I received this email, and was flabbergasted that this jacket has remained hidden all these years. I believe this was GGW's first costume jacket worn for the ridding act when first appearing on the GSOE. Double amazing there appears to be blood stains from an injury by the tiger. Given the strides in DNA sequencing and cloning that have taken place the past few years, this may be a solution to the sorry state of wild animal act's and circus excitement in general. Make another Boss and do a Back By Popular Demand Tour.
Hi, I saw this item on eBay and thought you might be interested.
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8 comments:
Doesn't this really belong to Kenneth Feld?
Anonymous,
Why would you suggest it belongs to Kenneth Feld? Possibly it was given to GGW when it's use was no longer needed. Or possibly like Hawthorn GGW had paid for it? Ringling(Don Foote) designed the costumes for me when I went to Ringling in 1984. Hawthorn paid for their construction, as per Ringlings approval. When the contract ended the costumes were owned by Hawthorn. Unfortunately, as was Hawthorn's policy those beautiful "Foote" designed/inspired costumes were used by a number of people who later were contracted to Hawthorn. Have some act's "stolen" costumes from Ringling? Yes they have, but that is the world of gypsies. I would bet dollars to donuts such was not the case with GGW.
Wade
Wade and all,
Another part of the possibility puzzle is the truck load of wardrobe that was hauled to the Venice dump. While I am not exactly sure about the year, it included horse and elephant blankets as well as costumes.
Once it was dumped, it was quickly snapped up by mostly one individual but it all went away from the Venice dump. While the RBBB people tried to make it out as stolen property, once it was in the dump, it wasn't RBBB's property anymore.
Bob
If it was made in Germany, it probably came over with him and was owned by Gunther, but how did it get to Ebay? I'll fire of the question to the seller and see what he says
I emailed the seller. He said he was selling it for a friend in Sarasota, but didn't say who it was or how he got it.
The world of the circus, which for the most part has been touted for it's "warm and cuddly, welcome children of all ages" persona for the most part is similar to living in the shadow world of espionage. :) Most likely why there has been so much wrongly stereotyped information about it from folks on the outside looking in. I received this personal email titled, Top level Confidential in regards to this jacket and will respect that request by censoring the letter. Jesus, this is a great man's costume for sale not plutonium or arm's to the enemy, for Christ's sake. LOL
The jacket is listed under BLANK'S ebay account, but I don't know if HE/SHE actually has possession of it OR if HE/SHE is listing it for someone else.
BLANK is a cousin of the BLANK or BLANK Family and worked in concessions on RBBB, I think but am not 100 per cent.
HE/SHE is a member of Showfolks of Sarasota and was married to BLANK who died last year.
BLANK often lists the Showfolks Circus programs which HE/SHE picks up for free at the club.
BLANK had a treasure trove of RBBB wardrobe and elephant blankets - I know several people who purchased some items. Perhaps it is HIS/HERS (???)
Bob,
I never heard the story about the "cache" of costumes and harnessing being found and pilfered from the city dump. The story I always heard was that they were stored in a storage unit in, if I recall correctly, Palmetto. Through an oversight by a secretary at the main office in Vienna the rent for the unit had become due and behind, and as is standard procedure in such cases arrangement's were made to sell the contents at public auction. The owner of the storage unit's was a personal friend of "mostly one individual" and the "HIS/HERS (???)" mentioned above. This person's initials are Jeanette Williams. On the QT "mostly one individual" waited for the day of the public auction and purchased the entire unit for next to nothing, as it's contents or owner were not advertized(at the behest of the storage unit's owner, who was a personal friend, see above.) I may be wrong, but I think this jacket would have been to old to have been included in that purchase, and it is inconceivable that Ringling would have dumped stuff like this in a city dump. For what it is worth, like the story above, I had always heard that Ringling had to keep costumes/props for a certain number of years in order to use said items as a tax write off. Back when it was "The Greatest Show on Earth" said items were normally only used 2 years and a new show/theme was built(not like the modern way of recycling old costumes/props to Vegas show's, ice show's or other units). That meant storing the 2 year old items for a certain period of time in order to use the tax advantage of depreciation.
Yes a number of folks have purchased costumes and other items to use in their act's, so they can "pretend" they are "just like Ringling." I can't imagine a professional doing that, as I felt degraded when Hawthorn insisted I wear Bill Golden's old costume's in 1976, and felt shame when my beautiful Don Foote costumes were recycled and added to for the use of following Hawthorn trainers.
Wade
Addendum to Bob,
Yes Ringling did try to get said items back, but to no avail as it was a legal public auction of a rent deficient storage unit. The mentioned secretary in charge of keeping track of such things, was 86'ed post haste and sent into a witness protection program. Not really, I just made that "witness protection program" deal up. LOL
Wade
Wade,
Sounds like the same story to me. I think we are on the same track. While trash pile / storage facility don't match, everything else does.
Bob
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