Week 33: Black Sheep #52Ancestors

I’ve mentioned before what “unadventurous” Glacy ancestors I have. After coming to the U.S. from Germany, they never left the East Coast until somewhat recently.[1] However, there was one exception to that rule: my first cousin, once removed, Joseph Anthony Glacy.[2] Born in Brooklyn in 1899, Joe found his place all over the world as a magician, mentalist, showman, and promoter. Personally, I think a book needs to be written about his life, but for now I hope you enjoy this over-due (and overly-long) post.

Joe’s mother died in 1902 when he was two and she just twenty-two.[3] According to a story about Joe published in Billboard magazine, Joe recalled that the owner of the apartment building where his family lived, a man named Gus Burkhardt, took a personal interest in him, teaching him some basic magic tricks.[4] Although likely not the owner of the apartment building, a Gus and Julia Burkhart lived in the same building as Joe’s family for several years and in the neighborhood for many more. The census records show Gus was a bartender and magician, among other jobs.[5] 

According to the Billboard story, Joe’s father supported his career choice and advertised his son as “The Boy Wonder.” A 1914 clipping from The Chat, a Brooklyn newspaper, recounts how fourteen-year-old Joe performed for the fiftieth birthday celebration of Frank Krug.[6] Joe’s bio in Billboard describes performances by Joe at the Union Square Theater in New York, Coney Island, and at venues shows in the New York City area. By the time he was nineteen, Joe was referred to in the Brooklyn newspaper as a “well-known” magician.[7] Also by that time, Joe had married and had an infant son. Joe and Margaret Biesel were married 22 October 1917 in New York City and their son, Lawrence Joseph, was born in June the following year.[8]

In 1920, Joe belonged to “The Wizards,” a New York group of professional magicians connected to the “Secret Association of American Magicians.[9] However, he was not enumerated with his wife and son on the 1920 Federal census; Margie and Lawrence were living with her mother.[10] Sometime shortly thereafter, Joe and Margie were divorced and Joe moved to California where, on October 1, 1926 at twenty-six years-old, he married for a second time. His second wife, Elenore Edna Roberts, also an “entertainer” and also previously married.[11]

From the early-1920’s onward, Joe made his living as a magician and managing various side-shows at carnivals in California, the Pacific Northwest, Hawai’i, Australia, and the Philippines. In 1932, Joe and sixteen others were arrested in Honolulu in order to test the legal status of a “Bingo” game that Joe ran.[12] Presumably he paid the one dollar fine for gambling.[13]

As a “famous” barker, Joe and three others were signed in 1933 to perform in Clara Bow’s film, “Hoopla.”[14] Bow’s character, a “hootchy-kootchy” dancer at a carnival, seduces the son of the show’s manager.[15] Born in Brooklyn like Joe, Bow was the first “It Girl.”[16] She started out in silent pictures and by 1928 was the highest-paid movie star in Hollywood receiving $35,000 a week.[17] She appeared in forty-six silent films and eleven “talkies.”[18] “Hoopla” was her final film before she retired at age twenty-eight.[19] Apparently, neither Joe nor any of the other barkers are credited in the film, so I am going to have to find it somewhere and see for myself![20]

With all his travels, it is no wonder that Joe and his wife Edna divorced in the early 1930’s.[21] By the late 1930’s Joe settled down in the Los Angeles area. Beginning in 1936, Billboard magazine regularly mentioned Joe and his acts in the “Carnival” or “Circus” pages.[22] Joe’s specialty at that time included a side-show featuring oddities and “freaks.” In 1936, he managed the “Strange as It Seems” show for John Hix. The Hix show claimed not to have anything “gruesome,” but featured “Big Bertha” and “Slim Jim,” the world’s largest wife and thinnest husband, a trained flea circus, a leopard-skin man, a three-foot tall woman, a female sword-swallower, and other “curious inanimate objects.”[23] I remember as a kid seeing Hix’s syndicated comic strip in the local paper. Competing with Ripley’s Believe it or Not! cartoons, Hix required that every fact published be verified by a minimum of three sources.[24] Now, there’s my kind of researcher!

