HOWDY, MY NAME IS BILL STRONG, I'LL BE YOUR "24 HOUR MAN", ROUTING YOU INTO THE PAST TO SEE WHAT THE CIRCUS WAS IN DAYS GONE BY. IF YOU'RE LIKE ME, AND MISS WHAT IT USED TO BE, THEN COME ON ALONG AS WE GO DOWN THE ROAD FOLLOWING THE ARROWS BACKWARDS, TO "YESTERDAY'S TOWNS"! IF YOU HAVE CIRCUS RELATED PICTURES YOU WOULD LIKE POSTED, SEND THEM TO,,,,yesterday1@verizon.net,,,,AND WE WILL TRY TO FIT THEM IN. "24 HOUR MAN" WILL HAVE THE FINAL DECISION ON POSTING.
Three years at CWM made me a real traditionalist, and I keep remembering Bob Parkinson saying, "I want the people to see what the circus used to be, not what it is today. That's what this site is about!
This whole series is from the personal scrapbook of Ninette, & Les Parker,and I can't think of a better start than this great photo of Les taken just after the cable was released.
LES PARKER
I think from an audience standpoint this was probably the greatest Thrill Act in the business, I've seen indoor audiences part like the "Red Sea", when the pole comes down.
posted by 24-HOUR-MAN | 1:03 PM
4 Comments:
Very new to the business I saw Les Parker on Miller Johnson Circus the first year Cliff Vargas took over. Outdoors in a Stadium in Queens New York sat myself. The pole starts to crash, I remember a loud noise, maybe the release of the mechanism, and the pole goes beyond the point of no return. Bill, I agree, it scared me so much I was stunned for the rest of the show.
I think it was '61, or '62 in Minneapolis, I used to trip the release for George Bruno. It was fastened to the pole with a huge clevis, and he always put a piece of plywood on the floor so when the clevis came down it would hit the plywood making a loud noise. I would assume he taught that to Les.
We had George Bruno with us on Castle in '73 and '73. He was a great guy to know, but as with being near many such high acts, I had a hard time watching his break-away.
We had a guy doing break-away sway pole at Jungleland for an engagement--Pierre Souren (forgive me if I misspelled his Franch name). He was so contemptuous of America that he sent his wife to Mexico to have their baby so it wouldn't be born American. Not long afterward, someone released his break-away at the wrong time and both his legs were shatterd when he came down the wrong way.
No' you did not misspelled his name. Pierre Souren was booked by me, he was using one of my husband (Lester parker) rigging, as far as it was his accident. He decided to use the long pole on a low building. He thought that he could hold his leg up coming down, he was warned of it' He was very 'in' doing his own-way. some people like to learn the hard way.
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