Document text
Accession -no.
WPA L. C. PROJECT
Form -3
UNIT
W e?‘ -r,
Date received
el/ /.V
Consignment no.
Shipped from
Label
Amount
Collection (or Type)
Title ee--f-;-e..ic-Fe-, Averrya...."
Place of origin
Project worker
Project editor
Remarks
Date.
Form A
Federal Writers' Project
Circumstances of Interview Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Am C. Sherbert
Address Project Office
Subject Circus Days and Ways.
Date January 134 1939
Name and address of informant W. E. "Doe Van Alstine, Jefferpon Hotel.
Cori' Jefferson and First Avenues, Portland, Oregon
Date and time of interview Three visits afternoons and eveniags.in,July 1938.
Place of interview Jefferson Hotel.
Name and address of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant
None.
Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you None.
Description of room, house, surroundings, etc. Typical third-rate hotel.
Room small, meagerly furnished; iron bed, small dresser.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
13864
Form B Federal Writers' Project
Personal History of Informant Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker A. C. Sherbert,
Address Project Office
Subject Circus Days and Ways.
Date January 13, 1939.
Name and address of informant W. E. "Doc" Van Alstine, Jefferson Hotel.
Cor. First and Jefferson Avenues, Portlandk Oregon.
Informabion obtained should supply the folin,7.,_n7
1. .L:1,;ecAry G. Cc,oxpatiuns c,r6 acomolishments with dates
2, Placa and, date of birth 7, Spec:-.. in-,erests
3. ID:11-,; 8. Comri:n_Ty '2„11-1 roll;Jous activities
4. Plac3s lived in, with dates 9. Descr7ptir)!, of Ini.r).man'c
5. Education, with dates 10. Other points gained in interview
1. Mother, Kate Van Alstine. Father, Doctor Thomas Van Alstine.
2. Kinderhook, New York, 1847.
3. None.
4. Portland, Oregon since 1917, itinerant circus worker prior to 1917.
5. Fifth reader.
6. Circus worker until 1917; house painter since.
7. None.
8. None.
9. Looks younger than age claimed. Hair, iron -grey; oval face, dark complexion;
medium height; rheumatic walks with difficulty. Always wears old-fashioned
black, derby hat, with vide, rolled brim.
10. None.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
Form C Federal Writers' Project
Text of Interview (Unedited) Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name cf worker A. C. Sherbert, Date January 13. 1939.
Address Project Office.
Subject Circus Days and Ways
Name and address of informant W. E. "Doc" Van Alstine. Jefferson Hotel,
Cor. First and Jefferson Sts., Portland. Oregon.
Text:
I was born in the little town of Kinderhook, New York, in 1847. My father
was Doctor Thames Van Alstine, who later served as a surgeon in the Union Army
during the Civil War.
At an early age I had a yearning for the show business. School didn't
interest me a bit. I hated books. I wasn't a danged bit interested in reading
about whet somebody else did, or where they went, or what they saw. I wanted to
go, do, and see things for myself, and I couldn't think of any better way to
satisfy my mnbition than to join up with a circus.
School, in my day, wasn't much like it is now. Boy, oh boy, in them days
if you didn't toe the line you got what was comin' to you. Teachers and parents
both, in them days, had spare -the -rod -spoil -the -child ideas, and if a youngster
didn't do exactly what he was told, they used to lay it on plenty with a hickory
switch, or samethin' just as good.
COMA a day, once, when I WAS a young gaffer in my early teens, I had a
chance to run way with the Mighty Yankee Robinson Circus. The lure of sawdust
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).
Van Alstine Form C 2
and spangles was much stronger than family ties or the red schoolhouse, so off I
goes. I was only with the circus four days when I was dragged home to the family
fireside and my place at the table, but not without a trip to the barn first, where
my father strapped me around the legs and across the back with a tie -strap until
I wasn't hardly able to navigate. As tough a lickin' as the old man gave me, I
soon forgot it but I didn't ever forget my first four days with the circus.
The thrill of them few days with Robinson's circus stuck with me through
more than a half century of circus troupin'. I was hired as a "block" boy. The
block boy had to help set up and "strike" (tear down) the "blues". Incidentally,
general admission circus seats has been blue aa far back as I can remember. There
wasn't no commoner job on the circus, but I remember haw proud and thrilled I was
merely to touch a piece of circus equipment: the blocks, the angle pieces, the seat
boards anything that was a part of "the circus".
