walker evans florida.pdf
TRANSCRIPT
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Commissionedin 94 by
w r i t e r K a r l B i c k e l Walker Evans
traveled to
F l o r i d a
to take the photo
graphs that were published a year
later i n Bickel sTheMangrove Coast.
These photographs constitute a
l i t t l e - k n o w n
c hapte r i n Evans s l o n g
career. Pelicans,
t r a i l e r
homes,
dancing circus elephants
f r o m
the
B i n g l i n gBros,
w i n t e r
quarters i n
Sarasotathe image ry Evans
f o u n d
i n
F l o r i d a was far removed f r o m the
Depression-era A m e r i c a w i t h w h i c h
this
master photographer is so often
associated.
Walker
Evans .
loridabrings
together f i f t y - f o u r of Evans s p hot o
graphs of
F l o r i d a
accompanied by
an essay by novelist Bobert Pl unket,
who
lives in
Sarasota.
Plunket s wry
account of the hum an and geographic
landscape of
F l o r i d a
provides a
superb c ount erp oint to Evans s pho
togra phs, rev eal ing a side o f Evans s
career that may come as something
o fa surprise to many of his a dmir ers .
F R O N T
C O V E R Trailer in
Camp Sarasota: see
p ge56
R A C K
C O V E R
Three
Palms
see
p ge
53
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W
lorid
L K E R E V N S
With an essay by
R o b e r t Plunket
Th e J . P a u l G e t t y M u s e u m # L o s
A n g e l e s
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viii
Introduction:
Evans
in
Florida 1941
L
ongtime
newspaperman
Karl
Bickel
retired with
his wifeto
Sarasota,
Florida,in 1985.
Bickel
had
been presi-
dent
of
what
was
then called United
Press Associations
( n o w U P I ) f ro m
1938
to
1985,
had
written
the b ookJVeK;
Empires: Th e Newspaper and the Radio
(1980),
and, in1983,had confidentially
advisedCharles Lindberghon how to
deal with the media during the ordeal of
his son's kidnapping. In the quiet resort
town
of
Sarasota (population 8,000),
Bickel
quickly became
a
community
leader
working toward economic
aswell
ascultural improvements.Healso took
up the
hobby
of
investigating
the
history
ofthe
west coast
of the
state.
The
result
of
h is
research
w as The
Mangrove Coast:
The Story of
the
West
Coast
of Florida. It is
a
book that ranges
from the geology of
the
region
to the
legends
of its
explorers
tothe author's personal reminiscences
aboutfavorite fishing
trips.
Th e Mangrove Coastconcerns a
stretch
of the
state along
the
Gulf
of
Mexico
described
by
Bickel
as
extending
"f rom
AncoloteAnchoragetoSanibel
K ey
and
thentapering
off from
Sanibel
southward
to the
distant mouth
of the
Shark."Bickel declares that the attrac-
tion
of the
Mangrove
Coastis
actually
tobe
found,
not in its past, but "in its
intangibles:
the
gleam
of
white sand,
the
softness
of
southwest winds, pink
and turquoise
sunsets,and the
abiding
simplicityof itspeople."
It
does seem strange that Walker
Evans (19081975),a
photographer
who
consistently maintained that hefound
nature
uninteresting,
was
selected
to
provideillustrations for abook about
the
historical
myths and natural beauty
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ofthe
nation's
vacationland,
its
south-
ernmost
state.But
whatever
the
reasons
fo r
the
o ffe r ,
Evanswashappytoaccept
the job of
illustratingBickel's book,
which involved a six-week
trip
to Florida
in 1941 and paid
him
a
much-needed
fee.
Th e
Mangrove Coast
appeared in
1943
in a first edition
that
consisted of
Bickel's text (with an epilogue written
that January reflecting the recent
e ffec ts
of
wartime
on
Florida's west coast), fol-
l owe d
by a
portfolio
ofthirty-two pho-
tographs by Evans, introduced with his
captions.
