VERMONT STATE FAIR 1941

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" The pause that refreshes! "

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE SARASOTA COUNTY FAIR (SCOTT BUNDY) PART 1

RINGLING PIE CAR PART 1

Daniel Raffo, right, the tiger trainer, and a hand-balancer wait for their meal in the renovated Ringling Pie Car

March 2, 2010,

When the Line for Dinner Is a Mile Long By Glenn Collins

Newark, Once upon a time, any self-respecting aerialist or big-top roustabout ordered pie in the Pie Car. Of course. And heaps of fried chicken. Or beef stew with glorious gobbets of fat, swimming with hefty carrots and an armada of bobbing potatoes. Not to mention buckets of strong, steaming java.
But these days, in the Pie Car — the newly renovated $1.2-million, 24-hour-a-day dining facility on the mile-long train of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus — some 350 ladies, gentlemen and children of all ages have actually been known to order salads. Or vegetarian medleys. And, on request mind you, there is decaf.
For the benefit of the news media on Tuesday, Ringling — which long held its trains off limits to visitors — threw open the portals of the Pie Car, as the dining car on the circus train has been forever known.
The 61-car train was stashed away on an obscure railroad siding rimmed by reedy brush and a chain link fence crowned with razor wire.
The idea was to ballyhoo the 140th edition of the Ringling circus, called “Barnum’s Funundrum” in celebration of the 200th anniversary of P.T. Barnum, one of the show’s forbears. It opens at the Prudential Center in Newark on Wednesday night, then segues to the Izod Center in the Meadowlands (March 10), the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum (March 17) and Madison Square Garden (March 25).
The Pie Car is a mobile railroad food-service unit with a heavy-duty kitchen operation to feed hungry circus nomads. That means that sometimes purveyors in each new city have a tough time finding the right railyard — even though the train is endlessly long and hard to miss.
“Sometimes purveyors can’t find us, so I have to drive around until I find them,” said the Pie Car’s 39-year-old executive chef, Michael K. Vaughn, whose title is actually Director of Food and Facility Services since he blends the roles of cook and restaurant owner.
Mr. Vaughn also rules over a mobile 22-foot food-service trailer — called Pie Car Junior — set up in each arena during the Ringling migration, and he and his crew coordinate black-tie receptions, holiday parties and opening-night galas as well. Between the two Pie Cars, Mr. Vaughn’s staff slams out more than 2,500 meals a week.

RINGLING PIE CAR PART 2

The Pie Car provides train-dwellers with three meals a day “plus a lot of snacks in between,” Mr. Vaughn said.
Many crew members finish their work shifts after midnight. “They’ve been doing hard physical work and they want meat and potatoes — they don’t want what they call rabbit food. But a lot of the performers prefer salads, want to eat on the lighter side.”
The kitchen also takes short-order directions from its customers.
“Whatever they want, we make it,” Mr. Vaughn said. “Cheeseburgers to filet. A PBJ at 3 a.m.? We can do that. You name it? We do it.”
The classic circus pie car “was always the social hub of the show,” said Nicole Feld who, with her sister Alana, produced the new show. “It still is — the common area for everyone.” In the days of the tented big top, pie cars served up not only hearty fare but also alcohol as well as a permanent card game and a dice game or three.
The dice have faded, but “there’s still a card game,” Nicole Feld said, although the alcohol has been 86’d. “And people are always cutting jackpots,” she said, using circus patois to describe the weaving of good old fashioned circus yarns.
Mr. Vaughn’s crew of six supplies food for all age groups, from toddlers in the circus nursery to the 60-year-old family members of the performers. The menu must be eclectic, considering the 19 nationalities on the train. Many circus folk have special dietary preferences. The Moroccan performers don’t eat pork. Some Asians are vegetarians.
“Russian performers will put mayonnaise into everything, including chili,” Mr. Vaughn said with a sigh. “And the Trinidadian stilt-walkers eat everything with ketchup. They even put it on my steaks!” He smiled. “I have huge issues with people who put ketchup on steak.”
Mr. Vaughn prefers to shop for himself. “If we’re in a city for a week, I’ll get a chance to go out and locate local markets, because we prefer to live off the land,” said Mr. Vaughn, who was raised in Baton Rouge, La., and has been the food director for 15 years.
Food is sold to the performers “at cost,” Ms. Feld said.
So, a cheeseburger costs $2.85, a hot roast beef or chicken dinner with vegetables costs $5.50, and coffee is 85 cents, “not what you’d pay at Starbucks,” Mr. Vaughn said.
But he prides himself on the ability to hit a higher mark. On the menu for 15 visiting journalists was a trio of appetizers (mixed baby greens, honey-brushed scallops and Hudson Valley foie gras) and entrees that included a cilantro-lime salmon with pineapple couscous and grilled tomato, and a frenched veal chop with Lyonnaise potatoes, broccoli florets and truffled hollandaise sauce.

