Human and horse diving platforms at the Steel Pier were distinctly different, I suppose the big difference being one wanted to dive and one would just as soon not dive. I have been told two different versions of how a diving horse platform worked. One, the horse was walked to the end, and the platform dropped out from under him, and two, it was dropped before the horse got to the end and he used it to "slide down." Ian or Casey, or anyone else do you have any additional insight on this?
It's a long way from Broumana, Lebanon, to Miami, but then, it took George A. Hamid, Sr., more than sixty years to get there.
Hamid was born in Lebanon in February, 1896, and spent more time on the streets learning how to tumble than he ever did in school. In 1907 his Grandmother sent him to travel with his Uncle, who was with an acrobatic troupe then touring Europe with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. George joined the show and found early success as an acrobat, but he eventually got into the business side, becoming a booking agent by 1920.
Hamid started by booking circus and outdoor acts into state and county fairs and eventually worked his way into running the fairs, taking over the New Jersey State Fair in 1936. In 1945 he took over operation of Atlantic City’s fabled Steel Pier. Meanwhile, he also remained in the circus business, starting his own show which merged with Bob Morton's show to become the Hamid-Morton Circus in 1932.
Somewhere in there Hamid also found time to raise a family. His son, George A. Hamid, Jr., would, after getting a degree at Princeton and a stint in the military in World War II, join his father in the business and, working together, they expanded their entertainment empire to include the circus, fairs, the pier, theatres, amusement parks, and all sorts of amusement enterprises, including even both men becoming two of the original partners in a little upstart professional football team known as the Miami Dolphins.
"George Hamid, Sr. was sure an enterprising man. I was not aware of the Miami Aquafair. I wonder what the reason was for three horse diving drop chutes? Horse's at different stages of training? Interesting the middle chute in the picture above doesn't have a typical drop at the front of it."
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5 comments:
Wade, the platform didn't drop down. The horse slid his front legs down the front ramp and then kicked off.
Ian
Ian,
But you have to wonder if an initial way to "give them an idea of what was expected" would not have been drag, coax, beg them out to the end, and then drop it out underneath them. It seems, from what I have seen in clips, that the horse ran up the ramp(I wonder if initially driven) and the rider jumped on as the horse went by, and the horse continues, without pause, off the end. Dropping the ramp out from under him, may have been a way to stop him from putting on the the brakes and balking as he got to the end?
A few years ago I saw a similar thing in a dog act in Romania at Circus Globus. It had more props then a Hawthorn cage act, if you can believe that. An undulating track that went around the ring to which they would place dogs in remote controlled "tanks" and race then round and round, up and down. For the finale they rolled in a huge contraption that looked like a hay conveyor except narrower. They cranked it up to about 30 foot and started the conveyor. They then placed 8 Jack Russell sized dogs with little pack on their back's on the conveyor and hooked an over hanging cable to the back packs. As the dogs stood motionless they were conveyed to the top and 3 foot from the the end there was an audible over the music "snap" as the dogs were "jerked" off the conveyer as the cable deployed a little parachute and they drifted/fell to earth. The band played Russian military marches and the presenters were dressed in pre 1950 Russian military costumes. Not being known as a tactful person, I turned to the Director of Circus Globus whom I was sitting with and said, "how appropriate. Dress as Stalin's henchmen and jerk hapless dog's off of the end of a conveyer belt. That makes more sense then Wolfgang Holtzmeir dressing as a Roman Gladiator for a lion act." That's not animal training by the furthest stretch of the imagination.
Wade
My thought was perhaps they started the ramp at a slight angle just off the ground and got the horse used to sliding down before jumping and then increased the slope of the ramp, still having it jump down onto the ground. Then it was a matter of adding the water and height. Don't you think dropping the floor out from under the horse would be so traumatic that you'd never get it up the long ramp again? Regardless, I don't think the two guys who had the Steel Pier horses when I was there knew what the heck they were doing, since they often disciplined the horses severely for hestitating (usually they got distracted and looked around at things going on on the beach off to the back of them or on windy days when all the flags were falpping a lot)and AFTER they had made the jump, as though the animal that had actually done what it was required to would remember that it took a minute or so too long to do it when it got out the tank at the other end. When I was there, they sent the horse up the long ramp by itself and it just went up and jumped. The girl lowered herself onto the horse like a cowboy getting onto a bronc.
The humans that did the diving show, on the other hand were pretty amazing. Added to the height of the ladder was the height above the water, since they dove into an opening in the pier and into the ocean below. They had to turn out the floodlights shining onto the opening before the show so as not to attract sharks.
I had my own challenges. I was working Hanneford's basketball boxers and, too many times, the balloons that they were 'playing BB with' blew into the ocean, and I had to keep the dogs from doing their own dives off the pier.
Still, it was cool being a very small part of that historical old attraction.
That fox terrier act sounds like something that would be produced in China today. I wonder how many people in the audience were entertained and how many were just plain horrifed.
Ian
Ian,
Maybe they were stopping and looking behind ore only "appeared" distracted, when actually they were looking for a way out? I don't think it is inconceivable to that that jumping may have been the lesser of two evil's?
I can identify with you issues with the dogs and the balloons going in the water, but on a more tragic note. One year when the Ringling show was in Columbus Ohio the building we were showing in was going through a major renovation. Members of the Cossack act were sitting out on what they assumed was a big, big balcony throwing a tennis ball against a 4 foot wall for their German Shepard to retrieve. On one of the throw's the ball bounced and karoomed over the wall. Without missing a beat the dog went over the wall after the ball. After the dog didn't return the Cossack's rushed to the wall and found their dog laying on the ground 15 feet below with a broken leg. They didn't realize they were playing fetch on the top of what was left of an underground parking garage.
Wade
Ian's discription of the ramp was the way it was done when i was there in the mid 60's. We had a elevator that we took the horse up to the platform and then loaded them onto the diving platform and the girl would mount him just before he dove. I would always have a short whip and sometimes a small hot shot to move them if they balked. I never had to use it a lot.
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