Page 27 - The Outdoor Showman July-September 2021

RODEO NEWS
family in Europe), Sonny first became a wire-walker and all-round acrobat in the family show in Switzerland.
He spoke all four Swiss languages, and was best in German. An accident on the wire (he saved Frank’s life, catching him in a leg-hold as they fell from a great height) stripped the flesh off his leg.
From then, he clowned. Ernest’s family were there, in 1976, when brother and sister-in-law, Anton and Anna Gasser, with partners, cousin Rene Katheriner (slack-wire, aerials, animals) and wife, Helen, started the third iteration of Silver’s Circus, in freezing country South Australia.
It was a hard grind, doing one-night stands, with a six-truck show in an ex-Lennon’s canvas tent, stringers
and jacks, and only six reliable family performers (but a good program, slick, well-presented and well-costumed.)
They stayed, even when things were so tough, Sonny had to drive one truck part of the way across the Nullarbor from Western Australia, take a battery and tyre off it, then cadge a lift back, several hundred kilometres, for the next truck. Then repeat the process, all the way over the 1,700-kilometre treeless plain. Things soon got better.
They stayed several years with Silver’s, before moving as Frank Gasser’s Circus Royale grew to the stage where it needed to expand its clowning.
The family stayed on, when Frank launched Royale American 3-Ring Circus, in March, 1984.
When it toured New Zealand, 110 performances in 38 towns, Chi-Chi and the family were with it all the way.
Circus people will remember meeting Sonny at the front door, at interval and after the show, as he sold thousands of his signature Chi-Chi flags.
Learning English after he and wife, Olga (‘Madi’ to most circus people), migrated to join Circus Royale, his ring persona endeared him to generations of audiences.
In Royale American 3-Ring Circus, he was famous for his “magic” act.
First part, he would ‘hypnotise’ Piccolo (Frankie Gasser) into a large box, cover the top with a sheet, then stab where the head had been seen, then sweep the sheet away, to reveal the victim holding a huge cabbage above his head.
Next, Frankie would usher Chi-Chi into a cloth-curtained round container.
With a team of ring-waiters closing him in, the bag gets hauled up to the top of the tent.
After producing an elaborate pistol and arguing with the Ringmaster over who would shoot the structure down, a shot is fired. The bag collapses on the ring-mat, and it’s empty.
‘Where is he?’ Even the audience asks this one.
‘Yoo hoo’ comes a voice up in the back of the gallery.
Spotlight on Sonny, who makes a triumphal entry, to great applause.
Sonny and Madi have four children: Son Rene ‘Sonnyboy’ (balancer, later horse opera producer in Australia and the USA), Frances (wire-walker ballet) recently sadly bereaved, Gabriella (dog act, aerialist), and Elizabeth (shoulder perch, aerial).
Sonny spent his last years at Gisborne, Victoria, in close touch with family and friends, as his health declined.
He died of a heart attack, aged 87.
His funeral service, restricted to
very few family members, was held
in Gisborne on Tuesday, July 20th. There’ll be a larger celebration of his life, after Corona virus lockdowns end.
Vale Ernest (Sonny) Gasser, Chi-Chi the Clown.
Vale Tom LeGarde
Tom LeGarde, one half of country group The LeGarde Twins died on 30 July 2021 aged 90.
The LeGarde Twins are being remembered as “early pioneers” of country music, following the death Tom LeGarde.
It was almost three years to the
day since his twin brother Ted passed away, in 2018.
They were just young boys living in
the bush in North Queensland when they told their mum they were going to become “singing cowboys”.
The identical twins from Mackay honed their performing skills on the Australian rodeo circuit.
The LeGarde Twins performed in Australia in the 1950s where they were known as ‘Australia’s Yodeling Stockmen’.
But with their matching outfits and flare, the duo were set for the world stage and destined to gain international fame.
In 1957 they relocated to Canada
and soon after based themselves in California. They went on to open the LeGarde Twins Country Music Theatre in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
In the 1960s, in partnership with Lorraine (Ashton) and Gary Grant and others, they ran the second iteration of Silver’s Circus.
(The first edition was established
after World War II, by Mervyn King, in partnership with leading tent-makers. It was highly-successful, over several years, and left a big reputation around Australia).
The current Silvers Circus was established in 1975-6 by Anton and Anna Gasser with partners. It owed much of its growth to media help
from multiple Logie-winner Tommy Hanlon, Jnr., who was with the circus for 23 years, and is still one of the most successful shows in Australia.)
In 1967 Tom and Ted had a part in Star Trek in the episode ‘I, Mudd’.
The death of Tom LeGarde marks the end of an era for country music pioneers, the LeGarde Twins.
By John MacDonnell
Next edition: Vale ‘Archie’, Robert Bruce, Filmstar/clown
THE OUTDOOR SHOWMAN 25