One of Joe’s side-show attractions in 1936 was Carolina Rascon, “Mexico’s Glamorous Giantess.”[25] At nearly seven and one-half feet tall, it was reported she had the strength of Hercules with the features of beauty and a sweet personality.[26] At eighteen, Carolina left Mexico with her mother hoping to “capitalize” on her size by either appearing in films or by “going on exhibition.”[27] While it all seems so cruel now, I can only hope she found Joe to be a good boss.[28]

At various points, the “Glacy Side Show” also featured a Gorilla Woman.[29] I remember my mom would take us kids to a local county fair that had a tent featuring similar kinds of “oddities.” None of my siblings remember this, but I recall that I begged her to let us go inside. Of course she said “no.” She was a good mom.

By 1942, Long Beach became Joe’s permanent headquarters although he still took his shows up and down the West Coast and to Hawai’i. He lived near and worked at “The Pike” an amusement zone along the ocean in Long Beach. As the homeport of the Pacific Fleet, thousands of sailors visited The Pike and enjoyed the many amusements there including Joe’s sideshow.[30] Known as “The Coney Island of the West,” Joe must have felt he was home at last.[31] Indeed, Joe seems to have stayed in the Long Beach area until his death in 1965.

But wait! I’m jumping the gun. Lots more to tell about Joe – I warned you this would be a long one.

When the Second World War started for the U.S., Joe was the President of the Pacific Coast Showmen’s Association. Joe joined the PCSA in 1924 when he first came out to California. Founded only the year before, the PCSA was a chapter of the Showmen’s League of America whose first president was “Buffalo Bill” Cody.[32] The mission of the SLA and PCSA was to care for carnival workers who were ill or destitute and to provide burial services for members (and even some non-members).[33] When interviewed in Billboard in 1950, Joe expressed his love and gratitude to the PCSA where he also served as vice-president, chair of the charity banquet/ball, and on numerous other committees. 

Joe and his fellow “carnies” continued to ply their trade during World War II. Indeed, because of restrictions on travel and the build-up of the defense industry, The Pike was more crowded than ever and the 1942 Douglas Greater Show, a carnival touring Wenatchee, Washington, enjoyed a 35% increase in attendance and gross from the prior year.[34] Joe was in charge of public relations and radio for Douglas.[35]  This is not to say that the carnies didn’t involve themselves in the war effort. Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the PCSA, it’s Ladies’ Auxiliary and members came out in force to buy over $60,000 in Defense Bonds.[36] Below you will see a picture from Billboard with Joe and other members of the PCSA with a representative of the National Defense Bond and Stamp drive.[37]

I found an interesting note in the middle of a Billboard article which stated that Joe had joined the Coast Guard in October 1942.[38] Coast Guard records are not on-line nor easily accessed, so I haven’t determined if this is true or not. I find this hard to believe for a couple of reasons: first, at almost forty-four, Joe would have certainly been too old; and, second, Billboard continued to report on his activities with the PCSA all through the war, including trips in the Spring of 1943 to the East Coast and the fact that he was chair of the charity ball in December of 1943.[39] Today you must be younger than thirty-two to join for active duty and under forty to join the reserve.[40] I can well imagine Joe wanting to join, telling his friends he had, but then being unable to serve. 