RINGLING PIE CAR PART 3

On the rails, Mr. Vaughn revisits his roots from time to time to prepare “smothered chicken, dirty rice and fried catfish,” he said.
The Pie Car — toward the center of the gleaming silver train with its red and white Ringling logos — has but 32 seats (many performers take their meals back to their train cabins to prevent circuslock).
Space is at a premium in the narrow 9-foot, 3-inch-wide car. All supply bins must be latched to keep them from springing open on the rails; the maroon-and-gray walls and furnishings are flame-proofed.
The new show, the Blue Unit — one of Ringling’s two railroad shows that crisscross the country — will visit 78 cities in its two-year run; of its 61 cars, 36 are coaches housing performers and crew. The rest are flatcars for the show’s props, costumes and rigging, and stock cars for the circus animals.
If the kitchen serves the 350 human members of the circus contingent, it’s up to the animal trainers to supply food to the show’s 10 Asian elephants, 12 tigers, five ponies, four llamas, two goats and five snakes (crosses between pythons and diamondbacks).
But when supplies have depleted on the road, “we’ve baked bread for the elephants,” Mr. Vaughn said, and — when a visitor expressed surprise about this dietary staple, he added: “Yes, bread. They eat a whole lot.” And once, when a meat purveyor failed to make a delivery, the Pie Car larder provided meat for the tigers.
As the lunch wound down, Mr. Vaughn sought out a visitor to clarify the whole decaf thing. “We’ll do it on order,” he said. “But there would be a riot on the train if we served that all the time.”

FROM THE MARCH 4th NEW YORK TIMES

HANSEN'S SPECTACULAR

EVANSVILLE SHRINE CIRCUS 2008

VINCE BRUCE

Vince Bruce, the British Cowboy, shows his lasso tricks in Circus Sarasota. (Special to Fort Meyers News-Press.com)

High-wire performer strolls between towers in Fla.

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) -- A world record-holding high-wire performer crossed a 50-foot span between 32-story towers in downtown Fort Myers to promote upcoming performances.
Nik Wallenda is a member of the famous Flying Wallendas circus family. He was nearly 400 feet in the air Friday afternoon when he crossed a wire just five-eighths of an inch thick and strung between the towers of High Point Place. The stunt was a promotion for Circus Sarasota, which is performing in Fort Myers through next Sunday.
The 31-year-old Wallenda set a Guinness world record in October 2008 for the longest distance and greatest height ever traveled by bicycle on a high wire.
Wallenda is a seventh generation high-wire performer. He's the great-grandson of circus legend Karl Wallenda, who fell to his death during a wire walk in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1978

HERRMANN'S LIPIZZAN STALLIONS TRAINING SEASON #1

Rider, Gabby Herrmann on "Nicky" a 18 year-old Royal Lipizzan Stallion performs during their winter training session Friday afternoon Feb. 19, 2010 located at 32755 Singletary Myakka City. (Herald-Tribune Staff Photo by Thomas Bender)

Rider, Gabby Herrmann on "Storm" with "Legacy" as they perform during their winter training session. The sessions are free and open to the public now through April 2010. (Herald-Tribune Staff Photo by Thomas Bender)

Carolyn Mueller, of Missouri, gets friendly with "Nicky" before the performance of the winter training session. (Herald-Tribune Staff Photo by Thomas Bender)

Over a thousand people can show up to any one of the Lipizzan"s performances during their winter training session. (Herald-Tribune Staff Photo by Thomas Bender)

From the Sarasota Heraold-Tribune)

HERRMANN'S LIPIZZAN STALLIONS TRAINING SHOWS

"Zack" is young Royal Lipizzan Stallion in training. Show times are Thursdays and Fridays at 3:00 p.m. and Saturdays at 10:00 a.m. (Herald-Tribune Staff Photo by Thomas Bender)

Rider, Julianna Herrmann and Gabby Herrmann oversee Duke a Royal Lipizzan Stallion that performed a rear-up. (Herald-Tribune Staff Photo by Thomas Bender)

Rider, Gabby Herrmann with "Duke" a Royal Lipizzan Stallion perform the famed "Capriole" where the stallion leaps with all four feet in the air. (Herald-Tribune Staff Photo by Thomas Bender)

Guido Herrmann son of the late Colonel Ottomar Herrmann gives out sugar cubes to the Royal Lipizzan Stallions after performing during their training session. (Herald-Tribune Staff Photo by Thomas Bender)

Rider, Julianna Herrmann walks Bella a a Royal Lipizzan Stallion back to the stable after performing during their winter training session.(Herald-Tribune Staff Photo by Thomas Bender)

DETROIT SHRINE CIRCUS NEW HOME (FROM HARTLAND SMITH)

Here are some photos of the 2010 Detroit Area Moslem Temple Shrine Circus being held this year at the Hazel Park Raceway from March 18 through March 21. Tarzan Zerbini's TZ Productions has provided the equipment and performers for this season's show. These are pix taken March 14 and March 17 by my friend Rick. You are welcome to use them on your website if you care to.--Hart

IN AN OKLAHOMA TOWN, LIFE IS A THREE RING CIRCUS

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 Ft-Worth Star-Telegram
Carson & Barnes will start its season at the Irving Mall on March 19.

