Please click the title of this post to find out more about one of the unsung heroes of rock & roll.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
FLOPPIE THE BANJO CLOWN
Please click the title of this post to find out more about one of the unsung heroes of rock & roll.
RIK GERN REMEMBERS: Allan Tuttle
Photos and commentary courtesy of Rik "Bonzo Crunch" Gern
From Rik Gern...
__________________________________________________
Hey Patric,
It's been great seeing pictures of RIngling's 1978 Blue Unit clowns. I was especially tickled to see a picture of my friend Allan Tuttle, so here's a few more of him. The first is from '78 when he was on the Ringling show. The other is from 1983, when he had changed his look and adopted the clown name Fritz.
I met Allan shortly after he left the show. He and a Red Unit alumni, Marty Sherman (aka Dr. Professor) were working around the Chicagoland area as "The Sometime Circus". Marty and his wife Linda moved to Canada, where the last I heard he was writing science fiction and teaching the neighborhood kids to juggle. Allan and his wife Tracy live in San Diego. Allan and I did a little street performing together in Australia in the '80's, as well as a season together at the Schlitterbahn water park in Texas, and he also spent a few years as part of the Circus Circus clown alley in Las Vegas. He was recently clowning for Circus Circus in Reno, and is now going to school.
I really hope you get to meet him one day; he's a true mellow fellow and one of the nicest people I know. I doubt if there's a person who's met the dude who doesn't like him!
Rik
P.S. Oops-forgot to include that the last one is the cover of a well known book of "clown skits".
From Rik Gern...
__________________________________________________
Hey Patric,
It's been great seeing pictures of RIngling's 1978 Blue Unit clowns. I was especially tickled to see a picture of my friend Allan Tuttle, so here's a few more of him. The first is from '78 when he was on the Ringling show. The other is from 1983, when he had changed his look and adopted the clown name Fritz.
I met Allan shortly after he left the show. He and a Red Unit alumni, Marty Sherman (aka Dr. Professor) were working around the Chicagoland area as "The Sometime Circus". Marty and his wife Linda moved to Canada, where the last I heard he was writing science fiction and teaching the neighborhood kids to juggle. Allan and his wife Tracy live in San Diego. Allan and I did a little street performing together in Australia in the '80's, as well as a season together at the Schlitterbahn water park in Texas, and he also spent a few years as part of the Circus Circus clown alley in Las Vegas. He was recently clowning for Circus Circus in Reno, and is now going to school.
I really hope you get to meet him one day; he's a true mellow fellow and one of the nicest people I know. I doubt if there's a person who's met the dude who doesn't like him!
Rik
P.S. Oops-forgot to include that the last one is the cover of a well known book of "clown skits".
ELMO REMEMBERS: Blue Show Alley '77-'78
Clockwise from the top: Bernice Collins, Scott Parker (who spent a few years on Circus Vargas), Dolly Span and Billy Baker atop a Coke machine and Lenny Ciaccio.
Friday, July 20, 2007
MIKE COCO: Ringling '66
Photo courtesy of John Peters
Mike "Coco" Poliakovs and friend outside the Ringling train in 1966.
Check out those clown shoes!
Mike "Coco" Poliakovs and friend outside the Ringling train in 1966.
Check out those clown shoes!
DAVE CARLYON REMEMBERS TOO
Photos and commentary courtesy of Dave Carlyon
From Dave...
Thank you, and thanks to Dean, for running the pictures of me (and for the kind words about my Dan Rice book). I especially like the close-up of my early attempt to avoid the cliches of Happy Clown and instead, rebelliously challenging convention, go straight for Bad-Makeup Clown. That includes the wig I made in Clown College. However, to show that I did keep working on my makeup (and decided to pay for a yak wig), here are a couple other shots, one in black-&-white and one in color. Because Dick Van Dyke has been in the blog conversation lately, I'm also sending one of him from the days when he liked clowns, with a clown who, as the caption says, "was not identified."