And I remember haw I gazed in awe at the performers, and to think I was so
close to them. I seen a lot of beautiful women in my day, but I don't believe I
ever seen a woman in my later life that looked so beautiful to me as them circus
women did. I had the feelin' that they was queens, or goddesses, or samethial too
beautiful to belong to this world. And I recall the thrill of thrills when a clown
circus folks call the funny men "Joeys" said, *Rey, lad, run out to a butcher
shop and get me a pound of lard." The Joeys used lard for taking off their "clown
white", or make-up. I was so excited at havin' a performer actually speak to me
that I couldn't say yes or no. But with the ten cent piece he give me clutched
tight in my fist, I run like lightnin' to the nearest butcher shop. Boy, oh boy,
was I happy'
I well remember when I goes back to school after my four days with the
circus. I cut quite a figger among the handful of bumpkins that was my school-
Van Alstine Form C 3
mates. Bein' with a circus made ma a hero among them youngsters, and did I glory
in it. I knew I'd have to stay in school awhile longer I couldn't help myself,
but in the back of my head I knew that when I got a little bit older I was goin'
to join up with a circus and be a showman for always, and always.
My family was determined that I was goin' to be a doctor, like my old
man WAS. They insisted that I take up the study of medicine and follow in my
father's footsteps. In them days, anybody that thought they was cut out for it,
could be a doctor if they wanted to. All you needed was a little schoolin' and be
handy around sick folks and not be afraid of the sight of blood. All medicine was
bitter, if it was any good, and if they didn't know what ailed a person they 'cupped'
him and drew some blood. Then he either got better or worse, as God milled. I
might of made a good doctor, at that, if I only could of got show business off my
mind.
When I got a few years older, I was able to out -talk the old folks and
get my own way. I give up all thought of pill-rollin' and left home to join a
circus, and I stuck with circuses for nearly sixty years of my life. Studyint for
a doctor, though, give me the nickname, "Doe, and wherever on this globe the gray
dawn sees a "big top" bein' raised, that's the name I'm knawed by.
I been asked to draw a comparison between the circus of today and the
circus of the past. Well, they just ain't no comparison. The circus in this day
and age seams really to be the stupendous, gigantic, colossal exhibition the advance
billing and the "barkers", "spielers", and "grinders", claim for it. The oldtime
circus was a puny forerunner of the mammoth aggregations now on the road. The
circus your grandfather went to see as a boy, was nothin' more than a variety, or
vaudeville, show under canvas. Pretty near all the acts they done in the circus
Van Alstine Form C 4
could of been put on in even the ordinary theaters of that time. Could you imagine
the Ringling Brothers' B B show of today tryin' to squeeze itself into any theater,
auditorium, or indoor arena in any town, say, like Portland?
The people who works for circuses today is all trained specialists. Every-
body has only one job, and he's supposed to do that one thing well. The oldtime
trouper was a Jack-of-all-trades. He could shoe a horse, if he had to, he could
clown, drive a ten -horse team, lay out canvas, and fill in at anything around the
lot except perhaps aerial acrobatics, and believe it or not, many of the old-
timers could even "double" in acrobatics.
The circus has always been one of the world's most progressive enter-
prises. New inventions, if they was something the circus could use, was grabbed
up by the circus as soon as they come out. The circus was always away ahead of
anybody else in lighting equipment. When stores and business places throughout
the country VAS Still using tallow dips for light, the circus was using calcium
flares bright enough to almost blind you-, The pressure gaslights used by circuses
in the early part of this century was intensely brilliant by contrast with the dim,
dinky lights of the average town the circus visited. Many small-town oldtimers will
tell you they first saw Edison's marvelous incandescent lamps when some circus came
to town.
Yes, the circus of today is bigger and better in every way than circuses
was, even twenty-five years ago. But the kids of today ain't so vide -eyed and
amazed at what they see at a circus as they was a quarter of a century ago. So
many marvelous things goes on all the time in this day and age that kids probably
expect more from a circus now than it's humanly possible to give.
