March 15,1982

CARLOS FARFAN and MARTY ALLEN

The Circus Report Page 3

Kay Buys ShowChuck Kay, owner of Kay Enterprises of

Ashton. 111., recently purchased all stockand equipment of the Kelly Bros. Circusfrom Gordon Walsh, of Tulsa, Okla. Thecircus had been sold twice before, but hadbeen repossed by Mr. Walsh.

Mr. Kay purchased the show for cash andis now busy replacing all of the trucks. Anew big top is on order and a new Caterpil-lar light plant has been received.The show will be completely rebuilt and

enlarged, but will keep the one ring formatThe show is scheduled to open in May with42 spots already booked. The opening hasbeen set for an Illinois town and the closingdate will be in Texas in October.

Mr. Kay also operates the Dr. Kay MagicSpectacular stage show - Chuck Kay Shows,Chuck's Amusement and Magic Star Shows,and Carnival Enterprises in addition to KayEnterprises builds amusement rides and de-vices in Ashton, 111.

RAY "TWINK" WATSON & CO.- A VAIL ABLE FOR BOOKING -

Clowning - Heel and Catch TrapezeHanging Perch - Balancing Perch

Adagio - Cycle Act(Unicycle/Bicycle/Penny Farthering)

Magic - IllusionsSide Show Acts

- OPEN FOR THE SEASON -

Currently appearing with theAerial Thrill Show

Call:

DIANE CARTWRIGHT, Office Mgr.416-925-2474

Or Write:

P.O.Box 174-Station AToronto, Ontario, Canada

Page 4 March 15, 1982

SHOW DATESCastle/Zerbini Circus

Mar 16-17 Eugene, Ore.19-21 Seattle, Wash.

Castle/Zerbini CircusMaMS-Apr 4

Detroit Mich.

Circus VargasMar 16-18 San Pedro. Ca.

19-23 Santa Monica

Cole All Star TV CircusMar 15 Rome, NY

16 Herkimer17 Utica18 Vemon19 Boonville20 Adams

Hamid-Morton CircusMar 18*21 St.Paul, Minn

Ringling-Barnum - BlueMar 16-28 Baltimore, Md

Ringling-Barnum- RedMar 16-21 Charlotte, NC

- - • OTHER DATES--•

Mike NaughtonMar 19-21 Syracuse. NY

The PlunkettsMar 19-Apr4 Detroit.Mich

The Side Show BandMar 13 New Orleans, La

- - - M A G I C - - -

Gorky's Magic CircusMar 20-21 Zefner, Fla.

Pf. Miller -Magic Time USAMar 15 Ormond Bch, Fla.

16 Lake City18 Cordele, Ga.19 Albany20 Eastman21 Hawkinsvitle

David SeebachMar 15 Ft. Myers, Fla.

16Sarasota

NEED PROP MENFOR HOUSTON DATE

April 29th to May 9th

- TOP SALARY -

Just be there for set up at

8a.m. April 28th

BOB ATTERBURYCOLISEUM

HOUSTON, TEXAS

DOWNTOWN

Page 6 March 15,1982

PEOPLEDIRK ARTHUR, magician, is featured withthe show "Hot Ice" which is currently ap-pearing in Harrah's Headliner Room in Re-no, Nevada.

MICHAEL MARLIN, fire eater and juggler,was featured on the John Davidson TVShow the afternoon of March 3rd.

Show ActsActs appearing on recent sport shows were:

Philadelphia, Pa - Feb. 23-31 - BarnabasTommie, Seminole Indian with three largealligators; The Albulet Bros., high wire;Victor, the wrestling bear presented byTuffy Truesdale and George Allen; RudySaxon, MC and Jessie Griffiths, organist

YA-YEW AWADA-PLEASE C O N T A C T -

PEDRO MURILLO iGaona's)520 North Conrad AvenueSarasota Florida • 33577

Phone- (813) 955-4527

Harrisburg, Pa. • Bruce Berlangerand PhilScott, champion log rollers; Ann Clark,National Champion Archer; Tom Dokken,Labador Retrievers from Northfield, Minn,Bob Mundens, of Butte, Montana, holderof 18 records for world's fastest gun; Vic-tor the wrestling bear with George Allen;Dean Sherman, MC and Jessie Griffiths,organist, booked by Shilling Agency. Al-

so Ted Williams, guest star and fly casting.

Boston, Mass- Feb. 17-21 -Joe Bowman,trick gun artist; Anne Stroble, world'schampion lady caster; Ann Clark, cham-pion archer; Ted Williams, fly casting; Victor the wrestling bear with George Allen;Gino Cappelette, MC and Jessie Griffith,booked by Schilling Agency.

Int'l All StarJim Nordmark's Int'l All Star Circus op-

ened its 1982 season on Feb. 6th at Thonvaston, Ga.