From Dave...
Thank you, and thanks to Dean, for running the pictures of me (and for the kind words about my Dan Rice book). I especially like the close-up of my early attempt to avoid the cliches of Happy Clown and instead, rebelliously challenging convention, go straight for Bad-Makeup Clown. That includes the wig I made in Clown College. However, to show that I did keep working on my makeup (and decided to pay for a yak wig), here are a couple other shots, one in black-&-white and one in color. Because Dick Van Dyke has been in the blog conversation lately, I'm also sending one of him from the days when he liked clowns, with a clown who, as the caption says, "was not identified."
ELMO REMEMBERS: Blue Show Alley '77-'78
Photos courtesy of Dean "Elmo Gibb" Chambers
(Clockwise from the top) Blue show photo in the Alley, Steven Michael (This Is My Trunk) Harris, Rick Parrott, Ed "Buddy" Smith, Steve LaPorte and Terri Frampton-LaPorte, Allan Tuttle, Danny Rodgers, Peter Pitofsky and Bill Witter.
(Clockwise from the top) Blue show photo in the Alley, Steven Michael (This Is My Trunk) Harris, Rick Parrott, Ed "Buddy" Smith, Steve LaPorte and Terri Frampton-LaPorte, Allan Tuttle, Danny Rodgers, Peter Pitofsky and Bill Witter.
CHAPLIN & KEATON: Limelight Scene on the Martha Raye Show
This is the video that may have given rise to all the rumors about Chaplin leaving Buster's best moments on the cutting room floor, Buster Keaton and Martha Raye (who had starred in Chaplin's earlier film MONSEIUR VERDOUX) performing the scene from LIMELIGHT on The Martha Raye Show.
There is plenty of additional material here not found in the film. These may be ideas that had been tossed in rehearsal, they may be ideas Buster had since shooting but a close friend of the Chaplin family has stated in a recent book that he was on set the entire shoot and none of Buster's material was cut.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
ELMO REMEMBERS: Blue Show Alley '77-'78
Elmo's road partner and celebrated author of the book DAN RICE: THE MOST FAMOUS MAN YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF, Dave Carlyon.
For more on Mr. Carlyon, and his wonderful book, please click the title of this post.
CHAPLIN & KEATON: Limelight (1952)
Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, sharing the screen together for the only time, from the Chaplin film LIMELIGHT.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
OTTO GRIEBLING: John Peters Remembers
Mr. and Mrs Otto Griebling with Mr. Peters at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus' final engagement at the old Madison Square Garden in NYC, April 4, 1967.
From John Peters...
I was born and raised in Peru, IN and lived there until I was 19 ( I'm now 61). Almost every year I went with my aunt Joann to either Indianapolis, Chicago and sometimes Fort Wayne where RBBB was playing (there was no red,blue or gold units in those days). We would visit with Otto before and after the show. I was lucky enough to get invited into clown alley where I met some of the greatest clowns of all times like Freddie Freeman, Lou Jacobs, Gene Lewis, Emmett Kelly, Paul Jung and many many more who's names escape me right now. This would have been in the early 1960's.
Otto always got me a small chair and I would set next to his trunk. We would talk about family and general stuff. He never talked much and this was way before he had his throat operation. When the show was nearby Peru, usually Indianapolis or sometimes Chicago, he would come to Peru for a few days. I have a few photos of Otto when he was in Peru, but none without make-up. The Peru Tribune and other local agencies always wanted to see him in make-up when he came to town. I'll look through my files and see if I can scan some photos and send them to you. I know I don't have any videos. my wife and I visited Otto and his last wife, Anne when the show was playing the old Madison Square Garden in New York just before he died. I've lost trace of Anne and don't know if she is still alive. They had a house in Sarasota and if she is alive, she has to be up there in years.