After the war, The Pike amusements suffered a significant drop: from 35 to 50%.[41] One of the primary reasons for the slump was the closing of the shipyards and other military plants. Despite all that, Joe ramped-up his operations with a new permanent location at The Pike.[42] He advertised for workers including “Freaks, Working Acts, Pitch Acts that can sell, Man or Woman that can sell inside, Sword Box and Feature.”[43] I think we’ve all seen the “Sword Box” trick (assistant in the box stabbed by swords comes out unscathed) and apparently, a “Pitch Act” is a one-person act where all of the props are contained in one suit case. Joe’s ad is directed to the side show people coming off the summer season and he touts his location as having “No ups and downs, no rainy, muddy lots.” In keeping with the guy I have come to know, his ad specifies “No drunks or agitators tolerated.”[44] One of the acts Joe booked for his permanent side show was “Lady Vivian,” a pretty sword swallower.[45]

To catch-up on Joe’s love-life, he married yet again on December 28, 1944.[46] His new wife, Olive Rector, was born in 1909 in Rhode Island to Walter and Hilda (Anderson) Rector. Her father was a soldier who enlisted in the Army in 1902 at nineteen. Sadly, he contracted tuberculosis in the service and died when Olive was four.[47] Olive lived for a time in an orphanage before being reunited with her mother and new step-father.[48] Olive was living in New York City in 1940 just before marrying Joe in California.[49] I don’t know how they met; maybe during one of Joe’s trips to New York for the PCSA or a visit home to his family. Was it love at first sight? It must have been compelling enough for Olive to leave her family and the East Coast and move to California.

In 1945, Joe purchased the Dillinger “crime car” to put it on display. By 1947, he was showing the car at “Crafts 20 Big Show,” a California-based traveling circus, and doing “big biz.”[50] Interesting fact: Crafts 20’s horse carousel was featured in a scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train and the 1964 Elvis Presley movie Roustabout.[51] Cool. 

Anyway, back to the “crime car.” It was a 1931 “16-cyl ARMORED Cadillac with bullet-proof glass, steel plate under upholster.”[52] Apparently, it also featured smoke and tear gas generators and a device under the car to spray tacks on the road in order to puncture the tires of any chasing police.[53] Joe devoted a lot of time, energy, and (presumably) money to displaying the car. He built a “rolling exhibit” on a semi-trailer with sides that would open to form a platform for his customers. The trailer was painted an “eye-catching circus red,” of course[54] Joe’s grandson, Lawrence Glacy, recalled as a teenager he sold tickets to the car for 25 cents and that he went with his grandfather when he took the car on tour with a carnival.[55] Lawrence also mentioned that Joe had added a machine gun to the car. 

 Although all of the articles in Billboard indicate Joe was doing well with the car, he started to try to sell three years later.[56] A fellow carnival promoter, W. P. Stephenson, bought the car in 1951.[57] Joe had offered the car, the 30-foot semi, and the Chevy trailer for $5,500. While I don’t doubt that Joe thought the car was authentic, I have only found one reference to Dillinger driving a Cadillac.[58]

 By 1950, Joe had only one attraction left at The Pike – a “Motordrome.” A “Motordrome” is a “circular walled area, usually made of wood, in which motorcycle drivers ride their bikes and do various stunts.”[59] No really. Joe sold tickets to people so that they could drive their motorcycles like maniacs around and around on an angled wooden track. Yikes! Joe had enough common sense that he never personally rode a bike in a drome.[60]

 Joe and Olive lived in Long Beach until about 1951 when they moved to Santa Monica where Olive owned/ran a café called “Marie & Olive’s”.[61] Joe managed rides at the “Kiddytown” at Ocean Park in Santa Monica, an amusement park built over the ocean in 1911.[62] Kiddytown was a complete miniature amusement park cut down to size and just for children.[63]

 Ever the romantic, Joe married again (and for the last time) in 1958. His bride was Irene Alice Yetter and they married in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho on September 19th.[64] Although they married in Idaho, both were Long Beach residents at the time. Did they go there for beautiful scenery or did Joe have a show there? Born in Sandusky, Ohio in 1904, Irene had been married twice before and had one son.[65] Irene and her second husband, George Johnson, moved from the Mid-West to Long Beach sometime in the late 1930’s.[66] George was a car dealer and Irene ran a candy store called “Apple Sweet Shop.” Her store was at The Pike, which is where I am guessing she and Joe met.[67]

