Rebuilding Ancient Monuments in Mesoamerica
Friday, July 13, 2012
Teotihuacan--Unesco World Heritage Site
Who Built the Great City of Teotihuacan? -- National Geographic
Mysteries still unanswered. Pyramids on top of pyramids? Wrap your brain around that?
Temple of the Feathered Serpent--Unesco World Heritage Site
The first culture to use the symbol of a feathered serpent as an important religious and political symbol was Teotihuacan. At temples such as the aptly named "Quetzalcoatl temple" in the Ciudadela complex, feathered serpents figure prominently and alternate with a different kind of serpent head. The earliest depictions of the feathered serpent deity were fully zoomorphic, depicting the serpent as an actual snake, but already among the Classic Maya the deity began acquiring human features
Teotihuacan--Unesco World Heritage Site
Pyramids of Death - National Geographic (Luciano Silva)
The amazing discovery of one of the oldest, but also powerful civilizations of the world unknown. Are some of the largest pyramids in the world. Millions of tons of stone raised above the landscape, a mix of wealth and poder.Contudo were not the pharaohs who built them. This is the great city of Teotihuacan in Mexico, instead of one of the most powerful civilizations of their identity at the same time.This of its founders, who spoke the language and even the original name of the city disappeared. The latest findings, however, showed human remains inside the pyramids. DNA analysis shows it is not the Mayans, Incas or Aztecs, but of an entirely unknown civilization ... Researchers reconstruct these remarkable findings and reveals the mystery of the rise and fall of one of the most powerful and ancient civilizations of the world unknown ...
Pirâmides da Morte - National Geographic
Teotihuacan--Unesco World Heritage Site
Teotihuacán – "The Place Where Men Become Gods”
Teotihuacán in Mexico
Teotihuacan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I found the Talud-tablero architectural style of platforms on top of sloping walls, photo below to be most interesting. Structurally superior to anything I can imagine.
Talud-tablero - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
This Is As Big As The Big Time Will Ever Get
Now that I have been with the Aguilar's for a year, and have done such an incredible job, they graciously have provided me with a limousine and driver. Thank you Poncho and Ricardo!!!!! Juan, my driver, pictured above with myself the day the stretch(with the custom raised roof to accommodate my hat's) was delivered, has been just fabulous. 7AM on the nose he is at the hotel entrance and at 12PM on the nose drives up to take me back to the hotel. He wears a black headband so we can go fast and the hair stay's out of his eyes. I told him he looked like Fredrick Pinder, but he didn't know who that was. He also customized his sun glasses by breaking off the ear pieces and tying the eye pieces around his head with a shoe lace, kinda like racing goggles, so they don't fall off when we go over the multitude of speed bumps. Tu mi buen amigo, Juanito :)
Chincuonca Mexico
Chincuonca, a textile and manufacturing town advertises it's self as the "largest street market in Mexico" and from what I have seen so far, that is indeed a fact. On Saturday and Sunday's the town is literally transformed from a sleepy little community into a total street market over night.
150 pesos converts to a little over 11.00 dollars
I left my phone number and email address with the gentleman who owns this shop, and he is going to contact me if and when some women comes in, try's on these jeans, and they fit. That should give me the first opportunity to propose marriage to her.
Shrinking Lot's, Like Shrinking Wildlife Habitat, Is A Worldwide Problem
One month of steady rain, doesn't make small lot's any easier to deal with. This lot was split by two wall's. The tiger tent was set against this wall with the guy lines staked out on the other side where part of the performers trailers were parked. The menagerie top, seen in the below post was set up on the other side of the other wall, with additional trailers and equipment.
Although my "tent show experience" is limited to 9 months on Circus Vargas in 1981, I don't ever recall losing part of the lot to an abandoned cock fighting ring. Maybe now I have truly seen it all. :)
Poncho Aguilar setting up his new menagerie top, in a blinding rain storm. In response to "blue bloods" or "Generational(many generations)" being the backbone of an industry, Poncho, like many of us, joined the circus setting up equipment, before becoming a foot juggler and slack wire artist. He now has 4 circus's. Not bad. It is easy to rest on the laurels of what your family did 3 generations back. It takes something different to be your own person and create something.
Circo Aguilar--Chincuonca
Poncho and Ricardo Aguilar's solution to small, shrinking lot's is to front another unit with a smaller top. Just incredible!!!! If you recall, I posted photo's a few months ago with pictures of the new yellow and green top and menagerie that was delivered. This week a new red and white top and menagerie was delivered and set up. I talking complete new, from seat jacks to fencing. My understanding is the other top is 22 meters across and this new one is 18. It was set up and performed in this week to work out any kinks, and will be used for the new show, which will give the Aguilar's 4 unit's on the road along with Circo Chino run by Polo Aguilar.