ELMO REMEMBERS: Blue Show Alley '77-'78
Photos courtesy of Dean "Elmo Gibb" Chambers
Bozo Row's own Kevin "Roofus T. Goofus" Bickford
Bozo Row's own Kevin "Roofus T. Goofus" Bickford
Tim Torkildson (looking quite a bit like Leo Acton here) 
Tim Torkildson, most recently seen as ringmaster of the Carson & Barnes Circus
CLOWN ALLEY: The Horse Race
A staple of the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Clown Alley for many, many years and a personal favorite of John Pugh, here is "The Horse Race".
The first clip is of the gag being performed on the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1967, produced by Mark Anthony.
The second clip is from the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus in 1980 and produced by Jimmie Douglas. Look for Sandy Kaye at the beginning as the equestrian master with the whip, Mike Padilla on the ring curb and Mike Snider as the bookie.
The Beatty-Cole clip is announced by John Kennedy "Eggroll" Kane, currently appearing at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
BOZO THE CLOWN: DVD Review
Please click the title of this post to read a very nice review of the new Bozo DVD box set featuring 30 of the 130 episodes shot for syndication from 1965-67 at Boston's WHDH-TV and starring Frank Avruch as Bozo and Carl Carlsson as Prof. Tweetyfoofer, pictured above.
ELMO REMEMBERS '77-'78: Mark Anthony
Photos courtesy of Dean "Elmo Gibb" Chambers
First in a series of photographs from the personal collection of Dean "Elmo Gibb" Chambers comes these shots of his alleymate Mark Anthony on the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Blue Unit taken during the 1977 season.
First in a series of photographs from the personal collection of Dean "Elmo Gibb" Chambers comes these shots of his alleymate Mark Anthony on the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Blue Unit taken during the 1977 season.
THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH: Movie Trailer
Hosted by Cecil B. DeMille himself and featuring a brief opening appearance by one of his favorite clowns, Ernie "Blinko" Burch, at the beginning, this trailer becomes of interest to this blog at about 3:40 in.
That's when you'll see Otto Griebling, Lou Jacobs, Ernie "Blinko" Burch, Felix Adler, Buzzie Potts, Paul Jerome, Prince Paul Alpert, Paul Jung, Paul "Chesty" Mortier, Jimmy Armstrong, Albert White, Irv "Ricky" Romig, Al Bruce, Charlie Bell, Frankie Saluto and Emmett Kelly.
Thanks to my friend Sandy (Polidor1) for pointing out that it had been posted on YouTube.
Monday, July 16, 2007
EMMETT KELLY AND FREDDIE FREEMAN
The unusual pairing of Emmett Kelly and Freddie Freeman. Emmett was Otto Griebling's partner on the Cole Bros. Circus in the 1930s, Freddie was Otto's partner on Cole in the 40s, joined him in his move to Ringling in the 1950s and stayed through the late 1960s.
At first I thought that this was taken during a Ringling indoor come-in, but that can't be right since there doesn't seem to be any children present.
Possibly a late 30s Cole or early 1950s Ringling PR event?
SLIVERS OAKLEY: Another Obit Transcribed
Another of Slivers' obituaries, transcribed by Bill Strong...
________________________________________________________
"SLIVERS"
The odor of trampled grass , of peanuts and popcorn; the blare of a tireless band; three rings with a bewildering array of acrobats, fat horses, ladies and gentlemen in fleshings; altogether too much for any one pair of eyes.
Then the clowns, to add to the multiplicity of dazzling diversions. They walk rapidly over the un- even ground and their pantomime antics give relief from the tension occasioned by feats of astounding skill within the ring.
And king of them all is Slivers. Every move he makes calls for a billow of laughter that rolls along the tiers of wooden seats. Hardly human is Slivers. He is, rather, a vitilized caracture; a Sunday comic supplement character, life-sized and animated; he endures blows, buffets, kicks, falls without a sound. The children, and at a circus everyone should be a child, watch him with rapture.
