Burleson Star (Burleson, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 124, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 8, 1990 Page: 3 of 12
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Burleson Star. Wednesday. August 8.1990—3
—Miniature circus yields large-scale
design, implementation? enjoyment
CONTINUED FROM PAGE I
"My aunt had a curio shelf and a
bunch of us kids made her things to
' put on it," he said. "For my project, I
chose a circus wagon.”
His inspiration was a miniature
circus, on a much smaller scale, that
he'd seen at Stripling's Department
Store in Fort Worth.
He completed the wagon for his
> aunt, but it didn't show up among all
her other curios to the satisfaction of
an 8-year-old boy. So he built her
another. And then another.
The aunt gave them back to him
after he became serious about mak-
ing circus miniatures.
"They’re the only parts of the
circus made of balsa wood," he said.
Most of the balsa wood objects
he made are gone because the wood
is so soft that they're hard to care for.
He uses mostly a fine-grained
wood called bass for his carving now.
He will carve a piece, then make a
mold of it so he can make duplicates
of paper mache.
A problem with that is that it isn't
too water resistent. Normally that
wouldn't matter. I mean, the circus is
realistic, but he doesn't make it cloud
up and rain over it on opening night.
But it did cloud up and rain over
it this past spring. Rained so hard that
the roof collapsed on the building
where the circus was stored.
Unfortunately, all the spectators
perished. That meant getting another
600 tiny people to sit in the audience
and he didn't make them. "I didn't
think I had enough years left in my
life to carve 600 people," he said.
He bought a new audience (after
a suitable grieving period for the old
one, of course) and they're the only
part of the circus he didn't make
himself. And he didn't lack much
making them. They come without
arms and unpainted so they still rep-
resented a sizeable chunk of work.
Other than the people in the
stands, most of the circus was sal-
vageable, however.
"I managed to save about 90
percent of it," he said. "It wasn't so
much the water that ruined them,
though; it was the mildew." He
picked up several pieces to illustrate
the damage. One was totally ruined
and the other could possibily be
saved with a fresh coat of paint.
"I've spent the last three months
trying to get it all presentable again,”
he said.
While he's obviously done a
good job of that, the extra work did
cut out an eight-foot section he
planned to add to his show.
"I was working on a downtown
scene, complete with a moving cir-
cus parade," he said, "but I had to put
that on hold while I restored the rest
of it."
Downtown Burleson of 60 or 70
years ago will be depicted as his
"downtown" once he docs get the
new section finished. "I'm not sure
Burleson has ever had a circus parade
so I'm going to give it one, even if it
is in miniature," he said.
Like many of his pieces, the cir-
cus parade would move. A bicycle
chain is one of the secrets to that one.
Weights, pulleys, and clock motors
play integral parts in many of the
current moving figures.
The animated figures are a re-
cent addition to his circus.
"I never wanted to do it," he said.
"I always thought it detracted from
my circus."
Others thought differently and
he had difficulty getting it displayed.
He started working with animation
about seven years ago.
Underneath the table is a maze
BJHS English Department offers
workshop for 9th grade writers
The Burleson Junior High Eng-
lish Department is offering a Writers
in Training Workshop for ninth grade
students who are interested in im-
proving their writing skills.
^ There wili be one hour sessions
the week of Aug. 13-17. Session one
will be from 9-10 a.m. and session
two will be from 10:30-11:30 a.m.
Class size will be limited to IS
OUR
LOW COST
LOANS
students per session and the work-
shop will be offered free of charge.
Kathy Meek will conduct the work-
shop in Room 105 at the junior high
school.
, If yQ“ m grt interested ninth
grade student, please call and regis-
ter for pith^r session one or session
two. If there are enough students inter-
ested, an afternoon class may also be
offered. To register, call 447-5750.
of wiring to run the animation, the
liny spotlights and other lights, and
the sound system that plays circus
music to give it both the sight and the
sound of the real thing.
And in a way, it is the real thing.
All the figures, as well as wagons and
equipment, are based in reality. Dor-
sey worked 14 years in a circus and
the people he's made are people he
knew then. The circus wagons are
replicas of wagons he has seen.
He worked about every aspec t of
a circus, doing a trapeze act, high
wire act, motorcycle act, and being a
clown. He also did his time in the
cage—the lion's cage.
"The guy in the lion act slipped
and broke his leg," he recalled, "and
I was the only one his size who could
wear the costume so I got the job for
awhile.
"Itwasn'tall that difficult. Heck,
the lions knew the act better than I
did," he said.
All that experience gave him an
eye for detail that is evident through-
out his circus collection.
"This is my third time to help
him set it up and I just now noticed
that there are people in the train," said
Roy Davis, who works with Dorsey
on this and other endeavors. "He
(Dorsey) told me I’d notice some-
thing new everytime I lor* at it and I
have."
Davis puts on shows as an Elvis
impersonator with Dorsey as his
sound man.
One of the cars in the train is
Dorsey's private car and it may be
symbolic since he calls his circus his
"old age pension." He plans to spend
his later years traveling the country
setting up the circus at various points
along the way to finance his travels.
The private railroad car is com-
plete right down to toiletries in the
bathroom, model of a circus wagon
on a mantle, and actual photographs
on the wall.
"It's funny," Dorsey said in arare
reflective mood. "I'd always heard
that you have to think big."
He swept his hand in a gesture
that took in the whole of his circus
world. "I've ended up with all of this
by Blinking small.”
Small as in miniature. Small as
in detailed. Small as in intricacy.
But never small in concept, or,
design, or implementation, or enjoy-
ment. L
Despite its size, it's large-scale
all the way when it comes to things
like that
■/ I
Tiniest horses
Follow Whip
• * 1
/ V *'♦; *|
T-vv-'
- *r^ - . *■» ■>
A*.- \
W *7\
Bob Dorsey's tiny recreation of the circus includes five horses following
the whip; trapeze artists; and even a crowd in the background. All of this
is part of the smallest and most complete version of the circus that will be
on display at Fort Worth Town Center through Aug. 12.
Childhood Awe
The looks on children's (of all ages) faces watching the miniature Dorsey
Circus is not all that much different from the looks that appear during
performances uf full-sized circuses. Lindsey.Haase Jscsn't seed, her
mother Irene to point outmost of the fascinating displays on exhibit, but
mom seemed.la utjoy th* display as much aSUfaugbfar.
; ssril
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til
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o\0Ali
1990
A preview of area
high school football,
Burleson Elks
Crowley Eagles
Joshua Owls
To be published
September 5 & 6
as a special
supplement
in all 3 of our
area newspapers!
To advertise
call.,.....295-0486
Deadline
Thursday, August 30!
a
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Moody, James. Burleson Star (Burleson, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 124, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 8, 1990, newspaper, August 8, 1990; Burleson, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth762734/m1/3/?q=music: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Burleson Public Library.