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!
PAT ANTHONY
I would assume since the shifting cage is so low to the ground, this is a fairly early photo. I do remember that Pat's original arena was 13 feet high, and when working props you had to be careful to get paired with an experienced partner to carry the sections.
posted by 24-HOUR-MAN | 9:58 PM
4 Comments:
Pat left the Compound to go on his own in '53. Bill Johnston told me he designed that arena for Pat. The sections were 5' x 13', as you noted, and the cage was 35' in diameter. Bill added an extra foot in height since as we remember, Pat had a lioness that ran around the bars of the cage and often got close to the top.
As for the cage wagons, Pat left Thousand Oaks with some built there by Benny Bennett and Earl LeGrand. They built many of them, and all the Compound cat acts used them on various tours. I took some of them out on my routes with the West Coast shows in the late '60s.
I met Pat only once. He spent a few days at Beatty-Cole WQ when he delivered some new cats to Hoover. Pat was one in a million and from that brief encounter I carried a lifetime of respect.
:-)
Cindy Potter
Pat was my introduction to the fighting cat act of old and always enjoyed his stories as a young man.
Cindy and Darryl: Pat was the real thing. You bet he was.
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