I wrote this tale of a Showman you might not be aware of...A Man of innovation and creativity off the rails...
Enjoy your visit to The Shrine Of Homer Tate.

http://grindshow.com/shrine_of_homer_tate.html

Thank you, Doug, for the information. Homer must have been quite a man.

Hello Doug! (I'm withit)

I was 13, and just starting to perform magic in the spring of '45.

Old Joe SKERBECK'S CARNIVAL had started wintering in my home town (ESCANABA, MICHIGAN) in the '40s, as the Upper Peninsula State Fair grounds had buildings to store his trucks, and, more important, Escanaba had an old fashioned machine shop which could fabricate parts which were impossible to get during the war (WW II).

Skerbeck would open for the season in mid May, and tour northern Michigan and Wisconsin. It was a "Sunday School" show. NO GRIFT! Dad Skerbeck would always contact the sheriff or chief of police, when the show arrived, to arrange for an off duty officer as security. After he had played a spot, once, the sheriff or chief would tell Dad, that he didn't need anyone, as he had a "clean" show.

The opening date was a Saturday (no school)and I walked on the lot to find something "new"! --A side show! Dad's was a family show. He, of course, had rides A few of them had been "home made" (I think, from Brill's plans!). A real wooden horse "jenny", with a real band organ that played old German marches and Strauss waltzes! was always spotted at the back end, so the music from that old band organ could be heard all over the lot. But, I don't believe he had ever booked on a side show, before.

My uncle had been with Beckman & Gerety Shows, and, later, Reuben & Cherry Shows in the '20s, so I knew how to ask for professional recognition. I walked up to the ticket box, and asked! A "young-middle aged" lady smiled, and, waved me in. It was a small pit show (no bally). No live acts--it was a "museum" show, with a young man "lecturing" about the exhibits. A small snake den, was the only "live" exhibit. A two headed baby ("pickled punk") was displayed in a small glass covered open casket. The lecturer "demonstrated" (not performed!) an arm chopper which I recognized as Abbott's DISECTO. He talked about the "shrunken head" which he held up. (I didn't know, until later, when I visited with the show's owner, that the "head" was from TATE'S.

I thanked the lady, and, she told me that her husband had the other show "next door". "Doc" Charles Fretz, was in the ticket box (wearing a doctor's white jacket, selling tickets for a truck mounted exhibit of a "Caesarean Birth". We visited briefly, and, he invited me (a 13 year old kid!) for coffee when the show closed for the evening. Later that week, I brought him a wooden crate from my dad's warehouse. He needed a better snake den, and, with a hand saw, hammer and nails he "created" a much better den.

He filled me in on the TATE head, the pickled punk, etc. AND, he red lighted an Abbott Production Box that he couldn't use. I thought that I had "died and gone to heaven""!

That Abbott box was the "feature" of my little show for several years!

Just thought I would add a 'page' to your excellent story about Homer TATE.

A couple of years later, I worked for Joe Lemke's Monkey Circus & Side Show, and a year after that, for Mickey Mansion, with magic and fire eating.

40 years later, I spent a season managing the late Tim Deremer's Girl to Gorilla show. (Yes, the sawdust does get into your shoes!)

See ya down the road!

Dick