Dailey Bros. Circus
I sure don't know how something as beautiful as the old circus wagons could have turned into something as ugly as this.
John Robinson's Menagerie 1900
How did this cottage cage work? Was it 5 small cages, or 3, one on each end and one in the middle?
John Robinson 10 Big Shows Cottage Cage
20 foot Cottage cage with the John Robinson 10 Big Shows 1901
Cottage Cage Cline, when are you going to share your history lesson on cottage cages with the world? Or are you going to sit on it and deprive the rest of us?
Carl Hagenbeck India Tableau (Elephant Tableau) No Longer In Existence
Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus India Tableau carrying a band circa 1917
The
Hagenbeck-Wallace India Tableau or Carl Hagenbeck Elephant Tableau (it
has been referred to as the India Tableau) had the elephant carvings
at the rear of the wagon rather than in the middle with two standing
figures and a Buddha ahead of the animal. The wagon had a long and narrow body
with a large capacity for baggage.
By Joseph T. Bradbury. Bandwagon, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Jan-Feb), 1958, p. 7.
(dates corrected)
This wagon was built in the winter of 1905-06 by the Bode
Wagon Works Of Cincinnati. It was one of a set of wagons ordered for the new
Carl Hagenbeck Trained Animal Show which was put on the road for the 1906 season
by equal owners C. Lee Williams, Carl Hagenbeck, John H. Havlin, and Frank R.
Tate. It was a huge railroad show featuring all new equipment and was managed by
C. Lee Williams and Lorenz Hagenbeck. The show was on the road for the 1905 and
1906 seasons and this wagon was used as a tableau wagon.
In the winter of 1906-07 the Hagenbeck show was sold to B. E. Wallace,
who had operated the Great Wallace Shows for a number of years. Wallace combined
the two shows, keeping the best equipment, and selling off the surplus, and
putting on the road for the 1907 season the Carl Hagenbeck Trained Animals &
Great Wallace Shows Combined. Since the Hagenbeck physical equipment was newer
it was predominate in the new show, the older Wallace property being scattered
to Campbell Bros. and other shows. The Elephant tableau remained on
Hagenbeck-Wallace for the rest of its circus life, serving under several
different managements.
On June 29, 1913 B. E. Wallace sold the show to a syndicate composed of
John Talbot, Jerry Mugivan, Charles Hagaman, and a Mr. Harrison. In 1915 the
show was sold to Edward Ballard.
In 1919 Ballard entered into a three way partnership which later became
the American Circus Corporation, with Jerry Mugivan and Bert Bowers who had put
a 28 car John Robinson Circus on the road in 1918.
For years some of us were of the opinion that the Elephant tab was
destroyed in a 1917 wreck which knocked out the steam calliope and other wagons,
but a few years ago an old time circus musician, Harry Shell, who currently is
touring the country with his steam calliope, came up with a batch of photos
taken on Hagenbeck-Wallace in 1921, a year he was on that show. Clearly shown is
the Elephant tableau which appears to have been used as the No. 2 bandwagon that
year. This is the last photo of this wagon known to this scribe.
I would assume the wagon was dismantled in Peru.
Courtesy of John Goodall
Sells-Floto Circus Elephant Bandwagon Now at the Ringling Museum, Sarasota)
Sells-Floto Circus circa 1919. The photo is from the Melvin collection
From CircusNoSpin Sarasota, Fla. 1950
Sells-Floto Elephant Tableau
By Joseph T. Bradbury. Bandwagon, Vol. 1, No. 5 (Nov), 1957, p. 9.
(With corrections by Fred Dahlinger in 2009)
Elephant Bandwagon, Sells-Floto Circus and Buffalo Bill Wild West 1915
Sells-Floto Elephant Bandwagon shown as it appeared in 1915 on
the Sells-Floto Champion Shows of the World and Buffalo Bill Wild West. With
this article I began a trilogy on Elephant tableau wagons. This one is much more
familiar that the other two, but all three are quite similar and used to give us
wagon historians some trying moments a few years ago when we were attempting to
figure out just what wagon belonged to what show and when. The wagon shown in
the illustration is commonly called by historians the Sells-Floto Elephant
tableau although it did see service on another show as we shall find out.
