DAN RICE: Girard, PA

I loaded all of my photos onto my laptop last night and was suprised to find several shots from my unexpected visit to Girard, PA this past summer.

Judging from this photograph, Dan Rice was pretty suprised too!

This portrait of "Yankee Dan" hangs in the municipal building in Girard, which is located in the center of downtown on the site of Mr. Rice's former home.

More photos tomorrow!

SANTA'S HERE!

Circus season is over and Santa season has now officially begun!

The Cashin Comedy Co.'s 7th annual Christmas season at the Galleria Shops in Red Bank, NJ starts tomorrow but things kicked off tonight with Santa's train ride from Little Silver, his arrival in Red Bank, a firetruck ride in the parade down Monmouth St. and the tree lighting on Broad St. with a concert by Holiday Express.

Please click the title of this post to view photos of today's festivities as well as updates throughout the season at our sister blogsite, centraljerseysanta.com

COCO & DAY

Photo courtesy of John Peters



Michael "Coco" Polakovs and Johnny Day are joined by a child who would probably be in his 50s by now in this classic Ringling publicity pose from the early-to-mid 1960s.

ABC/BOSCOV'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE: Philadelphia 2007

Jerry Hunsberger and I took the clown car out this morning and rode through downtown Philly in the ABC/Boscov's 2007 Thanksgiving Day Parade. The car act was a big hit
and I got to meet several of the Sesame Street Muppets as well as some Disney characters.

We didn't get any footage of the act, but we did get this video, my first posted directly to Blogger and not to YouTube...

Compressed for "Web"

Compressed for "Web Streaming"

Which do you prefer?

The preceding video is (c)2007 The Cashin Comedy Co.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving from "The Alley"!

CLOWN ALLEY: The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

If Betty Hutton would get her damn, dirty ape paws off of "Moses, the NRA Poster Boy" long enough for them to both get out of the way we could get a much better look at what's really important in this picture... the members of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Clown Alley of 1951.

From left to right we have Lou Jacobs, Charlie Bell, Prince Paul (obscured behind Hutton's big clunky elbow), Ernie "Blinko" Burch up high (and shirtless?!?) and Jimmy Armstrong. Who knows how many other clowns are also in the ring but our view of them is obstructed by the freakishly wide shoulders and Indiana Jones-style fedora of Chuckles Heston?

CLOWN ALLEY: Clown College Auditions 7/8/82

Master Clown Glen "Frosty" Little and Blue Unit Boss Clown Tom Parrish on July 8, 1982 holding Clown College auditions at the Tucson Community Center to find out if the wannabees have what it takes to wear the big shoes.

The would-be clowns were asked to transform themselves into lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners and hair dryers. They also had to imitate the road clowns' gag, which involved a giant sandwich and some pepper. Apparently there is no such thing as a slow-paced circus clown audition — the entire process took less than an hour.

YOUTUBE SITUATION

For those of you who are not aware, my YouTube account was terminated last week and almost 100 rare circus and clown clips that I'd posted were removed due to "copyright violation".

I'm not convinced that the agency registering the complaint holds the copyright on these videos and am almost positive that the clip in question is actually in the public domain!

And the fact that NONE of them are posted in their entirety and only posted there so that they could be imbedded here for educational purposes should more than satisfy the requirements for "fair use" for educational purposes.

I'm not SELLING them, I'm sharing them! Leave it to lawyers to figure out a way that a person can't GIVE something away!

From now on I'll be posting my videos directly to blogger but I'd like for You Tube to reinstate the account so that the previous videos will continue to be available.

I'm not going to re-edit and re-post 100 video clips.

I don't seem to be getting anywhere with their customer service folks. Perhaps a letter writing campaign will help.

If you'd like to see the videos that I've posted here be made available again PLEASE send an email to copyright@youtube.com and let them know that those clips DO serve an educational purpose here at CLOWNALLEY.NET and you like to see the account reinstated.