The entertainment he offers is the oldest form recorded; he is the rightful heir of the first mirth maker; the direct descendant of ancient jesters. Swiftly he goes through his act and passes through a canvas gateway into the unknown, leaving gasps of merriment and little sighs of regret.
Francis Oakley, who was Slivers, died in a room for which the rent was overdue, had tried to borrow a quarter, and failed. The gas was turned on and the door barricaded.
It is difficult to determine which was the real Slivers; the buffoon in the tents of glamor, utterly apart from everything solemn or sad, or the broken man, running away from life; the Slivers that lived in the laughter of children, or the wastrel who made his exit into the everlasting shadows.
________________________________________________________
"SLIVERS"
The odor of trampled grass , of peanuts and popcorn; the blare of a tireless band; three rings with a bewildering array of acrobats, fat horses, ladies and gentlemen in fleshings; altogether too much for any one pair of eyes.
Then the clowns, to add to the multiplicity of dazzling diversions. They walk rapidly over the un- even ground and their pantomime antics give relief from the tension occasioned by feats of astounding skill within the ring.
And king of them all is Slivers. Every move he makes calls for a billow of laughter that rolls along the tiers of wooden seats. Hardly human is Slivers. He is, rather, a vitilized caracture; a Sunday comic supplement character, life-sized and animated; he endures blows, buffets, kicks, falls without a sound. The children, and at a circus everyone should be a child, watch him with rapture.
The entertainment he offers is the oldest form recorded; he is the rightful heir of the first mirth maker; the direct descendant of ancient jesters. Swiftly he goes through his act and passes through a canvas gateway into the unknown, leaving gasps of merriment and little sighs of regret.
Francis Oakley, who was Slivers, died in a room for which the rent was overdue, had tried to borrow a quarter, and failed. The gas was turned on and the door barricaded.
It is difficult to determine which was the real Slivers; the buffoon in the tents of glamor, utterly apart from everything solemn or sad, or the broken man, running away from life; the Slivers that lived in the laughter of children, or the wastrel who made his exit into the everlasting shadows.
PIERIC: For John Cooper
Photos courtesy of Bill Strong
To visit Pieric's website and find out more, please click the title of this post.
To visit Pieric's website and find out more, please click the title of this post.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
SLIVERS OAKLEY: Obit Transcribed
Article transcribed courtesy of Robin Estes
Robin Estes took the time to transcribe the longest of the Slivers Oakley obits that Bill Strong from this morning...
__________________________________________________
Tragedy Closes Life of Master Pantomime
Tremendous Sense of Humor of “Slivers,” the Clown That Made Thousands Laugh, Not Great Enough to Meet His Own Bitter Needs.
Twenty-Two lines of nonparell type were used Wednesday to tell the world that it had lost its greatest pantomime clown. Twenty-two lines related how Frank Oakley, shattered by whisky, penniless, ended his life by turning on the gas after the landlady of the house where he was sheltered asked him for his room.
America’s greatest chalk-face comedian finished his act in tragedy, but left the stage without a tear-stained eye before the foot lights. In the last two years Oakley went deeper and deeper into the “Country of the Forgotten.”
Maybe some coroner’s assistant is now looking over a collection of scrapbooks. He must have found them in Oakley’s room, for Oakley’s hobby was scrapbooks. He had volume on volume, almost a trunk full, each book with the word “Slivers” pasted across the cover. The coroner’s records will call him Frank or Franch, Oakley but the theater and circus programs always referred to him as “Slivers.” His scrapbooks were the stories of triumphs, scored from the sawdust-covered floors of Madison Square Garden in the springtime, to the spacious lots of the far southwest late in the fall, and east and west through the wintertime. “Slivers” gained his greatest fame as a circus clown, and he was so good that vaudeville circuits booked him during the off-season.
