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| The Whip (Image courtesy of Whiplake Hopatcong Historical Museum) |
This entry gave
me a few giggles – I hope it gives you one or two as well.
Carnivals kept the roads hot in the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s,
and even the 50’s traversing the state.
They visited the towns of Bath County.
Owingsville often had as many as three during the summer. The Green Tree and Silver Slipper visited Owingsville
about every summer. The attractions were the Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, the Whip, pony rides, gambling joints, and
girlie shows.
Remember
Brownie’s Comedians and Bud Hawkins’ tent shows? It was customary for them to make a week’s
stand in each town with a show every night and occasionally a matinee. The formats of these two shows were similar,
with Brownie’s leaning more toward comedy.
Between acts of their plays, they made their pitches
selling toffee candy with prizes included.
You no doubt are aware that shows such as circuses use this gimmick
today.
Small traveling shows were ‘thick as hops’ – most of
them touring from town to town in one truck.
Some carried several small animals – others acrobatic acts, magicians,
ventriloquists, etc.
On the occasion of one small show visiting Owingsville
and parking in the old Owingsville School yard, the owners needed someone to
exercise a big bear. No one in the group
of boys and men standing around volunteered for such work. The owner, seeing Banks ‘Jelly Roll’ Coleman, Jr. looking on and noting that Banks was a tall
man, begged him to exercise the
bear. Banks gingerly took the chain in
hand which had the bruin on the other end.
Let’s just say the bear started leading Banks around and yanked the chain
from Banks’ hand.
The bear ran to a telephone pole which stood just
outside the old iron rail fence surrounding the school grounds and easily
climbed to the cross-arms. He sat there
and old friend Banks headed for home.
All present said they could have done no better than Banks did.
Hope you enjoyed this post. Next week, my husband, Don, will make his blogging debut on here, and you'll get to read what Mr. Burl wrote about the circuses that passed through - and about a famous band leader who played with one of them. ~Ginger
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A clipping from an old copy of The Owingsville Outlook
announcing that a carnival "is holding forth on the school campus" at Salt Lick. |
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| We love magic in our family, and that's due in part to Mr. Burl, who was known to perform a magic trick from time to time. Perhaps his enthusiasm towards magic stemmed from seeing the magicians who performed with the carnivals that passed through. I like vintage images like this one of the great magician Thurston. Many of the old images hint of the supernatural, an association most modern magicians (and their audiences) tend to eschew. Houdini, by the way, rejected the idea that his feats were in anyway supernatural, although the author Conan Doyle argued that they were, which caused a bit of a disagreement between the two friends. |