Posted 9/24/2006 7:29:45 PM by Editor
News from "The Connection" newsletter Tent 122 viewed 730 times
Sunday, September 24, 2006 - Sarasota, FL
Showfolks of Sarasota Tent 122 Season Opens October 4, 2006 7:30 PM
Circus: “On and Off the Road” with Dick and Terry Abbot will be the opening program of the monthly tent meetings for the 2006-2007 season.
Showfolks Tent 122 meets at the Showfolks of Sarasota Club,
5204 N Lockwood Ridge Rd, Sarasota, FL, 34234
(On Lockwood Ridge south of University) Google Maps
Terry Abbot’s early career placed her in New York City, where she followed her passion to study dance. Through an unplanned audition in 1948, she was hired by the Oae Foster Roxyettes. At that time New York City theaters placed lines of dancers at fairs and on TV programs, which gave Terry the opportunity to work with Hal Sands, the Manhattan Rockets, and the June Taylor dancers. She found the work to be plentiful, disciplined, and fun. After working many theaters and fairs, Terry joined Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, where she was taught aerial ballet by Antoinette Concello. Throughout the early 1950’s she worked for Hamid Morton, the Tom Packs shows, Pollack Eastern and Pollack Western shows, the St. Louis Police Circus, and many Shrine circuses. She was privileged to be one of only 24 dancers selected to perform with the Bob Hope tour when they were in Detroit and Chicago. Then Terry joined an aerial act known as the “Herzogs”, which was later changed to “Dalton and Bailey”. She was the unnamed “and” in the trio of girls who performed double web, trapeze, and comedy routeins. They joined a show called “Skating Vanities”, which played indoor and outdoor arenas and featured championship roller skaters and the fountain artistry of “dancing waters”, a large fountain display of spraying water, colored lights and music controlled by a keyboard. Their act performed over the dancing waters, so timing was crucial, if they wished to keep their feet dry. In addition to their aerial act, the show included a trampoline act, comedy dogs, hand balancing, and the Remus Toy Boys comedy act. Terry recalls this as “the best show she was ever on”. It was popular not only in the U.S., but also throughout Canada, Europe, and South America. The show stayed together for two years. After she retired from show business, Terry moved to Sarasota, where she met and later married Dick Abbot, an excellent musician and photographer. When she was hired by Ringling’s Hagenbeck-Wallace division, Dick took an interest in her work. Consequently, he has preserved an outstanding collection of photos which chronicle the props and costumes created for the Red and Blue circus units, ice shows, Siegfried and Roy, and Clown College_ all the way from planning to implementation. It is this wealth of “behind the scenes” slide photos that will be the centerpiece of the Abbots’ presentation to fans on October 4th 7:30 PM• DON’T MISS IT!
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