Many minute details are unique to the touring big top circus that relied on canvas and rope. Specialties include the specific knots used to fasten the guy ropes to the stakes and techniques of the crew working together to accomplish the guy out or tightening of the ropes in order to stretch the circus tent, fascinating to watch. The crew boss would crouch by a stake, loosen the top retaining loop of this knot and use a rhythmic chant to coax the crew gripping the rope, to lean and jerk together repeatedly, as he secured every inch they gained.
“Hit it, break it, shake it, make it,” went the refrain, “Hit it, break it, shake it, down stake it, one more time, again. Now move along.”
Once the tent was assembled, the kinkers, or performers, moved inside the tent to hang rigging, arrange props and make their preparations for the show. This took place while the seats were being assembled. Once the calliope wagon was moved into position, I could set up my drums. This was a favorite time for most of us, as we could socialize while we worked. Each performance specialty had consideration for the other performers, since we all shared the same round performance venue. The rigging for the aerial numbers was suspended only during the portion of the show when their act took place.
During the winter, many things occur to affect the routines of the showmen. The plan for this winter was no different. Mel and his wife Bessie-Katherine planned to take a brand-new circus on the road in the spring. I was asked to replace BK as the marionette puppeteer who performed school assembly programs in the Chicago suburbs that winter. This would free her up so she could get started booking the new route. My training in the field of puppetry began immediately. When BK’s father Raymond Duke lost his job as billposter on the King Bros Circus, he became available as the booking agent for the new circus. BK was freed up to continue as puppeteer. I was then sent to the winter quarters in southern Indiana to begin building, painting and applying myself creatively in many ways.
I found winter quarters busy getting Clark & Walters Circus ready to go on the road. Maintenance crews were repairing old equipment and freshening everything up with new paint. Fresh paint made the show look brand new. Once this show left in the spring for their opening town, work began to build Fisher Bros Circus.
I began to drill, bolt, weld and decorate with paint. I couldn’t believe it – Melvin Silverlake and his wife were creating and taking a new circus out and I was at the center of it, doing everything I could to be valuable. By welding upright brackets and reinforcements onto a flatbed trailer frame, I made a pole trailer with storage racks for seat boards, stakes and side poles.
Instead of having a spool truck to load the big top canvas, our plan was to load using the reef style of getting the folded-up canvas onto the back of the pole trailer. This is a process where, while the trailer was backed up, crew members lift a segment of the big top to lay on the deck. This process was repeated until the entire length of canvas was loaded onto the trailer.
A rough looking moving van became our elephant and lead stock truck. The inside received a bulkhead to separate the animals. The area over the cab was outfitted to haul hay. By adding a trailer hitch, this truck could pull the trailer modified to be our ticket office and popcorn wagon. With yellow paint and a yardstick, I figured out how to emblazon the exterior of the elephant truck with giant lettering “Fisher Bros Circus.” Eager to accomplish anything I could, learning as I went, I created solutions that were unique for this interesting industry.
The show was operating on a financial shoestring and in true show business fashion, frantic preparations accelerated to a panicked crescendo that accompanied opening day. When we moved all of the equipment to the opening town several miles away, we discovered crucial elements missing. Many items were needed for tonight’s show. We had no light bulbs for the big top chandeliers. BK had only fourteen dollars and needed to get soup for the cookhouse.
Fortunately, a friend and fan of the circus, Lou Kretchmer was visiting in his Cadillac with his Scotty trailer towed behind. He loved to sell advertising banners to the local merchants to hang in the tent for extra income. He was sent downtown to swap a banner ad for some light bulbs. He discovered there was only one hardware store in town that had what we needed. They bought an ad banner in exchange for the bulbs and we were in business.
We found out later that there was no chain to secure the elephant. Lou was sent back to the same hardware store to sell another banner for the chain.
Our show was little more than a raggedy big top with a few tired vehicles transformed to carry specific loads, and a handful of people who handled multiple tasks. After making the jump back from the sister show to pick up the elephant opening day, I was painting finishing touches on whatever needed my magic. Lou and Melvin were strategizing. They had a plan to make money.
At the last minute they took the cookhouse tent and set it up on the midway to become a sideshow. They put four animals inside, gave an opening pitch to the gathered crowd and charged twenty-five cents to go inside. The large crowd was eager to see this attraction. Later they realized someone would have to put it up and down every day. I was then given my Cherry Pie.
Now that we were on the road, my role as fabricator and decorator evolved. I was erecting and running the side show tent, with a reward of a portion of the proceeds. Right out of high school, I was traveling with a big top circus making one day stands. The daily routine of erecting tents, arranging equipment and setting up the apparatus required coordinated teamwork. At seventeen, the initiation rites into the flurry of activity that is the circus was introduced to me. I enjoyed being immersed in the myriad tasks of setting up a portion of the tented city, producing my portion of the two performances daily. With the daily contribution to the entertainment of another community complete, taking the show down and loading it in preparation for the jump to the next town was an activity that kept me busy.
Letterfly Writes 