 I noticed that Joe and Irene lived at the same address in Long Beach where he and Olive lived when they were married years before. In fact, other than when he lived in Santa Monica for a few years, his home address from1943 to 1965 was 330 W. Ocean Blvd. When I looked up the address in the Long Beach city directory, I found that it was a hotel! Located only a couple of blocks from the beach, The Blackstone Hotel and Apartments overlooked The Pike, which explains why Joe lived there. Built in 1922, the Blackstone’s original owner was Countess Kate Nixon d’Aleria.[68] Now there’s someone else who needs a book written about her! The widow of Nevada banker, gold miner, and U.S. senator who died in 1912. Kate inherited about $2-3 million and married eight years later to Count Adond d’Aleria, a gentleman thirty-years her junior. This post is long-enough already, so I will restrain myself and not tell you her life-story.

 The Blackstone is one of Long Beach’s treasures designated by the city as an historic landmark.[69]  It offered single, double, and twin rooms with baths and the rooms were decorated in either mahogany or ivory.[70] There was a ballroom on the second floor, billiard and card rooms, a sun parlor on each floor, and a basement for seventy-five automobiles.[71]One of its selling features, it was one of the first high-rise buildings in the area built to withstand earthquakes.

 By 1960, Joe had moved his kiddie rides to Pierpoint Landing Long Beach.[72] He appears to have retired from the show business by 1961, and other than attending the 1960 ball/banquet, does not appear to have been active in the Pacific Coast Showmen’s Association.[73]

 Joe died in April of 1965 and he was buried in a mini-cemetery within Evergreen Memorial Park affectionately dubbed the “Showmen’s Rest.”[74] As I noted, the PCSA was a philanthropic service organization and at their founding in 1923 they began buying plots at Evergreen for carnival workers.[75] Since then, about 400 carnies, including Joe, were buried in the Showmen’s Rest. 

 I hope you enjoyed reading about Joe as much as I enjoyed writing about him. If asked, I would say Joe was an adventurous romantic who loved people.

P.S. Not surprisingly, the Pacific Coast Showmen’s Association is no more.[76]

[1] Ignoring for the moment how absolutely adventurous it was to cross the Atlantic to make a new home.

[2] I cannot begin to tell you how many “Joseph” Glacys there were (are) in my family.

[3] New York City Deaths, 1892-1902, “Deaths Reported in 1902, Brooklyn,” Theresa Glacy, 5 February 1902, death certificate no. 2490; “New York, New York, Death Index, 1892-1898, 1900-1902,” Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 August 2020).

[4] Sam Abbott, “Joe Glacy ‘At Liberty’ Gives Time to His 26-Year Love – PCSA,” The Billboard, 23 September 1950, p. 55, col. 1-2.

[5] 1900 U.S. census, Kings County, New York, population schedule, Brooklyn, enumeration district 444, p. 209A (stamped), p. 24 (penned), dwelling 99, family 555, Gustav Burkhardt (bartender); digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 September 2020). 1905 New York state census, Kings County, population schedule, Brooklyn, p. 59, dwelling 99, Gus Burkhardt (magician); digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 September 2020).

[6] “Mr. Frank Krug,” The (Brooklyn) Chat, 9 May 1914, p. 17, col. 6.

[7] “Geo. Ehlenberger B. S. to Hold Victory Ball,” The (Brooklyn) Chat, 12 April 1919, p. 25, col. 4.

[8] New York City, Office of the City Clerk, “Brooklyn, New York, Marriage License Indexes, 1916-1917,” Glacy-Biesel (22 October 1917); digital image, Ancestry, “New York, New York, Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018,” (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 September 2020); citing New York City Municipal Archives, New York, New York. New York City Department of Health, “Births Reported in 1918 – Borough of Brooklyn,” Lawrence J. Glacy (10 June); digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 September 2020).

[9] “Wizards Enjoy Chinese Food and American Magic,” The (New York) Evening World, 8 May 1920, p. 2, col. 7.

