The Daily Alaska empire., 1941-05-22
Cir(usls " No Job 10
 Get Stake
Clowns, Other Performers, Top Notch in Their Day,
 Die in Poverty
By GEORGE TUCKER

NEW YORK, May 22.-F1rSt hand acquaintance with circuses dispels much of the laugh-clown- laugh fiction traditionally associated with the big top folk. Circus people are intrepid performers and faithful to their calling, but they have no illusions that the glamor of their spangles is good for any merchant disc at the grocery store.
 Just the other day Hubert Castle, an Enid, Okla, boy who has be- come one of the worlds leading tightwire performers, spoke of his dream of acquiring ranch down in Texas. This" he said, lis no business to grow old in. Too many famous circus stars have died in poverty and obschrity Just last winter Bird Millman, a wire per- former of 25 years ago whose feats have hardly been equalled, died in Canyon City, Colo, almost alone, forgotten, and penniless.
 Not 50 feet away, as he spoke, stood a woman on the corner of 59th Street at Sth Avenue, selling souvenir whips to crowds moving toward the Garden entrance. Her voice was shrill and high. Two years ago she wouldn't have been shrill Two years ago there would have been no fear, no wonder about tomorrow
 But there is fear now. Her name is Marion Waite. Two years ago she was famous, favorite of the crowds who swarmed to the big top. Her husband was a whip artist She stood in front of hug zahing crowds while her husband expertly f1ecked the ashes off her cigarette with a 70-foot bull whip They were the famous Australian Waites. Today Billy Waite is in a sanitarium. Their savings have disappeared, and while the hus- band fights f5r his lie, pcnnilcss, no longer famous despite the piles of clippings which attest to his greatness, his wife stands on street corners at the circus en- trance, hawking souvenirs.
 That i S what Hubert Castle means when he says This is no business to grow old in.'
 Yet, performers keep coming back year after year, suppressing their apprehension about the fu- ture. They'll quit next year, they think, and go into something else, something a little more secure. But, not one in a hundred do. Something always happens, and there's always tomorrow. Mean while, there's Hubert, the tight wire expert, who dreams of a ranch in Texas, and Marion, queen of the bull whips, who sells souvenirs on the street cor ners.
 It is probably true that actors are more egotistical than producers, but you would never guess it by reading the names of Broadway's theaters. Only half a dozen are named for actors, but nearly 20 bear the names of producers Those currently in use which are named for stars are the Ethel Barrymore Maxine Elliott, the Booth and the Mansfield. Come to think of it, I don't know of single movie thea ter named for player.
 Bill Terry, manager of the Giants, and Leo Durocher, man ager of the Dodgers, are bitter enemies in print and on the field, but at night they fraternize chummily over glasses of beer They live at the same hotel.
 It appears now that Ukulele Ike Edwards will have to join a musicians union. Until now the lowly uke hasn't been regarded as a legitimate instrument. All this has been changed, and if Ed wards wants to continue strum- ming his uke for the enjoyment of film fans, he will have to get him. self card.