The show started with an overture by Dav-id Epperly and a 6 piece band, followed by:

Hines & Co., magic; Bobby and Sonya Fairchild, sword balance; Pucker's Uncaged Leopard; Janus Brothers (midgets); DeMille,tightwire; Gaylord Maynard with Chief BearPaw; Intermission.

Lee Stevens Champaigne Poodles; TheZacharys, juggling; Miss Patti, foot juggling;Belinda Maynard, trapeze.Show personnel includes: Hines Rucker,

manager and announcer; Chris Bryant, lightcoordinator; Bobby Fairchild, props withassistants Jay Doyle and Mike Penn; DavidEpperly, novelties and Emil and DebbieGoetchi, concessions.

STEVE FANNING (71) elephant trainer,died Feb. 15th at Milton, Wise., after a longillness. He had been with a number of cir-cuses, including King-Cristiani and Cristiam-Wallace In 1954, he made news when hetook the Bailey-Cristiani elephants to Alas-ka by way of the Alcan Highway. In recentyears he had been with the James E. StratesShows.

SYLVAN A. "Sam" GENTHNER, a mem-ber of the Northeast Shrine Clown Assoc-iation and the Melha Temple Clown Unit, ofSpringfield, Mass., died on Feb. 23rd. 'Sam'was known to thousands of youngsters inthe area as 'Buttercup', thus gaining his re-putation as "the Children's Clown. On Feb.19th, the Clown Unit established a "Butter-cup Award" to honor Sam. The plaque willbe awarded yearly to the clown most exem-plifying the Buttercup image.

Cireo Sairizby BOBBY GIBBS

When this writer visited Circo Suare? inMexico, the show was playing at the SportsPalace which seau 2,000 people. The pro-gram was presented in one ring, music * :*via tapes, and the sound was generally bad

Featured in the show were the Chona Fa-mily doing 7 acts (juggling, head trapeze,flying act, gorilla, double airplane, hangingperch, wire), lots ol clowns, Spidciman do-ing a swing at top of building (more than100 ft. I am sure his rope drop is over 50ft). Line of show girl dancers from Canada,with show owned animals • 3 ponies, notmatched, 3 baby African elephants, did notwork, 4 chimps in act and a group of 10lions and tigers worked by a girl namedSharon Williams (she was bit in the stomachthe day I was there).The coming thing in Mexico is the line of

dancers as it is ea-ier to get them instead ofacts. They pay the girls $200 plus room andtransportation, and $250 to American girls.Most are acquired through ads in newspap-ers, etc.

Elephants: the African elephants camefrom Howard Johnson. Dallas animal parkreally. They are nice looking bulls.

WANTED

ACTS OF ALL KINDSPerformers with or without owntransportation

Girl to work web and ladder

Concession Manager

Agent to set outdoor dates

Promoters • Phonemen • Day andNight Rooms (Wilt Train)

Help in most departments

We Pay Gas

"Cookhouse"

Under Canvas

Short Jumps

CHUCK KAY

KAY BROS. CIRCUS

P.O. Box 358 Ashton f III.-61006

Page 10

Spiciil

The Circus Report Page 11

I Rememberby BILL WOTSCH

The first time I was in the backyard of theRingling-Barnum Circus was about 1926, atCleveland's Lake Front This is how it allcame about.

A lodge member in my father's lodge played in the circus band. One time in the win-ter the lodge had a big family affair and myfather brought this fellow over to my bro-thers and myself, to tell us some stories ofhis circus life.We were fascinated by them, like all kids

would be. He ended up saying "When Ring-ling comes to Cleveland this summer lookme up."That summerwe saw the window sheets in

the stores near our home, saying that thecircus would appear at the East 9th StreetLake Front.The morning of the date some of us walk-

ed all the way to the Lake Front to see ifwe could find my father's friend. It was along walk.

The big top was right where the ClevelandStadium stands today. We roamed the cir-cus lot until we met the fellow, who wefound dressed in his band uniform. We call-ed his name and he came over to us.

We mentioned the night he had talked tous at my father's lodge and he remembered.Telling us to follow him he went over to themonkey wagon, called them by name andlet us pet one.

WEU.ESTABLISHED

ACTSGOMPirraySELF

CONTAINED'

SIMfiLE DATES OR TOURS CONTACT:

BARRY YiENGSTS— (717)867-1013

SGlE.MipkSt Annviflt.Perm. 17003

Then he pointed out different people inthe backyard, telling us who they were andwhat act they did. I never really knew whothese performers were until years later, butfor a youngster it was really fascinating andexciting. I don't remember much of the ac-tual performance, but I do know we sat inseats close to the band.

PEOPLEBRUCE "Charlie" JOHNSON has joined"The Komics" clown troupe under the dir-ection of BILL "Pinky" GREENE. TheKomics will be playing west coast dates.

