This is a picture of Hal Silvers who you to work as a wire performer on Grandfather’s show. He later changed his name to Hubert Castle. In the 1960’s he started the Hubert Castle International Circus.
H.C. Henry
This is a picture of J.E. Henry’s youngest brother H.C. Henry. He was not involved with the circus, but he had a son by the name of Hoyt. Hoyt Henry was a fine musician and played the trumpet with the circus for awhile. For most of his career, he played in Las Vegas as a band leader. He got his start at the Flamingo Hotel when it first opened.
Al Conners
Al’s act was one of a kind. He balanced on a wagon wheel, juggeled clubs & hoops, and also did a table rock. A table rock is placing one table on top of the other till you reach…in his act….7 high. Then a chair would be balanced on two legs on top of the tables as Al on the chair and rocked to and fro till they would fall for an exciting ending. He joind the show, married Bertha had one son named James. I never have seen another Wagon Wheel act other than his. When I was a child on the circus, Al was one of my juggling teachers.
Monkey Show
Attractions like this one would sometimes join the show and would become part of the Midway.
The Advance Cars
These were the advance cars. They are named that because they went ahead of the show to hang paper on barns, fence posts or anywhere you could hang circus advertisement for the show.
Training The Ponies
This is called the long mount . Training new tricks is a must, always making your act better.
The Caravan
J.E. Henry’s house trailer. I guess there was no time to level it, one day jumps were rough.
Rounding up the Animals
All the uncaged animals were rounded up for the move to the next town. The trail was sometimes long and hard. The water wagon was pulled by a team of horses that followed behind.