“Slivers” is the only clown in the circus History for whom three rings were ever cleared. It was only a few years back that this was done twice each afternoon and evening, by “the greatest show on earth.” “Slivers” put on a base ball act, later a “duck shooting” number. He often plated before 20,000 persons a day and his act never fell flat.
Oakley was to circus comedy what Charlie Chaplin is to the comedy of the film kingdom. Oakley had pathos as well as fun at his command. He could draw the throbs as well as the laughs.
Probably no one in Detroit who has been his base ball act will ever forget it. He appeared in this several times there. It was the best thing he ever did.
Oakley, with chalked face, baggy trousers, faded and torn black and red striped jersey and the funny big feet, slowly came on the stage. He carried a mask and chest protector and catcher’s mitt. The stage setting consisted of a drop curtain, showing a bleacher crowd and the players bench. Oakley hauled out the base bags and laid out his diamond, taking care to place the bags at proper distance. Then he returned to the bench to lace on his spiked shoes. This operation was continually interrupted by an imaginary fan, with whom he held an imaginary conversation. He finally got the shoes, protector, mask and glove adjusted and took his station behind the plate.
At this point Oakley scored his big hit. In crouching to sign the pitcher, he scraped his fingers in the dust, wiped the hand in the mitt and next on his trousers, took the delivery, started to return the ball to the pitcher and suddenly turned around quickly, place both hands on his hips and start an imaginary argument with an imaginary umpire. He bounced the imaginary ball on the plate, followed the umpire around wildly gesticulating, or tossing up his glove in apparent despair, dusting off the home plate with his cap to remove any possible existing and remaining shred of doubt as to the cause of the argument. Finally he returned to his position. After retiring the side Oakley came to the plate, swinging a few imaginary bats. He took two strikes, neither without some argument with the umpire. With three and two on him he met the next pitched ball and hit into fair territory. He tried to stretch a three-bagger into a home run and as he slid into the home plate was tagged out. He bounced up with as much energy and sudden fury as some of our best known diamond heroes do at Navin field under similar circumstances. Here he engaged in another heated argument and was ordered off the grounds. “Slivers slowly returned o the players bench. He started to pick up his glove, then remembered he was thirsty. He strolled over to the water bucket. First he carefully removed a wad of favorite cut plug from his mouth, then he drank slowly, meanwhile conversing with a friend who had apparently called to him from the stands. He returned to the players’ bench slowly and regretfully and began gathering his armament. Having collected protector, shoes and mitt, his walk toward the clubhouse began. He was interrupted again by a friend in the stands and stopped to explain to him the great injustice he had just suffered. The umpire followed him, reiterating his orders to leave the grounds. “Slivers” turned to argue with the umpire, but was finally starting on his way again, only to remember that he had forgotten his mask. He returned for this, then made his exit.
The entire act was in pantomime. No one but Oakley was on the stage. But so realistic was every move and gesture, so convincing, that he never failed to carry the house. Everything he did had actually taken place before their eyes in the heat of pennant winning diamond battles, with high-priced base ball stars as the principals.
“Slivers” greatest triumph was scored in Madison Square Garden, and what he considered his most remarkable experience took place at the Armory in Detroit. A few years ago he told about both incidents:
“I can never forget Detroit for what happened to me here years ago. One of the local secret organizations was giving a mid-winter circus in the armory. You know there are a lot of circus acts that pick up money during the winter getting on with these indoor shoes. I signed up for the exhibition here. The night of the circus there were many boys in Detroit who wanted to see the show but did not have the price of admittance. However, they got in. How they did it I don’t know, but I distinctly remember that when we came on the rafters of the armory were studded with kids. There must have been a few hundred of them up there, all risking their lives for a free view of the show. One of my stunts was a slack wire burlesque. I got out on that wire, and it wasn’t hanging very low either, and I came nearer breaking my neck that night than ever before. The minute I got well out on the wire and started to fake losing my balance, a bombardment started. Every kid up there must have had a sack full of peanuts, popcorn or candy. And some of them were mighty good marksmen. I’ve seen some heavy rain storms, but I’ve never seen as many rain drops to the square foot as I saw peanuts and popcorn and candy that night. I lost my balance and fell. I don’t know how I escaped broken bones. I guess it was because a certain kind of providence watches over actors and circus performers. And when I finally got back on the wire the kids, who were having a scream of a time, but who had wasted all their peanuts and candy giving me my first fall, were in despair. Not for long though. Suddenly a ball shot by my face, then another and another. I took one in the back of my head and right after that another caught me across the ear. I hung on, but a moment later they connected with my eye, and down I went in a heap. I bruised both legs and my arm badly, but got neither sprain nor break.
