Yes, we have ...
Jim Royal!
French artist and costume designer Marcel Vertes was commissioned by John Ringling North to create the costumes for the 1956 spec, Say It With Flowers. Life Magazine did a large multi-page spread of the Vertes drawings. They would be the last originals worn by a Ringling cast under the big top.
Less lavish than what audiences had grown accustomed to when Broadway designer Miles White created the costumes, some fans grumbled.. But to others, they marked a refreshing contrast. Restful pastels. Working against them were a straggling set of floats noticeably frugal, and altogether, the overall impression left room for carping. I, for one, called it Say it With Cement, referencing one of the most embarrassingly frugal floats ever seen in any parade. The show was going into New York on borrowed money, and Teamster union members were waiting to picket it
In the program magazine, Vertes contributed a piece, "I Like the Circus," in which he compared working on sawdust to stage: "I like circus people, too, because they seem to be more friendly than the people in the theatre. They have a profound respect for the performers who do the really dangerous stunts way up there in space."
It was such a very different show in many ways -- new ringmaster, Preston Lambert, new bandleader, Izzy Cervone, who came with strings added, a score favoring the popular songs of Frank Loesser. I've seen enticing video clips of the show, thanks to Kenny Dodd, and am taken by the costumes and original scoring for "Ringling Rock N' Roll." It's a gas. I would love to have seen the whole show..
It was a full season not to be. Come Pittsburgh, PA, and the Greatest Show on Earth gave its last performance under canvas. Thank God -- how lucky was I to have seen it the year before -- my one and only time under the greatest big tops of them all, and one of the greatest days of my life.
Congrats, Jim!
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