We have the following info on the 1st picture, from the Tegge Circus Archives...
Snapped on the Bailey-Cristiani show in 1955.—Tim Tegge
Now we're cooking with gas! Here's some pictures of Billy Griffin, a name I often see attached to ANY photo of an old-time whiteface that can't otherwise be identified.
The year was 1967 there was a rather chunky, flambouent 24- hour man on the Sells & Gray Circus. Bill English (The captain), Pual Hudsin(the mananger), John Friday(sideshow), Frank Daily(incharge of elephants,the origanal Anna May, trained by Bill Woodcock Sr. also Bessy). The 24-hour man in question, in an emergency when the cook quit jumped in and ran the cook house and was a hell of a good cook!
ReplyDeleteJumping forward to 1986 I was visiting the Vargas show, seating in the box seats, an older clown walked by and stopped and stared at me. And contiued walking, he returned at intermission and asked me if he knew me. My reply was " who are you"?. He told me his name, my answer was, Sells and Gray? It was Billy Griffin. You see I never saw him in makeup before. He sure was a go-ahead kind of guy!