Sunday, May 21, 2017

#16 Cat Acts


5 comments:

Patricia said...

Not sure who this is. Bill Golden, maybe?

Chic Silber said...


Looks like Josip with hair

Patricia said...

Nope. Not Josip with hair. I think it's Bill Golden who was a Hawthorn person mid-70's. Why do I think this? Because when Roy worked cats there in 1978, Cuneo wanted him to wear a big sparkly cumberbun(sp?) just like this one. Maybe it WAS this one. I never met Mr. Golden, but we saw pictures upon arriving in Richmond, Ill. (well, Woodstock Ill. while the Richmond facility was completed.)

JC Hall said...

Yes Bill Golden good gent

Wade G. Burck said...

This costume was one that I wore when I first worked for Hawthorn. There were three, this dark blue one with gold sequins, a light blue one with silver sequins and one "outdoor date" one that was black with gold studs(it's the one I am wearing with the baby elephant's in an earlier picture. I had two weeks to learn the act (12 tigers one lion) before opening with it and there was not time to have costumes made.(I think they were originally made for Hank Lueck his last year with Hawthorn) I didn't mind because I was a Fist-of-May(to quote J.C.Hall) and they were incredible costumes made by NUDIES OF HOLLYWOOD and silver and gold half boot's made by EAVES-BROOKES. The boot's were a bit of an issue as I have a 10 1/2 D foot and the boot's were 9 1/2. I walked like I had foundered, but once the act started I forgot the pain and got through it. At the end of the season when we wintered in Calif. we went to ICE CAPADES and John had new costumes made. What a treat to go to the warehouse and pick up the completed costumes with a black board on the wall with the rack they were located on. Rack one Elvis Presley, rack two Michael Jackson, and rack three Wade Burck!!!!!!! As Shorty Sheer would say "I finally hit the big time..." :) There was a time when Hawthorn did things is a classy, top shelf way indeed. Most likely the costumes are still in the storage room in the basement of the Illinois estate. I tried to buy the jacket's in 2007 because I wanted the NUDIES OF HOLLYWOOD label's in them but John said, "oh no, I might need them again some day." I tried to at least get him to let me cut out one of the NUDIE label, but to no avail.

Wade Burck