Theatrical Dates
Posted By thecircusblog on September 2, 2009
Eastern cities like Chicago, St Louis and New York were a haven for night club and theater performers as well as some western venues. But the east was the melting pot and many of the single circus acts like Jan Latin, The Royal Rockets, Pancho and Danita Roche are seen in this photo… top left.The 20’s, 30’s and 40’s were the “Hay Day” for the clubs. A main agent and producer was Babe Clatterbuck. Above is a photo of one of his fliers. When the war broke out in 1941 show business went though the roof. Those performers that did not go into the military gave much of their time doing shows at military hospitals, USO shows and on military bases. Some of you may remember the name Benny Fox who produced many USO shows on the west coast in which my mom and dad worked with the dog act and rolling globe. In Benny’s younger years he was a flag pole sitter and he and his wife Betty did a roller skating act on a 24 inch curricular platform. This platform was rigged out from the top of a building several stories high. This type of act was very popular in the 1930’s and was mostly used for a department store advertisement. You may have seen this type of act in news real stock footage. When the war came to an end,things slowed down and dates now were few and far between. Pancho and Danita came west with a dance group and joined the Siebrand Circus in 1949 for one season. The dance group left. Pancho and Danita stayed with their Latin American dance routines. This started in 1950 and they never left the Siebrand Circus until it was no more.
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