Mulvaney and Ives - Equilibrists

Date of Application: April 1, 1937
Name: Eric Mulvaney and Carlton Ives
Title of Act: Equilibrists

Description of Act:
We are worthy balancers and gymnasts. We have trained for our act since we were children. We throw ourselves and each other around in a whirlwind fashion and hold one another overhead using feet or hands in various feats of balance and strength. We have a Victrola that plays vigorous music as we perform.

Other Talents: We are talented mechanics and work on motorcars on our off time. We can help repair vehicles for the outfit if needed.

Notes: Mssrs. Mulvaney and Ives are indeed worthy balancers and gymnasts. Rarely have I seen two men fling each other with such reckless abandon. At times, their act bordered on the murderous - it appeared as if the duo were trying to kill one another. This would be thrilling for an audience, if a trifle roughshod for the sprats. Their appears to be genuine animosity between the two, for in the interview process, they constantly bickered and sniped at one another. It makes me fear for the longevity of the act. The Packard the two drove was in fine fettle and purred like a kitten and the boot was loaded with wrenches and other mechanical tools. The two would certainly make a fine addition to the outfit, but perhaps separate coaches might be suggested, to give the two some respite from the company of one another.

- Miller Hatsfield
Senior Roustabout
The Salty Peters Traveling Carnival, Roadshow and Burlesque Review

Gretchen Mobley - Mystic

Date of Application: July 17, 1953
Name: Gretchen Anne Mobley
Title of Act: Mystic

Description of Act:
My mind is a window to the beyond and I am prone to the divine intuition. I can see into the future; not just broad strokes, but actual living specifics. I can read fortune, recite past events and divine illness and disease with the use of leaves, tarot and touch. This is no parlor trickery - I am a true mystic. I also have a tidy, appropriately-decorated caravan, a collection of sweet-smelling oils, candles for mood and brightly-colored robes that convey a sense of mystery and intrigue.

Other Talents: I am adept at the Gypsy Massage, am an able seamstress and not adverse to dancing the hootchie-cootch.

Notes: Miss Mobley seemed a very forthright and straightforward with a no-nonsense air about her. By no more than the touching of my arm with her fingertips, she was able to relate a story about my childhood in Thurmond and my Uncle Charles. It was not a pleasant story and I was shaken to have it brought to mind. She also informed me that my ultimate demise would come at the result of a tussle with a feisty pachyderm. This makes me question how much longer I will be able to muster this carnival life and the dangers that come with it. She seems to be a legitimate mystic and although her asking price is steep, her caravan is quite impressive, as is her array of costumery. If we can find a way to incorporate her Gypsy Massage and use her for the hootchie show, we will probably find the investment quite worthwhile.

-Miller Hatsfield
Senior Roustabout and Hiring Manager
The Salty Peters Traveling Carnival, Roadshow and Burlesque Review

Everett Kilbane - Strongman

Date of Application: October 12, 1947
Name: Everett James Kilbane
Title of Act: Strongman

Description of Act:
I have been working on a strongman act since I got back from the European Conflict. I began a regimen of lifting iron weights and using pulley ropes while I was stationed in France and have since taught myself how to perform feats of strength like bending horseshoes and iron poles. I can snap medium-sized tree branches with my bare hands and have the ability to tear a phone book in half, if it's not too cumbersome. I have three leotard outfits that have a Tarzan-like tiger print to them and with my broad shoulders, small waist and arm musculature, I look more fit than most strongmen I have seen in the local traveling shows.

Other Talents: I can help shoe horses and lift trailers for hitching and repair. I am also a fair shot with a rifle, am versed in hand-to-hand combat and can cook a variety of foods over an open fire.

Notes: Mr. Kilbane suffers neither the skittishness I have observed in soldiers returning from combat duty, nor the aggressive surliness of most of the strongmen I have come across in my years of carny experience. In fact, he was quite soft-spoken, with an easy laugh and an appreciation for the small pleasures. As we held our talk, Kilbane wandered around my trailer, gently picking up various doo-dads I have accumulated over time and asked me for their history, nodding and smiling appreciatively at even the most mundane of stories. He was particularly taken with a small, carved wooden pony that was given to me by a blind Indian wood-carver named Shadrack that I had met in a small town in Iowa in 1937. I gave him the wooden pony as a token and near tears, he tried to refuse the gift, but I told him it was a requirement of his employment with the outfit to accept the wooden pony. He stuck the pony into his pocket with care and proceeded to bend a horseshoe with what appeared to be little effort and tore a local phonebook in half (population 3,200) with ease. I believe Mr. Kilbane will be a welcome addition to the company and his cooking ability may be an asset. His skills in hand-fighting will also likely come in handy when dealing with townie riff-raff, and he looks quite impressive in his leotards.

-Miller Hatsfield
Senior Roustabout and Hiring Manager
The Salty Peters Traveling Carnival, Roadshow and Burlesque Review

Elwood Winslow Pierce - Mentalist

Date of Application: February 12th, 1946
Name: Elwood Winslow Pierce
Title of Act: Mentalist

Description of Act:
I can read minds with 80% accuracy. Audience-selected playing cards are identified without the use of sleight-of-hand. I can bend spoons and other flatware using my mental power and have on occasion moved a chair across the floor when the moon is right. I can cause children to faint using my mind and by utilizing powerful hypnosis, I have made grown men strut and cluck like chickens. I can also cure colds, grippe, croup, the dropsy, trench-mouth, rickets and pemphigus with the laying of hands.

Other Talents: I am a disease enthusiast and spend much of my spare time gathering plants, minerals, precious liquids and chemicals used in the preparation of healing unctions and poultices.

