Thursday, October 19, 2006

Cristiani Bros.

Photo courtesy of the Pfening Circus Archives




The 1959 Cristiani Bros. Clown Alley.

While this Alley may contain a plethora of future of past circus celebrities I don't recognize any of them in the makeups shown here. If it's 1959 then Billy McCabe, featured on Tuesday in his classic Harry Dann-inspired makeup, may be in this crowd somewhere as he was their 1960 Boss Clown/Producing Clown.

6 comments:

Mike Naughton said...

It looks like Jimmy Douglass second from the right. I had the pleasure of working for Jimmy on the Gracie McIntosh Rochester NY Shrine date in 1980. Also on that date were: Rick Legg, Buck Nolan, Eggroll, Vern, Elmo, Middy Streeter, Bobby Davis.
The folks from KODAK would hang around the alley all week testing new cameras and new film; at the end of the week we all received a huge photo of the clowns in the alley. The guys from KODAK were very easy to work with.

Anonymous said...

Willer Nicolidi used to refer to all little people as "bagungi's".

-Greg

24-HOUR-MAN said...

Kneeling in front is Jimmy Douglas' partner at the time, I remember him only as "Red". I believe the Vern you mentioned from Rachester was a later partner of Jimmy's.

24-HOUR-MAN said...

It's not easy to mis-spell a word when you are looking right at it.

Anonymous said...

Well, Mr Lee, you've hit the stake on the head. Note that Kenny Dodd got his start in Clowning under the tutorage of Billy McCabe on the show and also does anyone know that Kenny was once a solo trap artist? Yep, that's how he started his career in the biz...
Glad to assist.
Bernie...

Anonymous said...

Forgot one clown. The little guy in the middle next to Bagungi is none other then Dody Daniels of Beatty Cole fame. He is the tramp clown in the center.