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Recollections of a Circus Pastor - Part 4 by The Rev. Don Brewer  Submitted by Editor on   6/12/2004 Last Modified Mud shows in the east 1963-1973 By The Rev. Don Brewer (don.brewer@buckeye-express.com) Click Here to list entire series HOXIE BROTHERS CIRCUS 1967 We had arranged to travel with the Earl show for an extended period in 1966, but since they cancelled their tour we did not go on the road that summer. In 1967 we joined the Hoxie show for about two weeks. Hoxie Tucker was a likeable guy, but on the other hand I never got on the wrong side of him, either. Whenever I would visit the show he always brought out folding chairs for the two of us to sit down and talk. He called me “preacher”. Once when I was visiting and we were sitting and talking fairly near a street, a fancy car drove up and an inebriated elderly lady got out and announced that she wanted to see Jack Hoxie, informing all who could hear that she had played with Mr. Hoxie in the movies. Mr. Tucker sort of ducked his head and said to me “Take care of this, preacher, I can’t stand them when they’re drunk”. I went over to the woman and listened to her story, then explained to her that this show was not named for the movie actor but for the nickname of the owner, and that the Jack Hoxie she sought had nothing to do with the show. I escorted her back to her auto, and off she drove. The Hoxie colors were purple and orange. All the trucks were purple. Betty Tucker explained that the color was for ease in finding lost trucks. She told me that when the trucks were painted red, no one paid any attention to them. “But”, she said, “When I ask someone if they saw a purple truck go by, they could always tell me which way it went.” In 1967 They bought a large new cargo trailer and had it magnificently painted with the Hoxie name on it. They had a company highlight the letters with bangles that were fastened to the side by a nail, the bangle free to move on the nail. When the wind blew, the whole sign shimmered. It really was an attractive sight. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. As the trailer was driven too close to trees, the trees scraped the bangles off as it rubbed against the sides. The cookhouse on this show was not normally for performers, but for the workingmen. Hoxie told us we were welcome to eat there, and we did, but we kind of wondered about the cleanliness of it. However, every couple days Hoxie or his wife would show up for a meal, just to keep the quality to an acceptable standard. I never felt like we got a bad meal, but the fare was definitely for the working men. In 1963 when we first met the Hoxie show, just after getting off the Earl show, Mr. Tucker showed us around. He took us in the sideshow top. There were several small cages of animals. There were two cages with a monkey in each, and in each of those monkey cages there was a rabbit. I jokingly asked if the rabbits were there for the purpose of counting more animals in the menagerie. He explained that when he bought the monkeys they had been abused, and were absolutely wild. Someone suggested that he put a rabbit in with each monkey, and he did. He reported that this worked, as the calmness of the rabbits had indeed affected the monkeys, and the monkeys could now be handled without any trouble. I wonder if there is a message here for us humans. Perhaps we all need to raise rabbits. Do cats have the same calming effect on their owners? When we were on the show in 1967 a terrible stench oozed out of the sideshow tent. I investigated and discovered a skunk in one of the cages. Assuming that the smell was coming from the skunk, I mentioned it to someone, who informed me that the stench was coming not from the skunk but from the fox, and later I found this to be so. In joining the show we offered our poodle act, which by this time had grown to three dogs. They already had a poodle act, but Hoxie graciously removed a three pony act from the lineup to make way for our act. We worked an end ring, while the other poodle act worked the center. This act had a number of poodles presented by two attractive blond sisters. Nobody watched our act, so I worked with my wife and she presented our act. We got more attention that way. Hoxie was building himself a fair spec, with several floats. I built a small animal cage to contain my four year old daughter, and it was pulled in the spec by our poodles. Music was provided by the King Charles band, featuring a tuba player named Jelly Roll. They put out good music, with a touch of honky tonk and dirty boogie. Our trailer was assigned a parking space beside a young man named Ricky. He did a cloud swing and low wire, and also .presented the camel act. The camel’s name was George, named for his owner George Hamid, from whom Hoxie was leasing him. Ricky would bring the camel over to his truck at the beginning of showtime so that he would be available. One day we heard screaming coming from Ricky’s truck. I went over and found that the camel had smelled a melon that in the truck, and was trying to get himself in the truck after the melon. Ricky was vainly trying to protect his belongings but was finally able to convince the camel to back out. Hoxie had also acquired a third elephant and Kenny Woodward was trying