans Assn. of America)**********************************

(We have purchased the following audiotape and highly recommend that this issomething that you will want to add toyour collections. Hopefully, there will be aPart II.)

JOHN HERR1OTT POETRYHEAR JOHN RECITE :

THE CIRCUSGAZOONIE

MERRY CHRISTMAS CIRCUSHOLIDAY

A CIRCUS ELEPHANTHORSES, HORSES

THE OLD SHOWMAN'SHEAVEN

WITH A WHOLE LOT MORE...Written & narrated by John HerriottSend check or money order for $19 to:

John Herriott-Tapes1Ceo Prospect Rd.Sarasota, FL 34243

*************************

SOMEONE WANTS TO KNOWWHAT HAPPENED TO JINX

ADAMS, WHO WAS WITH THECOLE BROS. CIRCUS IN THE

1940S. PLEASE WRITEEDITOR WITH ANY

INFORMATION

IF YOU ARE DOING SPRINGHOUSE CLEANING & DON'T

WANT TO THROW OUT THOSEOLD CIRCUS ITEMS:

THE EDITOR WOULD LIKEANYTHING OLD PERTAINING

TO FLYING ACTS OR ELEPHANTS.I WOULD ESPECIALLY LIKE

PICTURES OF "WOMEN IN THECIRCUS" IN THE 20S, 30S, 40, OR

SOS, AS I AM PLANNING TO WRITEAN ARTICLE ON THIS SUBJECT.

SMALL OR LARGE PHOTOSALIKE. ANY DUPLICATES THAT

YOU MIGHT HAVE ORCOLLECTIONS THAT YOU WANT

TO SELL OR DONATE. I WILLTAKE ESPECIALLY GREAT CAREOF YOUR ITEMS. I HAVE BEEN ACOLLECTOR FOR MANY YEARSAND I TREASURE EVERY THING

THAT I HAVE. PLEASE SEND YOURLISTS & PRICES TO THE ADDRESS

ON PAGE 2. ANYTHING ON THEFLYING VALENTINOS WOULD BE

GREATLY APPRECIATED!

# 1 1

CLASSIC BOOKSYOUR HEADQUARTERS FOR:

CIRCUS, CARNIVAL, SIDESHOW & ALLIED ARTSZOOLOGY*ELEPHANTS*BIGCATS*PRIMATES

BOOKS*NEW*USED*RARE*OUT-OF-PRINT*PROGRAMMES*ROUTE-BOOKS*POSTERS*SCRAPBOOKS

PHOTOGRAPHS* AUTOGRAPHS*DOCUMENTS*EPHEMERALET US KNOW YOUR WANTS. WE ALSO BUY & TRADE

For Catalog Contact: John Bantock2531E.MilmarDr.Sarasota, FL 34237Ph./Fax: 941-365-7052

Back Yard1522 Clinton Blvd.Bloomington, IL 61701

FIRST CLASS MAIL !