In my more than a half century with circuses I worked on all the big shows
one time or another. The circus has took me to the far corners of both hemispheres,
Van Alstine Form C 5.
and has give me many exciting experiences. I seen circuses miraculously missed
by cyclones in the prairie states. When you're standin' in the middle of a couple
million dollars' worth of circus equipment, it's always a thrill to see a blackish,
greenish cloud with its trailing, death -dealing funnel, bearing down on your show.
The 'stock' in the 'animal top' (menagerie tent) knows a storm is comm' same as
you do. Makes you feel kind of funny in the pit of the stomach, to hear them
snarl, howl, whine, bellow and roar as the storm gets nearer. They get nervous,
testy, mean, and it all adds to the confusion on the lot.
I WAS with a show in Hutchinson, Kansas, once when a twister didn't miss.
As the twister's whirling funnel come towards us, all hands got busy and begun
grouping all loose and movable equipment and gear and lashing everything together
with tie ropes and tie chains. The Animal wagons was hastily covered. We drops
all canvas flat to the ground and strikes all poles. We didn't have much warning.
A few seconds later the twister was upon us and cuttin' a swath right through the
center of the lot. We WAS what you could call lucky, though, because nobody got
seriously hurt and we didn't lose no stock (animals). But the big top was picked
up and torn to shreds, and small parts of it scattered all over the surrounding
country.
Train wrecks is another thing. I been through many mall wrecks in the
course of years of troupin', and was alson one disastrous crackup. The railroads
in the old days didn't have no block signal systems like they got now, and as
circus trains was always extras and not regularly scheduled trains, wrecks was
frequent.
At Gary, Indiana, I was with Sells-Floto circus, when we had a wreck
where over a hundred persons was killed, and a lot of valuable stock was lost.
A "Hey Rube" is practically unknown today. A Hay Rube was a fight
between the circus folks and the town yokels. These ruckuses used to come regular-
Van Alstine e Form C 6.
ly every so often in the old days. Many of the Hey Rubes was started by folks
figgerin° they wasn't gettins all the circus advertised; if the stupendous wasn't
stupendous enough, the gigantio wasn't gigantic enough, the colossal wasn't
colossal enough, or the *largest in captivity" wasn't large enough, the town folks
felt like they had grounds for a fight. Another oommon cause of Hey Rubes ems
because petty thieves, purse -snatchers and pickpockets. followed circuses from
town to town. The circus got blamed for what them slicker, did, but they was
nothing they could do about it. When the creeks hit a crowd too hard, end too
many people got plucked, the town folic got together and tried to take it out an
the circus people. Pretty near every Hey Rube I ever seen ended with the teen
folks oomin' out second best physically, although the circus usually lost out
financially. Lawsuits always followed a Hey Rube, and circus people had no
chance for a square deal in a prejudiced small-town court.
I was in a Hey Rube in Lincoln, Illinois, once. It was one of the
toughest blittles I ever seen. The town boys was coalminers and some of the tough-
est customers I ever seen. We strung out in a circle around our stuff and stood
'am off with 'laying out pins' and whacked 'am with Nsidoploliosn, finally giving
'am the run, but they sure oould take it. Another Bey Rube in Ann Arbor, Michigan,
was started by a gang of students from the University of Michigan, for no good
reason at all except perhaps they thought it was funny. /t cost the circus I was
with more than $55,000 in lawsuits and damage to equipment. In a Hey Rube, most
of the lawsuits that follow is usually by some innocent bystander who gets hurt
in the scramble.
The circus owners you name 'em, I worked for 'au were all big um
of fine character. Bveryone of the big circus owners was a square-shootie, two-
fisted boss, and not a sissy among 'am. I knowed the Ringling family well the
Van Alstine Form C 7.
seven boys and their father, Gus Ringling. Gus Ringling was a harness -maker, and
teamster, before he vent into the circus business. Gus wasn't ever able to hire
a better teamster on his show than he was himself. Old Gus could handle a twelve
horse team so slick that the string of horses would form a perfect circle, and the
lead team could eat oats from the back of the wagon Gus was sittin' in.
Circus people in the old days was considered social outcasts. "Decent"
people wouldn't have nothin' to do with troupers. This attitude on the part of
"outsiders" towards show -folks, brought the show -folks closer together made 'am
clannish. Circus people was just like one big family, and TIMA always a good lot,
and always willing to help each other over the bumps. People don't look at it
the may they used to, anymore, but circus people is still clannish just the same.