Notes: Mr. Pierce is an intense individual with a rather prickly disposition, as is the way with most mentalists. I imagine their brains are a little more tender and edgy than ours, due to the extra activity going on inside, so I have never held a sour mood against those of the mentalist ilk. He correctly identified cards I plucked from a deck without apparent trickery, but was unable to move a chair or bend a butter knife, as the moon wasn't "right". Mr. Pierce bristled when I suggested that any mentalist act I might employ would need to be able to perform consistently on a daily basis, rather than every fortnight, as allowed by lunar permissions. I asked if he could guess my weight and he testily replied, "If you're thinking it..." So I thought my weight and his guess was eight pounds high. Not entirely convinced of his mentalist abilities, I have nonetheless offered Mr. Elwood a position as a part-time mentalist (every fortnight). The rest of his time will be spent acting as a doctor for the troupe, who are always smashing their fingers, rolling their ankles or coming down with the croup or some such. We can always use a good poultice or unction. This contracted has been extended on a six-month trial basis, as we enter our heavy travel season.

-Miller Hatsfield
Senior Roustabout and Hiring Manager
The Salty Peters Traveling Carnival, Roadshow and Burlesque Review

Etta Mae Flowers - Aerialist

Date of Application: May 17, 1939
Name: Etta Mae Flowers
Title of Act: Aerialist

Description of Act:
I am equally comfortable on a high wire or trapeze. I have no fear of heights and my balance is unequalled. I have an array of dazzling leotard which fit quite snuggly and double as a hootchie-kootchie outfits as needed. My extraordinary limberness makes my aerial acrobatics even more fetching and gives me a "leg up" in the hootchie-kootch.

Other Talents: I can cipher and do bookkeeping and mend all my own costumes, which can become ragged if not kept up.

Notes: Even as I explained to Miss Flowers that we are a carny outfit and not a circus and had no real place for an aerial act, she proceeded to scamper up a tent pole and perform a series of twists, turns and spins that were quite jaw-dropping. The fact that she did this in a dowdy skirt made the performance even more impressive, as the excited whistles and applause from the roustabouts in attendance proved. Miss Flowers is indeed very limber and I have hired her on as a hootchie girl. She will also help out with bookkeeping and costume repair. As she has no trailer of her own, she will bunk in my coach until other arrangements can be made. This is strictly on a temporary basis.

- Miller Hatsfield
Senior Roustabout
The Salty Peters Traveling Carnival, Roadshow and Burlesque Review

Charlie Roundstreet - Geek

Date of Application: March 7th, 1942
Name: Charles Lee Roundstreet
Title of Act: Geek

Description of Act:
My wild man act is of the primitive nature. I stand in the middle of a ring and I chase chickens. When I catch a chicken, I bite the head off and I chew it and I swallow it. I can eat up to seven chicken heads per day. More than that and I flounder with a wet stomach. My act has very little overhead, as I supply the cookie with all the chicken they need to feed the outfit while I save them the trouble of the chasing of the chicken and the chopping off of the chicken heads. I can also eat live toads and lizards if they are small. I have eaten live gopher, rat and prairie dog, but my tender stomach doesn't agree with the meat.

Other Talents: I can find my way around a hammer and nail and I am able to do some wrenching on the mechanical units if the roustabouts need a hand. I cannot sew or draw. My painting skills are middling.

Notes: Mr. Roundstreet was an affable enough fellow, if a mite dim-witted, which is expected in the majority of the geek population. I am not certain that the geek act is as big of a draw as it was during the height of the depression, so I am hesitant to hire the young man, though he is willing to work for meager pay if I keep him supplied in gin. As I do not have a reliable supplier of gin at a cut-rate, I believe we will pass on Mr. Roundstreet. I gave him the name of a chicken farm in Alabama where he may be able to find reliable employment, if he should be unable to land a position geeking.

- Miller Hatsfield
Senior Roustabout and Hiring Manager
The Salty Peters Traveling Carnival, Roadshow and Burlesque Review

Otis Pillsbury - Equilibrist

Date of Application: September 1, 1938
Name: Otis Wilson Pillsbury
Title of Act: Equilibrist

Summary of Act:
I can balance on any number of rolling objects, such as large balls, unicycles or the rola-bola, as well as sitting objects (high poles, stilts, ladders and other human beings). My specialty is sitting atop a high pole under strenuous circumstances. I set the record of high pole sitting in Yell County, Arkansas in 1926 by sitting comfortably atop a telegraph pole for seventeen days. I ate by having food hoisted up to me in a picnic hamper by a rope.

I can balance atop a horse or other sturdy beast running at a reasonable pace and can balance equally well on my hands as well. I currently have a unicycle and rola-bola, but my large ball was stolen while I was working as a street performer in Yonkers.

 Notes: Mr. Pillsbury seemed a very calm man, unperturbed by the sights and sometimes chaotic sounds of the outfit. While some interviewees are jumpy or on edge, Pillsbury showed no emotion at the occasional shout, roar or gunshot. I was struck by a certain melancholy in the man, especially noticeable when he spoke of his large ball being stolen by East Coast hooligans. It is likely Pillsbury would be a worthy addition to the carnival - we can always use a good balancing act and Pillsbury demonstrated his abilities on various sundry objects around the grounds. I was especially impressed with his one handed perching on a free-standing stout rod while consuming an apple to the core with his free hand. I also think that his sense of calm and true moral compass could prove useful with some of the younger, more impressionable acts and rousts.

-Miller Hatsfield, Senior Roustabout and Hiring Manager
The Salty Peters Traveling Carnival, Roadshow and Burlesque Review