HUBERT CASTLE CIRCUS AT THE CANADIAN NATIONAL EXHIBITION IN TORONTO, 1971
CAGE ACT DISPLAY
In Ring #1 is Pat Anthony, in Ring #3 is Eloise Berchtold, in Ring #5 is Albert, & Jeanette Rix, & in Ring #7 is Roger Smith.(am I right Roger?).
1971 saw a much bigger show than the year before, two Break-Away poles, one seen very easy here, the other at the far end, seen just to the right of the speaker.
FLYING ACT DISPLAY
Here my memory fails me again.
Seen here between the Flying Acts is Bob Top & Edna's Skating Act platform. Also there is Ringmaster Cleo Plunkett on a pedastal, and a Wheel just behind the Flying Act. To the far right, very hard to see even in the large 14" X 11" photo these were taken from is the Kimris rigging. That display was The Kimris, LaNorma,(Rocket), and Bob Top & Edna.
ELEPHANT ACT DISPLAY
Ring #1, Eloise Berchtold; Ring #3, Bert Pettus; Center Ring, Diano's; Ring #5 Walt & Barbara King & Ring #7 unknown.
The great thing here is the number of riggings, now that looks like a Circus, I think the ladder in front of Ring #2 is Mario Ivanov's Revolving Ladder, the pole on the far right is LaNorma,s Rocket Act.
ACROBATIC DISPLAY
Ring #1, Murillos,(Low Flying Act); Ring #2, John, Tina, & Diana Hansen,(Trampoline Act);
hopefully someone looking in can identify the rest of the display.
In the background you can see Hugo & Papa preparing for a crisscross cannon shot.
posted by 24-HOUR-MAN | 10:08 PM
4 Comments:
24-Hour Man: I played the big CNE in Toronto for Hubert in '72,when he had only 2 cage acts--the other was Cuneo's tigers. I remained with Hubert for '73, and just looked at my route cards. For some reason I don't recall, we didn't have Toronto that year. Who can comment on Toronto for '73?
I guess I didn't look close enough to the cage in the far end, I
thought it was Castle's aluminum cage, I hated that cage because being so shiny, & the bars so close together you couldn't see the act.
I don't think they had any more big shows, in fact I'm not sure they had any more circuses, Dobritch did on the big movable stage in the '60's, & Castle did these, after that I don't know.
If you enlarge the elephant display pic, you can barely see the big stage just to the left of LaNorma's rigging, setting in it's storage area. As I remember, it had 6 or 8 sets of double catapillar tracks under it.
The arena Hubert had then was the last Clyde Beatty cage, built new for the 1960 season. Dave Hoover obtained it on Beatty's death. Hubert bought it and changed the framing from rectangular tubing to flat sides. When I was with Mr. Beatty, we painted the arena twice that year (1964)--once in Philadelphia, and again in DePere, Wisconsin. It was quite a job, and Hubert refused to paint it. I explained to him about etching compound that scores the aluminum surface and allows paint to set in nicely. Nothing doing, said Hubert. The result, as Bill notes, was shiny aluminum bars that everyone complained about.
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