After the era of Slivers Oakley, Spader Johnson, Al Maico and Buck Baker guys like Bluch Landolf, Paul Wenzel, Jack LeClair, Felix Adler and this man, Gijon Polidor, were central to the Ringling Alley before the well known JRN-era Alley lead by Lou Jacobs, Emmett Kelly, Paul Jung, Paul Jerome and Otto Griebling.
Here we see Gijon (I've been told he was Belgian despite the "French Funny Face" of his signature) as one of the three classic elements of good circus promotion: Funny Clowns, Pretty Girls and Elephants.
Sadly, this photograph couldn't be taken in Connecticut today.
1 comment:
Hey Pat~
It is my understanding that Polidor was actually Cuban. Chesty (Paul Mortier, who also sometimes was known as Polydor) was Belgian. Polidor's name was Eadward Guilliaume (I'm not sure if that is spelled correctly - though it does sound more French than Cuban).
Polidor worked in a free-lance manner similar to Otto and Emmett (who were both influenced by him early in their careers). One season, he presented a pantomime football game with Slivers Oakley and I was told he developed the clown boxing gag with Billy DeNeero (though Chesty has been credited with that as well - another issue with the name confusion). He also interacted with the other acts in the show.
His life came to a tragic end in the '50's, being involved in some sort of love triangle.
My email name is in honor of him (Polidor1@aol.com)
Sandy
Post a Comment