“What the kids had done was to grab each other’s caps, roll them up into balls and then zip them down on me. It was the roughest gallery I have ever played to, and it broke up the show, if I remember correctly.”
His greatest triumph came when, after being absent for a year or more, he re-entered the sawdust ring with Barnum & Bailey’s circus at Madison Square Garden early in spring.
“My return was well advertised and they arranged a special children’s night for the event. All the front row boxes were filled with children, hundreds of them. I started my march around the Garden, walking rather close to the boxes and waving thanks to the kids for their applause. All at once things started coming my way. The kids had brought their toys to the garden and they began tossing those to me as gifts. I don’t know haw many dolls and animals of various kinds I collected that night. Nothing that I have ever received or ever will can equal this as a tribute.”
For years “Slivers’” salary was close to $1,000 a week. Night before last he tried to borrow a quarter and failed.
Things broke badly for him in the last two years. Not more than nine months ago he was living in Detroit, at a boarding house. During a spree he got in a row. The police were called and when he told them he was “Slivers,” the clown, they were not impressed in the least.
He never talked in public for he was a clown and his father was a clown before him and before that his grandfather. They clowned in England.
But “Slivers” could carry on an interesting conversation. He has entertained friends in Detroit three or four hours at a stretch, telling of some of his experiences and impressions. None ever refused an invitation from “Slivers” to “have a bite and talk.” They always wanted “Slivers” to monopolize the conversation. He was never interrupted. His monologues were as entertaining as his stage pantomime.
“Why don’t you try some lines on the stage?” he was once asked.
“Because I’m a clown and clowns depend on the face and body to express themselves. When a clown has to use his tongue to get his act over, or has to resort to acrobatics, he’d better quit. But that’s what most all of ‘em are doing. If people want to hear lines delivered they go to see actors on the legitimate stage and when they are after acrobatics, they can watch the fellows in spangles in the big ring and near the big top. Clowning, my boy, is a lost art.”
And so he who was the peer of clowns passed unknown and in poverty, and an art went out with him.
Robin Estes took the time to transcribe the longest of the Slivers Oakley obits that Bill Strong from this morning...
__________________________________________________
Tragedy Closes Life of Master Pantomime
Tremendous Sense of Humor of “Slivers,” the Clown That Made Thousands Laugh, Not Great Enough to Meet His Own Bitter Needs.
Twenty-Two lines of nonparell type were used Wednesday to tell the world that it had lost its greatest pantomime clown. Twenty-two lines related how Frank Oakley, shattered by whisky, penniless, ended his life by turning on the gas after the landlady of the house where he was sheltered asked him for his room.
America’s greatest chalk-face comedian finished his act in tragedy, but left the stage without a tear-stained eye before the foot lights. In the last two years Oakley went deeper and deeper into the “Country of the Forgotten.”
Maybe some coroner’s assistant is now looking over a collection of scrapbooks. He must have found them in Oakley’s room, for Oakley’s hobby was scrapbooks. He had volume on volume, almost a trunk full, each book with the word “Slivers” pasted across the cover. The coroner’s records will call him Frank or Franch, Oakley but the theater and circus programs always referred to him as “Slivers.” His scrapbooks were the stories of triumphs, scored from the sawdust-covered floors of Madison Square Garden in the springtime, to the spacious lots of the far southwest late in the fall, and east and west through the wintertime. “Slivers” gained his greatest fame as a circus clown, and he was so good that vaudeville circuits booked him during the off-season.
