In 1967 We sold our grocery store.
Ring Bros was a small show owned by quite a character, Franco Richards, a reall old time showman. We happened to be with Franco on the Hoxie Show back in 1963. He could really tell some tall tales! The year before the Hoxie Show he took a small circus out west and Hoxie had to rescue Him as he was straned out in Arizona, I beleive. He did own a terriffic Elephant act, which Hoxie wound up with. That's a story in it self. The Elephant Trainer, Kenny Ikert came with the elephants. Kenny also happened to be a CPA.
Again I'd like to Thanf Fred Hoffman for loaning me these pictures from the past.
As you see in the Program below Mike was on the show that year along with fellow clown college graduate Sandy. Somewhere deep in my files I beleive I have a picture of Sandy.
Here's one of the only printed programs from the Cole Show when Bill and I had the concessions.
The Hunts used this Title in the 1960's. Not sure of the exact time, maybe Margaret could help us out on this one.
This one was taken at the Harrington Fair Evening Parade. Bob's Antique Fire Wagon being pulled by one of his Pony Hitches. I might Add that these ponies are a personal breed that Bob perfected at his Farm himself! Accompanied by Little Richard Thomas food concessionaire and my Boss. This was probably in 2003 or '04.
These two semi's were used to transport the Elephants on the show. Hunt's Elephants were always featured on the Sealtest Big Top tv show. As it was presented live from Philadelphia, on Saturday mornings, back in the 1950's.
I can remeber when I was about 5 or 6 yrs old the Hunts even had a Half-Track, form WW II
Here's two of the units. The Hunt's always had well flashed trucks.
This was taken on the new World of Mirth Shows in the Late 70's.
When this picture was taken John must have been still a teen. Since then he's gone on to appear in numerous Shrine Dates, On the Cylde Beatty-Cole Bros Circus and now he had an educational show that He books at Fairs and other venues. He and His family were really Great Friends!
Well here I am, back in the 80's, with the Queen of the Allentown Fair.
This is the Coloring Book we used the first year having the concessions over there. It was printed by Bill Biggerstaff's Century 21 Graphics in Las Vegas, NV
This was a small family type show that my brother and I first saw at a fair in Charlotte, NC.
This is Bill and our Friend Wayne Chambers. They're at Bill's new, at the time, Duck Pond Game on Taylor's Amusements. We were playing a shopping center in Chestertown, MD. It was the first spot that season which was probably 1990 or '91. My Brother loved this stand. We had it built to his specs that winter in Gibsonton. He gave away 1,000's of prizes out of that stand. This type of game is what is know as a Hanky Pank. He made a lot of kids happy. They won a prize everytime. And Bill took pride in not giving them the usual slum prizes but items that we used to sell in our novelty stands.
My friend here is Pete Terhune. He was one of the munchkins in the movie Wizard of Oz.
In the course of the business we were in you occasionally meets famous people. Now this Gentleman is Jerry Clower who at the time this was snapped was a pretty popular country style comedian and member of the Grand Ol Opry. He was appearing at the Valdosta Legion Fair in Georgia where we had our novelty stand set up. He took one look at me and said "Sit Right Down here Big One!"
This is Cliff Taylor, Taylor's Amusements and Dick, in the early 90's checking the old building out. It really was disheartening seeing the condition that the building was in. Notice the graffitti on the side wall. This store was on the west side of town in a black neighborhood which was really nice at the time we built the store. But by the early ninetys of course the store had been run by quite a few owners. And wasn't maintained!