Modern methods and high specialization has made it a lot easier for the
circus man. Transportation is improved, and accommodations is a lot better than they
was. You don't have to be tough inside and out, to troupe with a circus nowadays.
In the old days any handler of circus stock ]mowed haw to mix up a batch of kero-
sene or paregoric liniment to dope an ailing animal. Nowadays the big show troupes
a staff of veterinarians, and each valuable animal is watched as close and its diet
figgered out as carefully as for the Dionne quints.
I got a lot of respect for Clyde Beattie and other of today's animal
trainers, but I don't think there is any comparison between the temper and ferocity
of jungle -born oats that the old-time trainer faced twice a day, and the animals
born in captivity that the present-day trainers work with. You don't hardly ever
bear of a trainer gettin' killed in an exhibition cage today; but in the old days
I have seen trainers torn to ribbons in the twinkling of an eye.
The circus reached its greatest size in 1908. After that year they never
got any bigger. In 1908 Ringlinc Brothers introduced the first "spec", or
Van Alstine Form C 8e
"spectacle". Since that year the "spec" MIA a feature with all circuses. The
first spec was called "King Solomon" later specs were the "Durbar at Delhi", "Arabian
Nights", and others. I 11110 boss canvasman for many years with a number of different
circuses. Boss canvasman is a good job an a big show and pays from 475.00 to 4100.00
a week. I made quite a lot of money in my day, but I haven't got anything to show
for it now. As boss oanvaaman, I seen the sun rise in every town of importance in
the United States. Most of my real old time friends of the circus have passed
through the "connection" to the "other side". (The 'connection' is the opening and
runway through which the performers and animals enter the 'big top' during a per-
formance).
Portland, Oregon, has always had the name of being a good show town. I
visited Portland with big shows many times before I quit the show business. I
quit the show business twenty years ago, and came to Portland to live. I figgered
I was gettin' too old to be galavantine all over the country. Since then I have
made a living as a house painter, and am now the oldest active painter in the
Painters' Union at Portland. Yes, I learned to paint while in the show business.
Many a piece of show equipment, wagons, platforms, etc., I painted for the circus.
The show business may be a hard life, but if I had it all to do over
again I would still want you to give me the same route. It's been a "long haul",
I've passed the ninetieth "flare," and feel like I'm standing outside the
"connection" weitint for the whistle.
NOTE: (A. *long haul", or a "long haul town", is a town in which the railroad load-
ing spur is situated a long distance from the circus lot. "Flares" are kerosene
torches set out along the way from the loading spur to the lot to guide the team-
sters. As flares are usually placed two to a block, ninety flares would indicate
a long haul. In other words, old Doe has passed the ninetieth milestone, and feels
Vi Alstine .1• Form C 9.
that he hasn't much farther to go.
"Standing outside the oonnection waitin°
for the whistle"... Performers, sets, animals. *to., stand outside the connecting
entrance to the arena for a short time before they are summoned to enter by the
shrill note of the "routine director's" whistle).
Form D Federal Writers' Project
Extra Comment Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker A. C. Sherbert ,Date January 13, 1939
Address Project Office
Subject Circus Days and Ways.
Name and address of informant Mr. E. "Doc" Van Alstine. Jefferson Hotel,
Cor. First and Jefferson Avenues. Portland. Oregon.
Comment:
W. E. "Doc" Van Alstine retired from active circus life in 1917, and
has since made his home in Portland. Circus day in Portland is a red-letter day in
old Doe's calendar of events. The big shows never forget him, and when they arrive
in Portland, Doc is always presented with a generous supply of "Annie Oakleys"
(passes). Surrounding himself with a bunch of his cronies from the Plaza Blocks,
Doc and his party are the first ones on the lot, and though a nonagenarian, Doe
misses nothing that happens during the progress of the performance, and is alert
to even the slightest deviation from conventional circus routine.
Hard times struck Doc for a time, and he found it necessary to live for
awhile at the Multnomah County Farm. With the passing of the Old Age Pension law,
however, Doo was able to leave the County Farm and move into the city. He works
occasionally for the painters' union, out of the Portland Labor Temple.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).