This
group
of
pictures
is
pos-
sibly the least known of Evans's
pre-1945
works and survives in very few 19408
prints,
most
of
them
now
located
at the
Getty
Museum. Their importance has
been overshadowedbyEvans'sNew
York
subway
series
of the
same period,
but
they exhibit
the
photographer's
eye in
an equally exceptional way and, with
more exposure, should be accepted as a
significant phase in the development of
Evans's mature documentary style, com-
parableto his igSS
work
in
Cuba
and his
Depression-era pictures "from the field"
fo r
the Resettlement Administration.
The
selection
of
Evans's Florida
photographs presented here
is
accom-
panied by an essay by novelist Robert
Plunket, who lives in Sarasota. Mr.
Plunket knows Florida intimately,
and his wryassessmentof the B icke l
Evans
collaboration placesthese
little-knownphotographs within the
colorful
context
o f the
MangroveCoast .
Judith
Keller
Associate Curator
Department of
Photographs
A
TechnicalNote
Walker Evans: Florida
contains fifty-four
gelatin
silverphotographs, a num-
ber of which were first pub-
lished in Karl
Bickel s Th e
M a n g r o v e
Coast (1942).
All of the images were
selected
from
the Getty-
Museum s collection, the
largest
holding
of prints
made by Walker Evans him-
self.
A few
of
the
photo-
graphs
have been slightly
cropped,
and a
very
fe w
have been significantly
cropped. All of the pho-
tographs are reproduced in
their complete form,
with
their dimensions
and
acces-
sion
numbers,
beginning on
page
64.
Further information
about theprints,as well as
the entireGet ty collectionof
Evans s work,
can be found
in
myWalker Evans:
The
G e t t yM useum Collect ion
(1995).
J . K .
ix
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It
is not to bedenied
that
full
hal f
o f
th e
touristsandtravellers
that cometoFlorida
return intensel y
disappointed
and
even disgusted.
Why?
Harriet Beecher
Stowe
Palmetto
Leaves 1878
xi
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Walker Evans
the
Mangrove Coast
and Me
byRobertPlunket
Just about everyoneinSarasota does.
Fo rthe past fifteen years I have been
one of the town's leading gossip col-
umnists.I've covered everything f r o m
charity ballsto theMayor's Prayer
Breakfast ,
from
thehigh-school
prom
totheopening nightof theFrench Film
Festival, where Jeanne Moreauand
Audrey
Hepburn, dressed
to the
nines,
vied
f o r
"best entrance." (Audrey won.)
I'veroasted politicians, I'vee m c e e d
charity auctions, I've modeled sports-
w e a rtob e n e f i t th eHumane Society.
I've
even interviewed Warren Burger
and Pia
Zadora, although
not at the
same time.
1
C a l l m e M r C h a t t e r b o x
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P A G E x i i
Tw o Giraffes,
Circus
Winter
Quarters, Sarasota
P A G E 3
Concrete Block
Buildingwith
Shell
Decoration
And in
doing
so
I 've learne d
a lot
about
Florida.Itreallyisdifferent down
h e r e t h e
w ay itlooks,th eweather ,th e
social
pat terns ,
t he
b rand-newness
of
th eplace .Everybodycomesf roms o m e -
whereelse, which me ans he has secrets
f rom
hispast backinDayton,and in a
n u m b e r ofcases those secrets involve
fo rmerwives
who
disappeared under
myster ious c ircumstances .Anamaz ing
n u m b e r
of
people blow into tow n, make
asplashy nam e
for
them selves,
a nd
then
arearres ted. The buying and selling
of real estateis thedom inant industry .
Indeed,
it could be said that the rea l-
estate
ad is the
pr incipalform
of
l i te ra-
ture here .
Even
the ar t is dif fer ent . True ,
there is much conventional a r tpa in t -
ings , perform ances , e tc .B ut thereally
interesting artistic endeavors are usual-
ly
disguised
as
something e lse
a
theme park ,
a
mystery novel,
a
coconut ,
even a
s imple vacat ion photograph.
WalkerEvans took m any photographs
here in 1941, but they are not, definitely
not,
vacation photograph s. They
ar e
som ething else en tirely.