to work her into the act. Although she was a trained elephant off another show, Kenny was trying to work all three elephants into a new routine. I watched this training between shows several times. It was not something members of the animal rights groups would like to see. Clowning on the show was provided by two guys who would now be called “partners”. One of them did a drag act in which he pranced the entire length of the track to the tune of “The Stripper”, with all the appropriate bumps and grinds. Hoxie had learned many years before that holidays were not particularly good circus days, so for Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day he booked the show into state hospitals. It was a sell-out, so the tent was erected without sidewalls, and no tickets were sold. In 1967 the show played state hospitals around Pittsburgh on both July 3 and July 4. The tent was packed, of course, with residents of the hospitals, but many of them could respond only to the color, action, and music.. A large space was left without seats so that folks in wheelchairs and gurneys could be accommodated. It was a little difficult to perform, as the audience did not applaud at the appropriate times. In one hospital a woman with a camera stepped into the ring to take pictures of the acts, and the performers would stop and pose for her, assuming that she was the photographer or the hospital newsletter. We found out later that she was actually a patient and did not have any film in her camera. One cannot go through an experience with all those folks without having a profound sense of being very fortunate to be reasonably normal. Hoxie told me how he missed a fortune. He had a friend who was a promoter, name of Col. Tom Parker. Col. Parker one day phoned Hoxie and offered him a piece of a new country singer named Elvis Presley. Hoxie could not imagine that this guy would go anywhere, so he turned the offer down. In my years traveling on and visiting circuses as a pastor I found a consistent pattern among many circus folk that showed itself sin the fall. When I would visit shows this time of year I often heard from them a story about how they were tired of show business. They had had enough, and this would probably be their last year on the road. I would listen to them respectfully, but the next year they were always back. Another observation I made is that the circus is wonderfully planned (framed, in circus parlance) for promoters. By this I don’t mean the big shot promoters, although they certainly do have their part. I’m talking about the ordinary guy on the show. I think for instance of the seat wagon ushers on the Ringling show. There was always a half dozen folding chairs under the wagon, for the usher to promote whatever he or she could out of the patrons. Small shows offer workers “privileges” instead of salary. The privileges could be a pitch – coloring book, peanuts, boxed candy, balloons, etc. Or you could have the pie car privileges, selling sundries to the show people. On shows with a number of trucks arrangements would be made with a local gasoline company to send a tanker to the lot to fill the trucks. The guy who showed the tanker driver around and got the trucks filled would always jack the bill up a bit to make a little extra money. It is expected that there would be a little larceny in all these cases. In small shows “the marquee belongs to the owner’s wife”. Committeemen would always be in the marquee to take the tickets in order to keep track of the gate for an accurate settleup that evening. But once the show started, the owner’s wife would come and say “Why don’t you boys go in and see the show and I’ll take care of things here”. Once the ticket booth was closed, latecomers would come directly to the marquee, where the owner’s wife would take their cash and let them into the show. What she took in was never reported, and was hers. The Hoxie show of 1967 was bigger that the show I saw first in 1963. Hoxie was moving from a small show to a medium size one. I don’t know if it was the winter after we had been on it or later, but one Christmas we got a Christmas card from Hoxie proclaiming “Praise the Lord – a new tent is born!” Wish I had kept that card. Hoxie had ordered made the largest round possible with one set of quarters, a 120 foot round. It had no middle, just one center pole. It was still a three ring circus, as the rings surrounded the center pole. It was quite an attractive affair, and provided a good view for the patrons, as the three rings were grouped together and were easy to see. However, there were problems. The wind caused the tent to twist around the centerpole. They did everything they could to prevent that by guying out the quarter poles diagonally, but in the long run the one pole tent did not work, and they went back to a more traditional style. I’m not sure that this recollection is correct, but I am thinking that even in mid season Hoxie ordered a fifty foot middle and another centerpole. I am always fascinated by the new innovations in the circus. Today’s tents are far superior to those of the past. Email This Resource   Copyright © 1999-2015 Circus Fans Association of America and Authors. For more information view our  Copyright Policy & Privacy Policy .

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