We are going back in time by exactly 50 years, when Don wrote me on May 30, 1963, in which he addressed, among many things, John Strong and his circus, another man named Kramien who also had a small show, Ringling and Polack, a Fourth of July circus parade in Milwaukee to be sponsored by Schlitz Breweries, and the Big Story, Dory Miller and the IRS.
The IRS -- so apt, is it not, for today?
"Saw another item about the income tax deal with Dory Miller. He was released on bail and his own agreement to return to court when they call him. They charge that he has been filing claims for income income in amount of $5,000 or slightly more, whereas the Internal Revenue people claim he was making $50,000 and better each year for many years which they are now in the process of checking. You know he has gotten by for so many years with cheating people that it is bound to get him one of these days and it might be this is the beginning.
"The article said that it didn't affect the show, but him personally. Even so, should they put him in jail or anything it will definitely hurt the show."
I do not recall knowing then that know Dory had so low a reputation. If so, it certainly rose greatly in the years ahead. Fans loved the man. He tried to give them, I think, a budget version of the old multi-ring circus from out of the 1920s, as I saw it, and whenever I went, seems like I could spot him on the back side sitting in a lawn chair, a circus fan himself.
Most of them are.
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