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O P P O S I T E
Mystery Ship Roadside Ba r
5
I
Evan
i
first
becam e in teres ted inWalker
sbecauseI amwhatyoumight call
ab iographyfreak. Theyare m yfavorite
form ofreading.Ihaunt th e"NewBooks"
section at
Selby
Libraryatleast once
awee k, looking for the latest . I ' l l read
anything, but I
find
myself mos t drawn
to the livesofthosetorture d twentieth-
century Am erican wri ters ,
t he
ones
whosmoke and drank too much and
then
died young,
thus
becoming
instant
legends .
O nething
I 've not ice d
is
that in anas tonishing nu mb er ofthese
books , th e name W alker Evans keeps
poppingu p .
Two
o f
Evans 's closest friends have
particularly interested me. The f irs t was
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O P P O S I T E
Souvenir Shop Display
R I G H T
Racetrack Spectators
Hart Crane,one of the great poetsof
the twe nties. Talk abo ut intense : he
worked on onep o e mfo rsevenyears
The
Bridge fo r which Evans took
th e
f ron t ispiece
photograph. Cranewas a
binge dr inkerand anindefat igable
sailor-chaser,thatis,unt i lhe sur-
prised
everyone by
running
offwith
Malcolm Cowley'swife. They went
to
Mex icoandmovedinwi th K ather ine
Anne Por t e r . Bu t on t he way back ,
Cranehad second thoughts an d jum ped
ship, l i teral ly, leap ing
o ffth e
stern
o f
the SS
Orizaba
and
drowning just nor th
ofHavana.
Jam es Agee was even s t ranger .
His careerwas thetriumphof thewill.
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N o b o d ywanted
to be a
great writer
more that he. He published one very
goodnovel,A
Death
in the
Family,
more
or less to prove that he could, but he
is best remembered for his collabo-
ration with Evans,Let
U s
Now Praise
Famous Men,and his screenplay for
Th eAfrican Queen.LikeCranehedied
young, a heart attack in a taxicab.
He
wasliterally wornout byart.He was
one of theoriginal "problem smokers";
he had a bad
heart
but
couldn't stop
his constant intake of nicotine. Women
foundhim very sexy in a NicolasCage
sort
of
way,
and as he is a
biographer's
dream,
there
are quite a few books
about
him.
Evans
is the mystery of the
trio.
O nereasonmay bethathelackedthe
energy
of his
friends.
He was
cool,
passive,
shy, more a voyeur than a partici-
pant. Evansdidn'twearhishearton his
sleeve
like Crane and Agee. He loved
people-watching,particularly when
he
could
do it in a
reclining position. Today
there
are
manyartists
likeh i m A n d y
Warho land R.Crumb leapto
m i n d b u t
Walker
Evans was, backin the
'3os
and
'408,
ahead
of his
time,
personality-wise.
An example: he embraced the com-
mercial. Indeed,
his
career
was one
ofmoving fromjob tojob. Mostof his
m a j o rworkresultedfrom becoming
attached
to a project initiated by
some-
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oneelse.Thebest known was,ofcourse,
Le t U s
Now Praise
Famous
Men.
B ut
there
wereothers as well; the book you're
holding in your hands is the result of
one ofEvans's more exotic assignments,
and just about the only one that
could
bedescribedasfun.
It allbegan when Evanswascon-
tactedonbehalfof a mannamed
Ka r l
Bicke l ,
who needed some photographs
fo r a
book
he was
writing. Bickel
had
recently retiredtoSarasotaaf te ralong
and distinguished careerinjournalism
that started with his coverage of the San
Francisco earthquake.Hemoved
f r om
strengthtostrength
until
he
ended
up
as
head
o f
U P I .
Hejoined various civic boards
and
boosted
the
city.
He led the
drive
to
build
a big
pavilion
out atLido Bea ch ,
and hiswife, M a di r a ,is
still
remem-
bered
for her ironfisted
rule
of the
local
women's club. But they both had an
intellectual side aswel l ,and the history
ofFlorida becametheirspecialty.
Indeed, M a di r a
rose to such promi-
nence in the state historical society
that an ancient Indian midden, or pile
ofshells, is named in her honor up in
Terra
Ceia.
K a r ldecided
to do her one
better,
though.