“Slivers” is the only clown in the circus History for whom three rings were ever cleared. It was only a few years back that this was done twice each afternoon and evening, by “the greatest show on earth.” “Slivers” put on a base ball act, later a “duck shooting” number. He often plated before 20,000 persons a day and his act never fell flat.
Oakley was to circus comedy what Charlie Chaplin is to the comedy of the film kingdom. Oakley had pathos as well as fun at his command. He could draw the throbs as well as the laughs.
Probably no one in Detroit who has been his base ball act will ever forget it. He appeared in this several times there. It was the best thing he ever did.
Oakley, with chalked face, baggy trousers, faded and torn black and red striped jersey and the funny big feet, slowly came on the stage. He carried a mask and chest protector and catcher’s mitt. The stage setting consisted of a drop curtain, showing a bleacher crowd and the players bench. Oakley hauled out the base bags and laid out his diamond, taking care to place the bags at proper distance. Then he returned to the bench to lace on his spiked shoes. This operation was continually interrupted by an imaginary fan, with whom he held an imaginary conversation. He finally got the shoes, protector, mask and glove adjusted and took his station behind the plate.
At this point Oakley scored his big hit. In crouching to sign the pitcher, he scraped his fingers in the dust, wiped the hand in the mitt and next on his trousers, took the delivery, started to return the ball to the pitcher and suddenly turned around quickly, place both hands on his hips and start an imaginary argument with an imaginary umpire. He bounced the imaginary ball on the plate, followed the umpire around wildly gesticulating, or tossing up his glove in apparent despair, dusting off the home plate with his cap to remove any possible existing and remaining shred of doubt as to the cause of the argument. Finally he returned to his position. After retiring the side Oakley came to the plate, swinging a few imaginary bats. He took two strikes, neither without some argument with the umpire. With three and two on him he met the next pitched ball and hit into fair territory. He tried to stretch a three-bagger into a home run and as he slid into the home plate was tagged out. He bounced up with as much energy and sudden fury as some of our best known diamond heroes do at Navin field under similar circumstances. Here he engaged in another heated argument and was ordered off the grounds. “Slivers slowly returned o the players bench. He started to pick up his glove, then remembered he was thirsty. He strolled over to the water bucket. First he carefully removed a wad of favorite cut plug from his mouth, then he drank slowly, meanwhile conversing with a friend who had apparently called to him from the stands. He returned to the players’ bench slowly and regretfully and began gathering his armament. Having collected protector, shoes and mitt, his walk toward the clubhouse began. He was interrupted again by a friend in the stands and stopped to explain to him the great injustice he had just suffered. The umpire followed him, reiterating his orders to leave the grounds. “Slivers” turned to argue with the umpire, but was finally starting on his way again, only to remember that he had forgotten his mask. He returned for this, then made his exit.
The entire act was in pantomime. No one but Oakley was on the stage. But so realistic was every move and gesture, so convincing, that he never failed to carry the house. Everything he did had actually taken place before their eyes in the heat of pennant winning diamond battles, with high-priced base ball stars as the principals.