(Dahlinger) The Sells-Floto bandwagon was commissioned in
late 1905 and first used in 1906. The order is referenced in "Billboard,"
December 23, 1905, page 16. The earliest dated image of the vehicle is in
"Billboard," September 8, 1906. The wagon was constructed by the Bode Wagon
Company of Cincinnati, Ohio and not at the show's Denver, CO winter quarters.
This data was contained in "Bandwagon" articles in July-August 1974 and
November-December 1982. Bradbury confirmed the wagon's presence on the 1937
Hagenbeck-Wallace circus in articles about the season's tour in "White Tops,"
Nov-Dec 1968 and Jan-Feb 1969.
The wagon was built for the Great Floto Shows, owned by Fred
Bonfils and Harry Tammen, with Otto Floto also in on the deal. Bonfils and Tamen
were the owners of the Denver Post newspaper and Otto Floto the sports editor.
The show became known as the Sells-Floto Circus for the 1906 and following
seasons. There is a chance that the actual carvings on the wagon were furnished
by the Bode Wagon Works. My first photo of the wagon shows it as the No. 1
bandwagon on Sells-Floto taken in Mexico City on Dec. 2, 1906. It was pulled by
a fourteen horse hitch.
The wagon served as the No. 1 bandwagon through the years on
Sells-Floto. In 1914 and 1915 the show was called Sells-Floto Circus and Buffalo
Bill Wild West, and Buffalo Bill himself was with the show.
The wagon was on the show on through the 1924 season and then no
doubt was there also in 1925. All of the three American Circus Corporation
units, Sells-Floto, Hagenbeck-Wallace, and John Robinson went out in 1925
intending not to parade, but in late May of that year the parade was revived.
The Billboard claims that the shows went out prepared to parade if it was felt
it was necessary for business reasons. With that we can assume the wagon was
also there in 1925.
In 1926 the parade on Sells-Floto was abandoned, but whether this
wagon was parked at Peru quarters or was still taken on the road I am unable to
state. It does not appear in any photos I have seen of Sells-Floto from 1926
through 1932 the last year Sells-Floto was on the road, but during that time
other tableaus were carried on the road some seasons, for example in 1929 both
the Buffalo tableau and the old India or Jardiner tab were on the show.
In 1933 the Elephant tableau appeared on the Hagenbeck-Wallace
Circus now enlarged to 40 cars since Sells-Floto was not sent on the road. In
1933 manager Jess Adkins tried a few old time street parades to stimulate
business and the Elephant tableau was used in those parades. The 1933 spot
parades were so successful that in 1934 Hagenbeck-Wallace featured a daily
street parade, one of the largest and best in history. The show was enlarged to
50 cars a move made necessary primarily to carry the added parade equipment. The
Elephant tableau was used in the 1934 parade, although not as one of the
principal bandwagons.
In 1935 the show was cut down considerably and only a few parades
were given and those in opposition stands only. The 1935 show was known as
Hagenbeck-Wallace and Forepaugh-Sells Combined Circus, the latter title being
tacked on to preserve the title from falling into public domain and also for tax
purposes, so I've been told. There is a good chance the Elephant wagon was on
the show in 1935 but I've yet to find it in any photos I've seen of that show.
In 1936 the Hagenbeck-Wallace show did not go on the road but
remained in Peru quarters.
For 1937 season Ed Arlington and Frank Hatch leased the title and
property and made a small fortune during the early weeks of the season before
selling their interest to Howard Bary who continued to take the show on the road
and do a good business all during that season. The Elephant tableau is supposed
to have been taken on the road in 1937. The show did make a few parades in the
early part of the season but canceled them later.
In 1938 Hagenbeck-Wallace again went out under Bary's management,
but the Elephant wagon was left in Peru quarters. It remained there until 1944
when the Ringling interests sold the quarters. The wagon along with a few others
who got reprieved from the large wagon burnings that took place there and was
shipped to winter quarters in Sarasota.
The wagon remained in Sarasota rotting away in the sun and rain
until late 1949. When I visited there in February 1949 the wagon was sitting out
in the wagon graveyard down to the hubs in sand. A couple of guys were living in
it, had knocked out one side and were hanging their wash out on a line. It was
fast going to complete ruin, but fortunately John Sullivan of the Museum of the
American saw that the wagon was rescued and put in the museum to join several
other old wagons that had been placed there a year earlier. It is preserved at
the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, FL.
(Dahlinger) Joe's description of one side being knocked out
of the vehicle is inaccurate. Two screened windows were cut into the right side
upper corners and an "appendage" applied at the back. This work was undone and
reconstruction took place. A recent inspection reveals that the vehicle is among
the most intact in existence today. Fred Dahlinger
Courtesy of John Goodall
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