He
would write
a
book detail-
ing the
long
and
co lo r fu lhistory
of
the Gulf Coas tofFlorida,to betitled
Th e M angrove
Coast, af te r
th e ubiqui-
tous plant that grows half-in andhalf-
out of the
water
and
covers much
of
9
now in his new home
kar l se t ou t to bec om e
sarasatas ideal citizen
the active retiree.
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L E F T
Two Me n
Fishing
O P P O S I T E
Shuffleboard Players
th e
shore l ine .
And he
wou ld
get a
f i rs t -
ra t e pho tograph e rtosupplythe p i c -
tures . W alker Evans,whowas,
after
all,
th e
f i r s t pho tographe r
t o be
h o n o r e d
with
a n
ex hibit
at the
M u s e u m
o fM o d -
ern Art , sounded pe rfect .
Withhis Guggenhe im m oney run-
ning out (he 'd received a fe l lowship
in 1940) and the re lease of Let Us Now
Praise
Famous Men
so
d i sappo in t in gthe
b o o k
sold
a
m e r e
six
hundredcopies
Evansm ust have been very happy wi th
the prospect of
spending
s ix weeks in
Florida,
al l expens es p aid, just as cold
wassettlingin upN o r t h . F u r th e r m o r e
it
wou ld
be a
f ree honeymoon: Evans
had just m arr ied Ja neSmithN i n a s , a
pain ter. And so, in late Oc tob er of 1941,
th e
newlyweds
set out for the west coast
of Florida.
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12
I
th e phrase "west coasto fFlor ida"
is drawingab lank inyou r mind, don ' t
worry:even pe ople on the eas t coas t of
Flor ida don ' t know mu ch abou t it . You
growup on one coas t and spend you r
entire
life
th ere, w ithout going to the
other .
One
reason
is thej ou rn ey
itself ,
anendless dr ive through swam po r
sugarcane
o r
ca t t le ranches .
The
only
human se t t l emen ts
a re migran t -worke r
and
pr ison camps.
T he
m essage
is
c lear :
b ehave ,o ryou ' llend up in themiddle
of
the state.
N oone
denies that
th e
east coast
is m ore g lamorous . Italwaysha sb e e n .
T h e r e
w as
nothing qui te
as
exc i t ing
as
M i a m i B e a c h
in the 19508,and
n ow,
in its newguise,the B e a c hisb a c k
o n
top , with
all
those
hip
mo dels
and
no p lacetopa rk .A ndPa lm Beach
has
a lways bee n
o ne o f the
most g lam-
orous placesin thewor ld ,a t o p - t e n
con ten der . Even B oc aR a ton , even
Ft. Lau derdale . . . .
B utTampa?
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L E F T
Cypress
Swamp
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Like any self-respecting
place w ith a similar parb-
lem , the w est coast concedes
glamour but insists that
it is m ore :rea l
In
this
case, "real" mea ns
real old andreal quiet,a ndwitha n
indigenous
population that is real South-
ern inthought andactionand lifestyle
(i.e.,
lotso fpickup t rucks with Co nfede r-
ate
flags). The ec ono m y centers around the
re t i rement industry ,
and
anyone under
fifty
is
perceived
a s
startlingly young.
Though
there arepocketsof
affluence
(Naplesan d, near Sarasota , Longboat
Key),the
general atmosphere
is
m iddle-
class
M idwestern, with palm trees.
Keep
i n
mind that
th e
w est coast
ofFloridais not the samethingas the
Gulf
Coast.
T he GulfCo ast stretches
f romPensaco la ,at theAlabama bor -
der,all the w ay south to the end of
th e
mainland, jus t nor th
o f K ey
W est.
Thewest coastis the lower par to f the
Gulf
Coast ,th e par t
that
faces
west ;
up in the Panhandle, the land faces
south. Thesetwopar ts of the Gulf
Coast,like the east an d west coasts,
have
nothing
to do
with each other
andare ,i nfact, separatedbyanothe r
natural barr ier . On the m ap i t looks
l ike an enormous mangrove swamp.
Whatever
it is , i t is impen etrable , and
no one ever goes there .