[10] Ibid.

[11] California Department of Public Health, 1926 Index to Marriages, Williams-Glacy (1 October 1926); digital image, Ancestry “California, County Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1849-1980” (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 September 2020). New York City, Office of the City Clerk, “Manhattan, New York, Marriage License Indexes, 1918,” Roberts-Williams (18 January 1918); digital image, Ancestry, “New York, New York, Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018,” (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 September 2020); citing New York City Municipal Archives, New York, New York.

[12] “17 Arrested to Test Bingo Games,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, p. 15, col. 6. 

[13] “Appeal Dismissed,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, p. 2, col. 3. Bingo is still illegal in Hawai’i. “Is Playing Bingo Gambling in the US?,” Bingo.org (https://www.bingo.org/us-bingo-laws/ : accessed 2 September 2020).

[14] “Four ‘Barkers’ Signed,” The Los Angeles Times, 24 September 1933, p. 27, col. 2.

[15] “Hoopla,” IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024139/ : accessed 2 September 2020).

[16] “Clara Bow: Biography,” IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001966/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm : accessed 2 September 2020).

[17] Ibid.

[18] Wikipedia.org, “Clara Bow,” rev. 21:10, 28 August 2020.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Joe didn’t mention the film in his bio but it was considered a flop, so maybe he didn’t want to bring it up. One of her favorite quotes was “The more I see of men, the more I like dogs.” Present company excluded of course. “Clara Bow Quotes,” BrainyQuote.com (https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/clara_bow_197931 : accessed 2 September 2020).

[21] I haven’t found the divorce record, but Edna was shown as married in the 1930 census and she married her third husband in 1934.

[22] Too many to cite.

[23] “Strange Attractions to Be Shown in New Fun Zone at Exposition,” San Diego Union, 2 March 1936, p.7.

[24] Wikipedia.org, “Strange as It Seems,” rev. 13:54, 22 August 2020.

[25] Felix Bley, “Along the California Pacific Expo Midway,” The Billboard, 18 April 1936, p. 46, col.1. 

[26] “Jack Starr-Hunt, “Mexico’s Glamorous Giantess,” The (Massillon, Ohio) Evening Independent, p. 7, col. 3-5. 

[27] “Seven-Foot Giantess Orders Golden Taffeta Evening Gown,” The El Paso (Texas) Times, 20 December 1935, p. 2, col. 5-6. 

[28] Remarkably, Carolina was not the first “Mexican Giantess.” A woman with that description was reported to be on exhibition in England in 1868. “Guernsey,” The (London, England) Era, 13 December 1868, p. 12, col. 1.

[29] Carl Foreman, “Huggins’ West Coast,” The Billboard, 10 September 1938, p. 45, col. 4.

[30] D. J. Waldie, “A Walk Along Long Beach’s Gaudy, Tawdry, Bawdy Pike,” 8 February 2017, “Lost LA,” KCET.org (https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/a-walk-along-long-beachs-gaudy-tawdry-bawdy-pike : accessed 1 September 2020).

[31] Jonathan Murrietta, “The Pike: Another Time and Another Place,” Long Beach 908 Magazine, Spring 2017, p. 4-8; digital images, Long Beach 908 Magazine Online (https://www.lb908.com/post/2017/08/16/the-pike-another-time-and-another-place : accessed 1 September 2020)

[32] “About Us,” Showmen’s League of America (http://www.showmensleague.org : accessed 2 September 2020).

[33] Ibid. Lynda Natali, “Life and Death on Midway: Lifestyle: A traveling priest and his wandering congregation celebrate the rituals and traditions of carnival workers,” Los Angeles Times, 12 January 1993; digital image, LATimes.com (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-01-12-vw-1409-story.html : accessed 1 September 2020). “Pacific Coast Showmen’s Assn.” The Billboard, 22 April 1944, p. 35, col. 3. 