My YouTube ID was cashincomedy.

Maybe that will help. Who knows?

PETE MARDO: Sparks Circus 1924

Photo suggested by Gary Peare

CLOWN ALLEY: Moslah Shrine, Ft. Worth 1947

60 year ago these funny fellows promoted the fifth annual Moslah Shrine Circus when it came to Fort Worth's Will Rogers Coliseum on Nov. 21-30, 1947.

On the far left it looks like Billie Burke; next to him is Albert "Flo" White. I'm not certain about the other two. Could it be John Toy and Jerry Bangs?

POODLES HANNEFORD: Just Kickin' Back

Circus Legend, Equestrian Comedy Superstar, Teacher of Boxing Gags and Enjoyer of Chairs, Mr. Edwin "Poodles" Hanneford.

PRINCE PAUL: From John Peters

Photo courtesy of John Peters



An autographed photo of Prince Paul Alpert given to John Peters in 1963.

OTTO GRIEBLING & POODLES HANNEFORD: Boxing Gag

Correct me if I'm wrong here but, if I'm not mistaken, this is a photo of Poodles Hanneford (in his prime) and a young Otto Griebling performing the Boxing Gag!?!

Otto learned the Boxing Gag from Poodles?

Anyone have more information on this?

PAUL JUNG: Star-Crossed Eyes

Ringling Golden Age superstar Paul Jung works his special brand of magic and entertaining the offspring of a couple of Hollywood also-rans.

YOUTUBE

I am working to restore my YouTube account and hope to have all of the videos back up and available soon.

ELMO GIBB Clyde Beaty-Cole Bros. Circus 1985

Dean "Elmo Gibb" Chambers, a recent star of the Kimtom International Clown Festival in Shanghai, China, taken on the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus in 1985.

LOU JACOBS In Whiteface

Scan courtesy of Bill Strong



Lou Jacobs in an adaption of the mysterious whiteface that Felix Adler and Gijon Polidor also donned for Ringling PR during the same era, from the 1948 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey press book.

For some reason I don't think "Clowns Are Still the Backbone of the Greatest Show on Earth" will be an article in the 2008 Ringling press book.

BILLY BAKER

My pal, ICHOF inductee Mr. Billy Baker.


From Billy:

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"Thanks for being kind enough to feature my Full Monty with the breatheren...I'm somewhat embarrassed, and somewhat proud....and please share that it wasn't my idea to be compared to Chaplin at the end title....maybe Mortimer Snerd, but not Chaplin.......

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Billy ends his wildly successful run at the Comedy Barn in Pigeon Forge, TN at the end of January and plans are afoot to produce a brand new Elwood Smooch revue (with a full 14 person cast). More details to be announced here soon!

WILBUR "WILLIE" HALL: In "THE KING OF JAZZ" (1930)

Link suggested by Michael Karp



Violin in hand and "Little Tisch" lean shoes on his feet: Wilbur Hall in the film THE KING OF JAZZ (1930). KING OF JAZZ is a musical, filmed in early Technicolor, that preserves a part of America’s musical heritage that few people today know ever existed. The film has no plot, but consists of a series of extraordinary production numbers all directed by John Murray Anderson with the music supplied by Paul Whiteman, "the King of Jazz," and his orchestra.

Whiteman, unknown now to all but specialists, had a musical career that ran from before World War I into the early sixties. His band was one of the most successful in history – their first hit, "Whispering," sold two million copies in 1920, about one for every record player in the country. It was the first of more than 20 number-one hits that the band would record in the twenties. However, Whiteman made his greatest contribution to American music in 1924, when he commissioned and then premiered George Gershwin’s "Rhapsody in Blue."

For more on the film please click the title of this post.

WILBUR HALL: On Spike Jones' Show

Wilbur Hall many years later performing on Spike Jones' show.

I enjoyed just watching how much Spike and Freddie Morgan enjoyed the performance!