“Slivers” greatest triumph was scored in Madison Square Garden, and what he considered his most remarkable experience took place at the Armory in Detroit. A few years ago he told about both incidents:
“I can never forget Detroit for what happened to me here years ago. One of the local secret organizations was giving a mid-winter circus in the armory. You know there are a lot of circus acts that pick up money during the winter getting on with these indoor shoes. I signed up for the exhibition here. The night of the circus there were many boys in Detroit who wanted to see the show but did not have the price of admittance. However, they got in. How they did it I don’t know, but I distinctly remember that when we came on the rafters of the armory were studded with kids. There must have been a few hundred of them up there, all risking their lives for a free view of the show. One of my stunts was a slack wire burlesque. I got out on that wire, and it wasn’t hanging very low either, and I came nearer breaking my neck that night than ever before. The minute I got well out on the wire and started to fake losing my balance, a bombardment started. Every kid up there must have had a sack full of peanuts, popcorn or candy. And some of them were mighty good marksmen. I’ve seen some heavy rain storms, but I’ve never seen as many rain drops to the square foot as I saw peanuts and popcorn and candy that night. I lost my balance and fell. I don’t know how I escaped broken bones. I guess it was because a certain kind of providence watches over actors and circus performers. And when I finally got back on the wire the kids, who were having a scream of a time, but who had wasted all their peanuts and candy giving me my first fall, were in despair. Not for long though. Suddenly a ball shot by my face, then another and another. I took one in the back of my head and right after that another caught me across the ear. I hung on, but a moment later they connected with my eye, and down I went in a heap. I bruised both legs and my arm badly, but got neither sprain nor break.
“What the kids had done was to grab each other’s caps, roll them up into balls and then zip them down on me. It was the roughest gallery I have ever played to, and it broke up the show, if I remember correctly.”
His greatest triumph came when, after being absent for a year or more, he re-entered the sawdust ring with Barnum & Bailey’s circus at Madison Square Garden early in spring.
“My return was well advertised and they arranged a special children’s night for the event. All the front row boxes were filled with children, hundreds of them. I started my march around the Garden, walking rather close to the boxes and waving thanks to the kids for their applause. All at once things started coming my way. The kids had brought their toys to the garden and they began tossing those to me as gifts. I don’t know haw many dolls and animals of various kinds I collected that night. Nothing that I have ever received or ever will can equal this as a tribute.”
For years “Slivers’” salary was close to $1,000 a week. Night before last he tried to borrow a quarter and failed.
Things broke badly for him in the last two years. Not more than nine months ago he was living in Detroit, at a boarding house. During a spree he got in a row. The police were called and when he told them he was “Slivers,” the clown, they were not impressed in the least.
He never talked in public for he was a clown and his father was a clown before him and before that his grandfather. They clowned in England.
But “Slivers” could carry on an interesting conversation. He has entertained friends in Detroit three or four hours at a stretch, telling of some of his experiences and impressions. None ever refused an invitation from “Slivers” to “have a bite and talk.” They always wanted “Slivers” to monopolize the conversation. He was never interrupted. His monologues were as entertaining as his stage pantomime.
“Why don’t you try some lines on the stage?” he was once asked.
“Because I’m a clown and clowns depend on the face and body to express themselves. When a clown has to use his tongue to get his act over, or has to resort to acrobatics, he’d better quit. But that’s what most all of ‘em are doing. If people want to hear lines delivered they go to see actors on the legitimate stage and when they are after acrobatics, they can watch the fellows in spangles in the big ring and near the big top. Clowning, my boy, is a lost art.”
And so he who was the peer of clowns passed unknown and in poverty, and an art went out with him.
ELMO GIBB: At The Felds' Home
Photo courtesy of Dean "Elmo Gibb" Chambers
A great old circus fan, the late Jim Harshmann of Hagerstown, took this picture of me standing in front of the boyhood home of Israel and Irvin Feld. He knew them way back then. The Ringling big top was set up in a cemetery on the south end of town. The performers used to drape their wash over the tombstones to dry. At night they'd all be cursing because they would skin their shins on the same tombstones in the darkness.
A great old circus fan, the late Jim Harshmann of Hagerstown, took this picture of me standing in front of the boyhood home of Israel and Irvin Feld. He knew them way back then. The Ringling big top was set up in a cemetery on the south end of town. The performers used to drape their wash over the tombstones to dry. At night they'd all be cursing because they would skin their shins on the same tombstones in the darkness.