YESTERDAY'S TOWNS

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.

My Photo
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Location: GIBSONTON, FLORIDA, United States

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!

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

~OLD FRIENDS RE~CONNECTED~

HEY, "THIS BLOG THING IS AAAALLLL RIGHT"

We all know what the blogs,(Thank You Buckles),have done, to bring the folks in our business, both active, & retired, closer together.
Last night I recieved a welcome phone call from Loren G. "Larry" Ruhl, of the fabulous Hanging Perch Act, "Michele & Michael", he had run across "Yesterday's Towns", & saw the message "Larry where are you?"
After retiring his Hanging Perch Act in the early 1980's, he returned to Ice Skating, & spent many years in Europe, so he has been pretty much out of touch and we did some catching up.
I first met Larry on the Orrin Davenport show in the mid 1950's when he was working with Kitten Wendt in the "Aero-Stylites" Hanging Perch Act, filling in for her husband, Gabby Wendt, who had been injured in a fall. We became good friends, in fact when Trudy & I started practicing the cradle act, Larry taught to do the Helicopter spin by mail.
One memory that comes to mind is sitting in a restaurant in Minneapolis with Larry & Francis Brunn, Francis had a penny on edge on a coffee cup saucer rolling it round & round the rim, I tried it for years, never could do it.
Here are some photos from Larry.

MICHELE & MICHAELNotice the wide open neck loop.

LARRY SOLOWhen we played cities with a high altitude, Michele’s eyes would hemorrhage from the very fast spins, and then I would have to go back to my single act under the helicopter. This photo made newspapers all over the world.


LARRY WITH BRENDA JONES


MIURASAN & MICHAELThis is a photo of my last partner...a very beautiful Japanese girl named Hideko...she is also a skating star and we worked for several years in Europe, South America, as well as all of the Far East.

MOULIN ROUGE, PARISThis was the "TABLEAU VIVANT",(living picture), that was the opening of our number at the Moulin Rouge in Paris.

Here is another from Larry, taken on Ringling at the Ohio Stae Fair.
FRANCIS BRUNN, PHILLIPE PETITE, & LARRY RUHL

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Larry, How are you?
I stll remember the shocked look on my mothers face when she walked in and you had bleached my hair to a platinum Blond. Priceless. Then you did Trudys and we remained Blonds for two years. Trudy a little longer I think. Those were great times. Glad to know your still out there.
Penny

5/06/2009 7:18 AM  
Anonymous Larry said...

Dear Penny...where do all the years go? Remember when you were instructing me how to make a mouthpiece. It never worked until years later Barbette had a dental mouthpiece made for me. So many memories!

5/08/2009 3:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

To Bill Strong...I cannot tell you how much it meant to me to connect with an old friend. My " Circus " years were very dear to me and always will be.....Larry

5/12/2009 4:35 PM  

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