It will be at La Gran Plaza in Fort Worth from April 1 to April 5.
Kelly Miller Circus will perform in White Settlement on March 16.
IN AN OKLAHOMA TOWN, LIFE IS A 3 RING CIRCUS
By STEVE CAMPBELL
sfcampbell@star-telegram.com

HUGO, Okla. -- The big top goes up and then down about 200 times a season as the Carson & Barnes Circus marches its menagerie in a nostalgic slow waltz across America.
Starting in Texas in mid-March, the traveling caravan of 24 semis, 18 RVs, elephants, roustabouts, high-wire artists, mechanics, animal trainers, clowns, a teacher and one extended family of more than 40 people will trek nearly all the way to the Canadian border in 60-mile increments.
In the fall, they follow the falling leaves back south. By mid-November, when owner Barbara Byrd starts to see smoke coming out of chimneys, she and her caravan of 130 or so circus people know it's time to take the elephants home.
At their winter quarters in Hugo, Okla., Santa Claus is waiting for a ride.
"In Hugo, Santa doesn't arrive on a sleigh -- he's elephant-powered," says Byrd, referring to the southeastern Oklahoma town's annual Christmas parade.
Since 1941, when a Hugo grocery store owner and avid circus fan persuaded Byrd's grandfather and father to move their winter headquarters from Mena, Ark., circuses have been an integral part of life in the town of about 5,000 just across the Red River from Paris. Two other tent-based circuses, the Kelly Miller Circus and the Culpepper & Merriweather Circus, also spend the off-season here.
In "Circus Town U.S.A.," big-top themes are everywhere, blazed across the water tower, painted on school walls and memorialized in bronze statues in the county library.

HUGO ARTICLE PART 2

The man on the flying trapeze has his swings set up in his yard.
There's even a retirement home for elephants at the Endangered Ark Foundation, a 120-acre sanctuary for 26 elephants started in 1993 by Byrd's parents, DR and Isla Miller.
Retired showpeople like Dudley Hamilton, 81, meet for breakfast at The Circus Diner, where vintage circus memorabilia cover every available surface.
"Circuses are like the military. Everybody retires at their last posting," said Hamilton, who spent 25 years as an advance booking agent. "I was a Depression baby who was always fascinated by circuses. I still am, so this is a good place to be. There's about 100 retired circus people here. You won't find that just anywhere."
With circus roots going back nearly seven decades, the town also has a place of honor for departed acts, a section of the Mount Olivet Cemetery dubbed "Showmen's Rest." Stone elephants mark the circus section, and colorful epitaphs are carved into ornate monuments.
Big John Strong's towering tombstone says the former circus owner was "The man with more friends than Santa Claus."
Circus manager Ted Bowman's headstone succinctly sums it up with: "There's nothing left but empty popcorn sacks and wagon tracks -- the circus is gone."
Hamilton is still here, but his monument is in place and inscribed with: "May all your days be circus days."

HUGO ARTICLE PART 3

Circus families
More than 20 circuses have called Hugo home since 1941. During the 1950s, when about 200 troupes traveled the country, up to seven circuses wintered here at one time, says City Manager Dave Rawls, a former mayor who grew up in a circus family and owned the Kelly Miller Circus for 25 years before selling it in 2006.
Both sets of Rawls' grandparents were in the business. His father worked as a circus cowboy and trick rider, and his mother was a wire walker. One of his sisters was a trapeze performer, and he and his brother had a trampoline act. "Most people in the business were raised in the business," Rawls said.
That's certainly the case at Carson & Barnes.
Byrd, 63, grew up on the circus road with her parents, and now her two daughters, Kristin Parra, 34, and Traci Cavallini, 37, hit the trail each spring with their young children and an extended tribe of in-laws and relatives.
"We're proud of the fact that we are going into the fourth generation of management," Byrd said. "I sent them both to Texas for college, but they both came back to work in the circus."
Parra, a TCU graduate who is in charge of all the animal permits, says life as a circus kid "was the best way to grow up. You got a new playground in your back yard every day."
Educating their kids is one reason circus people cherish their permanent but part-time lives in Hugo.
"I loved traveling with the circus. But we were just like one of the kids in school," said Cavallini, who with her husband, Julio, handles concessions and the circus work force. For her young boys, living with an extended family in a fleet of RVs while seeing the country is "almost like a vacation every day," Cavallini said. "It's a wonderful way to grow up."
Hugo schools let circus kids take their books with them when they hit the road. About 20 children travel with Carson & Barnes and spend two hours a day with a teacher hired by the circus, Byrd said.
"Our kids are good students. They are cheerleaders and football stars," she said. "They just get to take more field trips."

CULPEPPER & MERRIWEATHER, ZIMMERMAN, MN 2009

Kelly Miller Phelps NY 2009 July 17 Messenger Post