Gunther Gebel Williams--1971

Courtesy of Nick De Wolf

The other day noted circus fan/historian Dick Flint was pondering, "why are there so few picture's available of the magical era of circus in the 1970's-1980's? You tend to see the same pictures, normally mass produced staged publicity photo's." That is an interesting observation that many, many folks have raised in the past. My opinion is that we were just too busy creating incredible, never to be seen again act's and production's, that we have the time to even think about taking pictures and movies documenting what it was we were doing. Simply, we were just too busy "getting er done" and being amazingly great. No need to spike the football and do a dance. We had scored touchdowns before, and knew we would score them again. No big deal, just what we did. CRASH, BOOM, SMASH!!!!!!! Radar, would you pick Casey up off the floor, wipe the gag off of his chin, so that I may continue please. That's a fact, back then we were just too busy doing it, to even think about getting a picture of us doing it. The competition was insane, wild and incredible and you were stacked up against the Greatest that had ever practiced the craft.

I feel another reason may have been Ringling's policy of "no pictures or filming" back stage or during a performance. There was a well known producer who would make ever effort to find out in advance what Ringlings "spec" was going to be, and then he would produce a cheap version of it, so he could be first. Do you folks remember that? LOL Failing to find out in advance he would console himself with buying props/costumes that Ringling was finished with and producing a cheaper version of what had already transpired a few years earlier, in an effort to be "just as good as Ringling." The scrambling, groveling, begging, and pleading for an opening night ticket, so you could attend as one of the "chosen" was incredible, with all pride, integrity, and dignity chucked out the window in an effort to acquire a coveted "Willy Wonka Gold Ticket." LOL Today there is so little interest, that a new show is out on the road for 3 months before folks realize there is a new show.

The vast majority of photo's I have posted today are "never before seen" or at the least "rarely seen." Thank God and bless the Circus Fans of America, and others who chose to ignore the "no pictures/filming" policy or just filmed random happenings, because their efforts have become the greatest documentation of the greatest era of the circus. NUFF SAID, CASE CLOSED!!!!!!! What are photo's like these worth? I don't know, but if an Ansel Adams or a Richard Avedon is worth from 10's of thousands to priceless, pictures like the one above and the others below are in my opinion; right around the same price range.