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Mr. Ross was a great elephant man; who lived in thousand oaks; and for a time worked for circus Vargas. He gave me three of Mr. Ward Hall's sideshow ticket boxes in nineteen seventy six. We have just restored one of the boxes and this box has quite a lot
of historical history behind it; it was first built by Hall and Christ used on the circus Vargas midway, then redesigned by the great banner painter the wizard for my use; but first painted by the great banner artist John Hiner and now just restored by Jonathan "ICEMAN: Knudsen.

The front of box is my logo; one side is dedicated to the big John Strong and Son Circus and my wife Candy; the other side one of our most famous clowns happy is painted like he would leap right off the box and make kids smile again; I would truly say it is the greatest ticket box to ever grace any midway anywhere in the world; it has quite a history of money making events at the Pomona Fair $216,000 came across her top in just three short weeks. Many ten thousand dollar days have come across her top and I would say she is almost 40 years old give or take a year and over 5 million dollars has been taken in by this little jewel.

The restored box that was just finished this morning; also up-dated pictures of other restored pieces that my friend Jonathan has completed in the past 3 weeks; please if anyone knows of any finer work let me know.

John Strong III

It is pleasing to know what became of those ticket boxes. Built By John Trower in I972 for the sideshow on Circus Vargas, when Chris and I became investors of that great show. The circus drew big crowds and in order to turn the big tips quickly we used four ticket boxes. At first the sideshow was managed by Jerry Ross. When we played Denver that year I switched managers with Jim and Sandy Windland taking over the Vargas operation and transferring Jerry to Crystal Beach, Ontario where Chris had created a 700 seat theatre from a former ballroom for an illusion revue starring Vince Carman/ I think after we had sold our interest in the circus to Vargas, about a year later he discontinued the sideshow and I think the ticket boxes were used to vend peanuts
in the elephant dept. I believe that Wally Ross was in charge of the peanut sales. T

he ticket box on the World of Wonders Museum was built in 956 by Teo Zacchini for the "Casino" girl revue with "Million Dollar Midways", which was still use. The two ticket boxes now on the "World of Wonders Sideshow" were from Harry Fees "Monkey Speedway" and were built by Harry around I950.

We got them when we acquired Harry's monkey show about 2002. Chris and Melvin Ray
Silverlake rebuilt them on the original steel frames last winter and they were painted by Dennis Gilly for the 2007 season. I would like to hear more history on ticket boxes or other related show equipment.

Cordially, Ward Hall

Photographs courtesy of Jonathan Knudsen & John Strong III

1 Jonathan Knudsen - John Strong III and the front of the ticket box with logo.

2 Dedicated to the Big John Strong and Son Circus and my wife Candy

3 Happy the Clown

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