[34] D. J. Waldie, “A Walk Along Long Beach’s Gaudy, Tawdry, Bawdy Pike.” “Douglas Inaugural at Wenatchee Tops 1941 Marks by 35%,” The Billboard, 6 June 1942, p. 28, col. 3.

[35] “Douglas Inaugural,” The Billboard, 6 June 1942, p. 28, col. 3.

[36] “Coast Defense Exec Lauds PCSA’s Work,” The Billboard, 17 January 1942, p. 53, col. 2.

[37] “Prominent Members,” The Billboard, 17 January 1942, p. 32, col 2-3.

[38] “Joe Glacy,” The Billboard, 31 October 1942, p. 57, col. 2.

[39] “Pacific Coast Showmen’s Assn.” The Billboard, 15 May 1943, p. 33, col. 1. “Pacific Coast Showmen’s Assn.” The Billboard, 11 December 1943, p. 33, col. 3. 

[40] “FAQ: What are the qualifications to join the Coast Guard?,” GoCoastGuard.com (https://www.gocoastguard.com/faq : accessed 2 September 2020).

[41] “Long Beach Pike Still Suffering Cash Doldrums,” The Billboard, 1 November 1947, p. 57, col. 1.

[42] Ibid.

[43] “Side Show People – Attention,” The Billboard, 3 August 1946, p. 68, col. 2-3.

[44] Ibid.

[45] “Long Beach Pike,” The Billboard, 1 November 1947, p. 89, col. 2.

[46] “Marriages,” The Billboard, 20 January 1944, p. 33, col. 3.

[47] North Carolina State Board of Health, Division of Labor Statistics, death certificate No. 2464, Walter Rector (1912); digital image, Ancestry(http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 September 2020).

[48] 1915 Rhode Island state census, Newport County, population schedule, Newport City, [no p. no.], house no. 24, dwelling no. 123, family no. 177, Olive P. Rector in children’s home; digital image, Ancestry “Rhode Island, State Censuses, 1865-1935” (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 September 2020).

[49] 1940 U.S. census, New York County, New York, population schedule, Manhattan Assembly District 10, p. 3577 (stamped), enumeration district 31-834, sheet 7-A, dwelling 206, family 31, Olive Knotts in household of Hilda Knotts; digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 September 2020).

[50] “Long Beach Notes,” The Billboard, 26 April 1947, p. 85, col. 2.

[51] “More Than Everything You Wanted to Know About Runaway Nightmare and Mike Cartel,” Runaway Nightmare (http://www.runawaynightmare.com/?page_id=235 : accessed 3 September 2020).

[52] “For Sale,” The Billboard, 6 November 1948, p. 60, col. 1-2.

[53] “Desperado’s Car to be Displayed,” The Neosho (Missouri) Daily News, 16 October 1956, p. 1, col. 1.

[54] “Long Beach Notes,” The Billboard, 25 January 1947, p. 71, col. 3.

[55] Jessica Williams Interview with Lawrence Glacy, 18 November 2017, Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum (https://intrepidmuseum.libraryhost.com/files/OHP152%20Lawrence%20Glacy%20Oral%20History%20FINAL.pdf : accessed 1 September 2020).

[56] “For Sale,” The Billboard, 6 November 1948, p. 60, col. 1-2.

[57] “Desperado’s Car to be Displayed,” The Neosho (Missouri) Daily News, 16 October 1956, p. 1, col. 1.

[58] “3 Report Seeing Dillinger in Redwood Falls, Trap Set by Federal, Local Officials,” The Redwood (Minnesota) Gazette, 14 June 1934, p. 1, col. 5-6.

[59] A. W. Stencell, Seeing is Believing: America’s Sideshows, “Glossary” (Toronto: ECW Press, 2002), 251.

[60] “Joe Glacy,” The Billboard, 23 September 1950, p. 74, col. 3-4.

[61] R. L. Polk & Co., compiler, Santa Monica City Directory (Los Angeles: R. L. Polk & Co of California, 1953), 166, Joe and Olive Glacy.

