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r was reak-with ir oil g my'slanded in and and landRINGMASTER HAROLD RONK SINGS AND ‘SENDS’ CIRCUS ACTS Girl Performers and Animals Obey Commands of Handsome Baritone—Staff Phntft by TOM SHAWWINNER OF ALL AGES'-Plays in Arena; Chimps, Clowns AllBy FRANK ANDERSON Staff WriterSome 7,000 deiegales of wholesome entertainment convened Thursday night in Long Beach Arena to nominate a. winner for all seasons and ages — the 98th edition of Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus.If pnlisters George Gallup or Louis Harris had been there to take the public pulse, they would have found it racing to the tunes of Merle Evans, the whistle of Ringmaster Harold Ronk and the glitter of 60 acts and 33 displays.The people in the Arena didn’t run away with the circus, but the circus ran away with their hearts and imaginations. Both will return to earth Sunday night when the show concludes a four-day, nine-performance run in Long Beach...Who can be sad watching the Jacques •Rhodin chimpanzees, the bittersweet clown face of Otto Griebling, Stephenson's dogs, or the wire wizardry of the Six' Tundes?. And what 60-year-old doesn’t fee! six .when his eyes become spotlights for the aerialisls of the speclacular Winter Wonderland?★ ★ ★WIIAT is a circus?■A circus is..a four-year-old boy with a cornet wiggling in his seat and playing along with Bandmaster Evans.A circus is a cage-full of restive tigers, sophisticated French poodles, bored Arabian stallions and wrinkled elephants who have seen it all, but still get turned on bythe “Greatest Show on Earth.”A circus is Ringmaster Ronk telling a reporter the three essentials under the big tup — Evans' music, his whistle, and the lights.“They cue it all,” Ronk said, “Without them, there would be no tempo, no pace— a general blah ”Ronk, who whistles while he works, says he has been with the'circus for 17 years and has never losLhis enthusiasm.★ ★ ★“EVERY NIGHT'S different ” he said. “The acoustics change with the arenas, the chemistry with the audience changes with the towns, and the aliveness mounts and surpasses itself with the volume of applause.” .......Ronk .said Ike eifceus kccps -peHomiers young, and he’s never known an old clown.■Tve never known an old circus fan,” he said.. “Once this thing gets in your blnnri, it tingles for life and makes ynu always a youngster at heart.”Unlike most circus ringmasters, Ronk hates to wear his stovepipe hat and picks it off a chair in the audience only to. make a low sweeping bow. He’s also a nonconformist in costume—having been, known to commit circus' heresy by appearing in the center ring in a blue coatk k: -kTHIS MAKES THE CIRCUS tradition-alists see red—Urn color of. the coal; he sometimes delights in leaving in his dressing room.In a week which began with racial tension and saw other disasters on land, at sea, and in the air, the circus is an oasis. It’s a never-never land, bigger than life and filled with the magic of a childhood that never fades.Outside the wails of the Arena might be heard the roar of guns and the smell of burning buildings, hut inside—ageless and sheltered from it all—is the eternal gladness of three rings, and the smell of greasepaint and the roar of the crowd./IT :a M tems persi Com Wed sued nppr $1.2; TlcBC0 bold imp! idea • comran the Con day ing ferei M livir . Grai It hare deci Am*City evei ' in LHA mcnoiduelworthenamlaunConV,'iy 3irttii.thesom a sei C his sho' Mis: enoiappigooiF;fronMeiithesommorminimiR]JLWIT - CtingThucus
Newspaper Details
Press Telegram
Long Beach, California, US
Fri, Aug 16, 1968
Page 34
Full Page
Clipped by
Jerry D.
USA 01 Aug 2020
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