THE TOMMY DONOHOS have been visit-ing with MAC and PEGGY MacDONALDwhere they viewed films of various elephantacts.

SHARON WARD will be with LEE MERRITT in the ROLLS DUO on Hoxie Bros.

Circus while his wife, KATHY. is expectinga child.

SIEGRRIED & ROY, "Superstars of Magic"starring in the show "Beyond Belief" at theFrontier Hotel in Las Vegas, recently recei-ved "The Best of Vegas" award given byreaders polled by the Las Vegas ReviewJournal.

JOE EDDIE and his wife BETTY were ex-pected to join the Int'l All Star Circus withhis i'lusion act.

Page 14 March 15, 1982

Clown Book"CLOWN FOR CIRCUS AND STAGE" by

Mark Stolzenberg and published by Sterlingat $12.95.

This is a how to book for aspiring clowns."We each have a little clown inside us," saysthe author "Using this book as your guide,you'll team some of the basics of the art ofclown, as well as a process for discoveringyour own personal clown. This doesn'tmean you simply put on make-up and acostume and jump around in an inspired'down frenzy.' Clown is a serious art formand you need to approach it in a disciplin-ed and systematic manner."

Stolzenberg then proceeds to explain, indisciplined and systematic manner, what is •involved in being a clown, with numerousillustrations of himself and assistants dem-onstrating what he writes.

As is usually the case when someone triesto analyze what's funny, the result is quiteunfunny; but the author obviously knowswhat he is talking about He has performedwith circuses, put on mime shows and ob-

'AMERICANMUSEUM^MACIC

A con/unng congressat mem«n/oes, re/ic*. memorobt/i'a.

touiffnirt and apparatus ofoil the prominent

PffOfT-SSOflS Of PRESTIDIGITATIONfrom 1S84

to approximufe/v fas' night.

Marshall,Michigan 49 068 USJV^

viously studied the subject.There are definitions of the three types of

clowns • Whiteface, Auguste and Characterwith explanations of the role each plays,illustrations of traditional examples andcontemporary prototypes (Abbott and Cos-tello were whiteface and Auguste respect-ively).There are chapters on the importance of a

hat to a clown, how he should get on andoff. diagrams of a circus ring and stage

AT LIBERTY

WE TO DISAPPOIHTMBHT

BOSS CANVASMAN - LOT SUPT.

BOUNDING ROPE

ONE FINGER STAND - HAIR HANG

ENOCH BRAFFORD

730 Glendale Alice, Texas-78322

The Circu* Heport Page 15

Florida Fairby Circus Joe VALENCIANO

Here is a report about the Circus-Fail fromthe 78th Florida State Fair, held in Tampa,as part of the Gasparilta Pirate Invasion Fes-tival.

It was a nice warm day, but a little windyfor the opening on Feb. 3rd. This year's fairis said to have the largest midway ever, with83 rides, the carnival was presented by Deg-geller Amusements, Inc.

And it is the third annual year for EddieZacchini's Big Top Circus. The top is fromFlorida Tent Rentals, managed and set upby Harold Barnes and Waft Davis, formerperformers with the well-known Beers &Barnes Circus. The big top is a 150 roundend with one middle section. The canvaswas a pretty blue and white striped, with asolid blue sidewalt. Seating consisted otbleachers all around.

The program was presented in a three ringformat, with a high colorful backdrop. Atthe left was a very good sounding band of4 pieces.

FOR SALEFROM MEXICO - A Ctrco Suarez Pro-gram and Coloring Book, plus a photocircus story book (in Spanish).

Both for $2.50 postpaidYVETTE BATES, Circus Report

525 Oak St El Cerrito. Ca. 94530

Acts included: a Spec, Teeterboard actfrom Poland, Comedy car of Jack Cook, theWoodcock elephants presented by BennyWilliams and Debra Chapman, Cradle act bythe Venturas, the Flying Larrays and theGreat Wallendas, (4 people on the high wire)The program was not exactly in that order.

We enjoyed Trudy Strong's Oalmation dogact, especially since we, the Valenciano'shad dalmations years ago. Miss Strong has9 beautiful dogs, 8 have black spots and 1has brown spots. She also has an appaloosahorse that is beautifully matched with theDalmations.

Ringmaster for the show was Bill Bome,Clown Alley consisted of Dime and ConnieWilson, plus Coco & Co.

AVAILABLECOMPLETE CIRCUS - WITH OR WITHOUT ACTS

Circus available for Dates, Fairs, Season Acts in-clude High wire, Trampoline, Comedy MotorcycleAct, Dog Act, Riding Dog and Pony and Aerial Acts.

- or -

Need Booking Agent or someone to handle completefront end for small circus, starting in South Texas.

ALSO - FOR SALE - Circus Kirk Canvas Bannerline,9 Pieces.

Call or Write:VICTOR FLORES

5773 Palo Alto Drive Von Omry, Texas 78073