Sandy Weber sent these photos of Ernie Wiswell's car in response to the photo last week of Rex "Count de Boxcar" Young and Poodles Hanneford with Rex's comedy car.
Ernie's and Rex's look identical.
Does anyone know if Ernie sold his car to Rex, or did Rex duplicate Ernie's car?
I was under the impression that Ernie sold his car to Joe Cook who left it to Jack Cook but I could be wrong about that.
8 comments:
Hey Pat!
Actually it wasn't me who sent those photos. Don't want to steal someone else's thunder... They are nice pics.
But thanks for keeping my name up on the blog!!
Have fun in the happiest place on earth!
sandy
What a mess of mis-information, I don't have time right now but will be back this afternoon with some corrections.
Pat: Do you know how to keep an idiot in suspense???? I'll tell you later!!!!
When I first saw the photo of Rex & Poodles I was a little skeptical, seeing it was sent by Jerry Jay changes that, as he worked for Rex, & he would know. There are some things that puzzle me, like the car, & the time frame.
When Ernie Wiswell passed away, his widow, Frieda wanted to continue with the act & was constantly looking for someone to present it. My father-in-law, Dime Wilson, worked it on occasion, & somewhere in the back of my mind I feel that Rex did too, I may be wrong.
In 1957 it was worked on Hamid-Morton by Merle Cook, Jack's father, & Ernie's nephew,(Ernie, & Merle's father were brothers-in-law). Merle's father & Ernie built the first car together for Ernie, this car remained Wiswell property until Frieda sold it to Fay Alexander, it now belongs to Shane Johnson.
Also in the early years, a second car was built which was worked by Merle,s father, possibly till he retired, I do know it was stored for years until Merle & Phil Enos did a season with it overseas. Merle then brought it back out after working a while for Frieda, this is the car Jack is working now.
As you may know, Phil Enos settled over here in Britain where his children live still. I wonder if they know anything - if I can manage to locate them.
John.
Hi! grew up in NW Pennsylvania with Jack Cook. He was my best childhood buddy and is still my oldest and dearest friend. Our lives have widely diverged over the years, but we still manage to get together or at least talk once or twice a year.
I also remember the Enos family. They lived in our neighborhood for a while in the late 50's through the mid 60's if I recall correctly, before returning (evidently) to England. Phil's son Rudy was about Jack and my age..
Anyway, just to add something to the discussion: I'm pretty certain that Jack replaced the last car his Dad had. This would have happened sometime not too long after Merle passed away, which if I recall correctly was 1978. The reason it sticks in my mind is that I remember going around our local area with Jack looking at Model T's for sale that were held by private individuals. My memory isn't 100%, but I'm pretty sure that he settled on one we found. It was a beautiful canary yellow, but by the time Jack got done "fixing" it up for the act, it was neither beautiful nor yellow any more, of course...:)
In any event, if these recollections are accurate, there has been at least one more car after the last one Merle Cook used.
Hope this helps!
Bob
Hi
My name used to be David and I worked with Colin Enos clowning in the Ring at Chipperfields Circus back in the 1970's. I knew Phil and Pam and if you want to contact them here is a link to Rudi's website
http://www.rudienos.co.uk/html/enos_family.htm
Thank you
hi there
My Dad and Merle used the car (I don't know which one) a few times in the late 1950's on my uncle Bill Horton s Hell Drivers show and on Kochmans. The big news was that they did the Ed Sullivan Show and International Showtime with Don Ameche and then went to England to work with the Moscow State Circus. My dad and Merle split up after that but our family's have always been close and still see each other now and then. My dad built an English car which worked most of the top European shows, Cirque D'Hiver in Paris, Schumann in Copenhagen, Krone in Munich, also Berlin, Vienna, Rome, London for TV, Morocco, a year in Asia, Manila, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Tokyo; so many places and all with one little car. There cant have been many US artists who worked so many top shows around the world.
Rudi Enos
Word comes to us from the family in regards to the first photo...
"I noticed a photo on Clownalley.net (dated 8/25/2008) that you thought was Great Uncle Ernie Wisswell.
The photo was actually a reporter from the Erie, Pa. newspaper named Rusty. I will look up his last name and send it on to you. I have the actual newspaper that this photo was used in, It states that Aunt Frieda had Rusty pose for the photo for her and that she was thinking about going on tour with this new car that some friends had built for her after Uncle Ernie had passed away.
I believe I have the Variety paper with the Obit for Uncle Ernie also."
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