The purpose of this blog is to share stories from the road of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown Alley. With this resource we can relive those days and have a better understanding of the transitions within Clown Alley over the years. I feel historically it's important to share these stories for future generations. 

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Once around the track


Bruce Warners memories of Lous little car 1976               

 I remember coming in really early one morning when we were working with Lou to get everything ready for Monte Carlo. No one was there but me and the car. 

I figured I'd never have another chance, so I struggled into it and drove it around backstage. 

When I drove back to the prop shop, all I could see were two legs from the knees down. It was Lou. 

Full of apologies, I started to crawl out of the car."Put your foot out first," he told me."Then you can stand right up and and it makes the car look even smaller." 

After I got out, he showed me how to get back in. And then he asked me if I would do him a favor-- would I drive around again so he could see the car move. 

In all the years he'd done the gag, he said, he'd never seen it from the outside . . .
God bless, my friend . . . Bruce Warner

   

One time Lou was complaining about how it hurt when he went 
over the cables in the little car. He asked Frosty what we could do about it. Frostys idea was to take the bottom out and replace it with inner tube rubber.

  Chuck Sidlow, Frosty, and myself proceeded to fix it for him. As he went out to work we watched from the back curtain to make sure everything went ok. When he hit the cables we could see it bottom out. We knew we were in trouble. As he got out of the car to do the gag he spotted us watching him. He gave us a really mad look that we would only notice. When he got backstage we expected to be really chewed out. 

All that Lou said was, " I think  the wood was softer." 



 The other day Billy Dahne and I were just talking about working on the little car. Lou came to us and asked us if we could cut the roof open and make it a little taller. Frosty asked him how much taller he needed it. Expecting to hear a couple of inches Lou said, "1/4 inch will do." We couldn't believe it only a 1/4".  And then he added, " Any more than that why do the gag?"
                                                                             - Chuck Sidlow -  
                                                                         

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