Interview 24153 – Caption Index: 21
Now when you were on the show, you were a drummer, but did you start to have interactions with the animals on the show and kinda get that you liked them, or how did that occur?… Read More
Now when you were on the show, you were a drummer, but did you start to have interactions with the animals on the show and kinda get that you liked them, or how did that occur?… Read More
He slid down a 100 foot wire from a pole, turned to somersault at the end, and landed on a sponge-covered pad. This had dawned on me after being on this show for several weeks, it dawned down me that this guy, my God, I saw him when I was… Read More
Boy. (laughs) How many years, dear?… Read More
How many years?… Read More
I applied by telegram from this ad in “Billboard” Magazine. I got an immediate answer hiring me as the drummer for Biller Brothers Circus. Biller Brothers was a good show. It only lasted down the road for three or four years. I was with it the first year. We played… Read More
No. At the beginning of the show, the show season, a man dressed in a white dinner jacket, very formally dressed, sat on the bandstand, and I learned gradually that he was the equestrian director. In other words, he managed the entire show as it was presented. His name was… Read More
And then you went to other shows?… Read More
And I remembered that forever. (laughs) But then ultimately you got involved with the circus?… Read More
In my early teens, I became a drummer. Played drums in my high school band, and gradually was invited to join small groups because there were a number of smaller groups playing for dancing around my hometown. Eventually I got a job with a circus. I know now that the… Read More
I expected to make a living by playing drums with a band. I was wrong. You cannot make a living playing drums in Sarasota, Florida, because that’s where everybody goes in the winter in show business. And I played one job at Lido Beach. I played with a band that… Read More
Well, I was… The first circus I went to was in my hometown. And the one thing I remember, outstanding memory, was seeing a man slide down a wire on his head, a 100 foot wire from its peak on the top of a pole and slide down the wire… Read More
Yes. (chuckles) Now from that, ultimately, after a period of time, you got involved with the circus, but how did you get involved with the circus?… Read More
Oh, I was probably three or four years old. Told my mother that this man slid down the wire on his head, and he wore a helmet, like a football helmet with a groove in it. Read More
Well, that was after the death of my mother. She died when I was 10 years old, and we had moved previous to her death, and I sold salamanders, at about the same age, 11 or so, I found at a lake that we had in my first 10 years. Read More
Anoles is a primarily aquatic lizard, and I found in the years following my mother’s death, one or two years later, I found an interest in Anoles lizards among a man who originally, I believe, had belonged to the National Society in Washington. He was operating a supply firm for… Read More
So you were a young businessman. Read More
When you were growing up, as a youngster, what kind of connections with animals did you have growing up?… Read More
I heard you used to sell salamanders?… Read More
I’m Frank Thompson. I was born in Bennington, Vermont. Read More
Oh (chuckles), my birthday is July 15th, 1928. Read More