The Get Well Date $$$
Posted By thecircusblog on April 5, 2014
The “get well” date came just at the right time. Dad and I had a good season, but more money went out faster than it came in. When we got home for the winter we had high hopes of booking a lot of Christmas shows like we always did, but for some reason Christmas dates were few that year. Then a phone call came in from Cindy Bardine an X performer that we had worked with before on many different shows. Cindy had become a booking agent for the “Roaring 20’s Show in Portland Oregon. We were delighted to know that she was doing well in her new career. She said “I have this date for you in Portland, it’s only for two weeks but it is very good money and I am sure once they see your act, they will hold you over”.
Dad and I took the date and off we went on January 6th, 1967 to Portland. When we arrived at the Holt Hotel where the show room was located we discovered that the stage was nowhere near the area needed for a circus act. We were in a jack pot. Dad said it is obvious that we can not do any of the large prop tricks, so we stayed in a vaudeville mode and did more comedy. We cut the act in half and basically did stand up comedy with hand balancing, and old style slap stick, along with Tobie’s piano routine. The band was great they played a little ground jazz and somehow it just all came together.
We put together a 15 minute comedy chimp act that could work on a stage 12 by 16. Dad and I knew at that time we were not limited in our act due to area or space. The Star of the show, Gracie Hansen held us over for another 6 weeks. I think it was because of her baby Tobie. Yes it was a get well date $, because of the indifference and difficulty…. we bettered ourselves.
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