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Transcription: [00:33:52]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
What was that Willie? [laughs]
I, I know you aren't that old.
[00:33:58]

So we'll start off by uh -- Willie could you tell us, how you got your break into show business?
[00:34:04]

Now you started off in Georgia, didn't you?
[00:34:06]

{SPEAKER name="Willie"}
That's right.
Ya, I was in Georgia, I was, I say, August, Georgia,
[00:34:15]

but when you hear me say Augusta, Georgia, I was 10 miles out of Augusta. I was on a farm,
[00:34:21]

but that was the closest big town to me.
[00:34:24]

And uh, and I used to come to town to see the carnival and the circuses.
[00:34:31]


And I used to come, and when we get there, we wouldn't have money to go in, so we used to carry water,
[00:34:35]

they'll open a fire plug them years ago, and we would take buckets of water for the animals,
[00:34:44]

and then they would give us a pass to go in the show.
[00:34:47]

So, later on, I wanted to leave. I got about 10 years old, I wanted to leave.
[00:34:55]

So uh, I tried to leave with a carnival. they told me "no"; they wouldn't let me go.
[00:35:00]

But when I got 13 I put my age up, and I left with the carnival.
[00:35:06]

But I didn't work the carnival doing -- I was helping round the carnival, helping put up tents, and running errands, and doing things like that.
[00:35:14]

I wasn't dancing on the stage or doing nothing on the stage. So I kept on with them
[00:35:19]

until I got all the way to Washington. When I got to Washington, I had an aunt in Atlantic City.
[00:35:25]

so I went over to my aunt's, where she was,
[00:35:28]

and she put me back in school. I stayed in school one year, and then I left and went to New York.
[00:35:35]

Now you know what I want to know for 'em?
[00:35:38]

Today I'm going to give you an idea and what a carnival is like,
[00:35:44]

and how you make your money on a carnival. That's good.
[00:35:49]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
[away from mic] Let me, let me say a quick word about carnivals
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
Ok.
[00:35:53]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
There's one thing, since we're going to talk about carnivals today, as off now --
[00:35:56]

one thing I want to say about carnivals. You know, when we think of carnivals nowadays, how many people here think of performing shows, at a carnival?
[00:36:06]

There's a few hands out there.
[[Cross talk]]

{SPEAKER name="Willie"} Very few today.

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Very few.
[00:36:11]

{SPEAKER name="Willie"}
Most carnivals nowadays, are what? They're rides, --

[[Cross talk]]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Ya, they know that

{SPEAKER name="Willie"}
they're games, right?
[00:36:18]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Rides and games. Sometimes you have a show, a freak show, something of that sort, see the bearded lady,
[00:36:24]

see the woman turned into a boa constrictor,

[[Cross talk]]

{SPEAKER name="Willie"}
Don't have them much.

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
not much of that anymore.
[00:36:29]

However, traditionally, back, shoot, back all the way into the 1800s, and all the way up --
[00:36:37]

{SPEAKER name="Willie"}
Ya up.

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
until fairly recent years.
I know you're not that old, Will. We already knew that.

{SPEAKER name="Willie"}
Bring it up a little.
[00:36:43]

Transcription Notes:
Speaker 2 is Willie.