[62] R. L. Polk & Co., compiler, Santa Monica City Directory (Los Angeles: R. L. Polk & Co of California, 1953), “Ocean Park,” p. x.

[63] Ted Yerxa, “Along the Fun and Sun Zone, (North Hollywood, California) Valley Times, 25 July 1953, p. 11, col. 7.

[64] Idaho Department of Public Health, Division of Vital Statistics, marriage certificate no. 7005 (1958), Glacy-Johnson (née Yetter); digital image, Ancestry (http://ancestry.com : accessed 3 September 2020).

[65] Erie County, Ohio, Probate Court, Marriage Records, vol. 16 (17 March 1919-21 April 1923), Ruskin-Yetter (1927), p. 540; digital image, Ancestry, “Ohio County Marriage Records, 1774-1993,” (http://ancestry.com : accessed 3 September 2020). “U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, digital image, Ancestry (http://ancestry.com : accessed 3 September 2020), card for George Washington Johnson, serial no. 1280, Local Draft Board, Parkersburg, Wood County, West Virginia. “Funeral is Set Tomorrow for Wapak Doctor,” The (Dayton, Ohio) Journal Herald, p. 3, col. 3.

[66] 1940 U.S. census, Los Angeles County, California, population schedule, Long Beach City, p. [not noted], enumeration district 59050, sheet 6-A, dwelling 1000, family 174, George W. Johnson; digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 September 2020).

[67] R. L. Polk & Co., compiler, Long Beach City Directory (Los Angeles: R. L. Polk & Co of California, 1953), 335, George W. and Irene Johnson.

[68] Claudine Burnett, “The ‘Cougar’ Countess and Long Beach’s Blackstone Apartment Hotel,” Long Beach’s Past, 30 May 2017 (http://historiclongbeach.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-cougar-countess-and-long-beachs.html : accessed 4 September 2020).

[69] Long Beach, California, Municipal Code, §16.52.410 – The Blackstone Hotel (https://library.municode.com/ca/long_beach/codes/municipal_code?nodeId=TIT16PUFAHILA_CH16.52HILA_16.52.410THBLHO : accessed 5 September 2020).

[70] “Blackstone Hotels and Apartments, Waterfront, Long Beach, CA,” Pacific Coast Architecture Database (http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/1951/ : accessed 4 September 2020).

[71] Ibid.

[72] Al Flint, “Pacific Coastliners,” The Billboard, 8 August 1960, p. 58, col. 4.

[73] “PCSA Banquet-Ball Pulls 300 Showfolk,” The Billboard, 26 December 1960, p. 46, col. 3-4.

[74] Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrade.com : accessed 5 September 2020), memorial 7926189, Joseph Anthony Glacy (1899-1965), Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles, California; gravestone photograph by Shiver.

[75] Lynda Natali, “Life and Death on Midway.”

[76] Pacific Coast Showmen’s Association Overview,” CorporationWiki (https://www.corporationwiki.com/California/Upland/pacific-coast-showmens-association/39450462.aspx : accessed 3 September 2020). There is an nonprofit organization by that name I have found on Facebook, but I cannot determine its connection to the original group.

Sam Abbott, “Joe Glacy ‘At Liberty’ Gives Time to His 26-Year Love – PCSA,” The Billboard, 23 September 1950, p. 55, col. 1-2.

Joe and Olive at the 1945 PCSA Ball. "At the P.C.S.A. Ball," The Billboard, 29 December 1945, p. 47.

Carolina Rascon and friends. “Mexican Amazon Dwarfs El Pasoans,” El Paso (Texas) Times, 19 December 1935, p. 1, col. 5-6.

The Pike. The Blackstone is the shorter white building in front of the high-rise.

Allegedly, this is Lady Vivian, the sword swallower (1920-30). “I’m Still Here!!,” The Ritzy Flapper (http://theritzyflapper.blogspot.com/2012/12/ : accessed 4 September 2020).