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16
P A G E 1 4
Auto
G raveyard at Tampa
P A G E 1 5
Upstate Roadside
Landscape
R I G H T
Fishermen
in
Sponge Boat,
Tarpon Springs
O P P O S I T E
Sponge-Diver s Boat,
Tarpon Springs
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The
west coast, where Evans too k
al l
hisphotographs, beginsnorthof
Tampa
with a smattering oflittletowns,
the most
interesting
of which is Tarpon
Springs, where fifth-generatio n Greeks
dive for
sponges. N e x tcom es Tampa
itself.
On the
surface
itseemsto be a
largeco mm erc ial cen te ro f nopar t i cu -
lar in teres t ,
but the
m o r e
yo u
study
i t,
the mo re i t becom es very interes t ing
indeed. Criminals on the lam arealways
being caught in m otels there, and aseri-
ousdevil-worship problem exis ts amo ng
the young; yet anoth er claim tofame is
that it has thehighestincidence oflight-
ning strikesinth e country .S t.Peters-
burg,acrossth e bay, funct ionsas aglum
Brooklyn
to Tampa's M anhattan. I t was
here that
a
broke n, barely
m iddle-aged
JackK erouac drank himself todeath in
hismo ther 's ho use.
Heading
south, we next encou nter
Bradenton,an old Southern town fam ous
as the
h o m e
o f
Tropicana Orange Ju ice .
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L E F T
Crowd Waiting at Street
Corner, Tampa
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2
Then comes Sarasota, about which more
later,
andthen
Venice, whereretire-
m e n t hasb e co m eno tjus talifestylebut
th e
l ifestyle. (I on ce c overe d a party
there attended
by,
among others, twenty-
seven people over the age of one hun -
dred.)
Ft .
Myers
is
next ;
it is
very large,
overtwohun dred thousand inhabitants ,
but oddly out of the mainstream . I 've
only
had occasion to go
there
once, and
al l I can remem ber is banyan t rees and
lots
oftraffic. N e x t
com es N aples , which
is
very opulent.
Old
money
retires
here ,
but it is
smal l ishpopula t ion
twenty-
onet h o u s a n d a n d ,as they say, "dead
in the sum mer." South of N aples is a
placecalled Mar co Island, crowded with
vacation
condos whose charm eludes
m e,a nd
then...nothing.
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O P P O S I T E
M en
in the
Street
a t
Tampa
L E F T
Blind Couple
in
Tampa City Square Hall
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O P P O S I T E
Coastal Landscape
with
Palms
If the west coast of florida
seems a little off the beaten
track now , just im ag ine
how isplated it must have
seemed back in 1941.
That was
before
a i r -condi t i on inga nd
mosqu i to con t ro l .
Roads
werefew and
pr imi tive ; m uch o f the t r an spo r ta t ion
was
by boat . When Char les and Anne
Lindbergh came
for a
vis i t , they packe d
as if for a
safari.
B ut
Sarasotawas ahappy ex cept ion
to allthis.I t was wor ld famous back in
those days, as the ho m e of the Ringling
Br os ,
and
B a r n u m
&
B ai ley Circus ,
a
beaut i ful , pristine litt le town of eight
t h o u s a n d t h e undisputed star of the
west coast. I t had thirty-five miles of
white-sand
beaches and a cosmopo li tan
popu la t ion .T hebars must have been
grea t ; peoplestilltalk abou t
the old
Plaza,
not to mention the
M 'To to R oom
( n amed
after a
famo us gor i lla)
at the El
V ernona Ho tel , where there were c ircus
actsand dancing everynight. Visiting
celebrities cam e through regularly.T he
Que en of Iran showe d up, plus Will
Rogers ,and
even Albert Einstein,
w ho
wasfitted with atrussat B adger 's Drug
?
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4
Storeon M ain Street. The house where
hestayedisstillstanding onSouth Polk
Driveout on Lido Key, mak ing Sarasota
one o f the few
places where
we can
truly
sa ywe had "Einstein on the B each."
Karl
B ickel gave Evans carte b lanche
as to what to take pictu res of , and it's
not surprising that the urbane photogra-
pher ,
w ho
bought
h is
clothes
at
Brooks
Brothers , decided
to
concentra te
h is
efforts on Sarasota. The roadtripswere
fewand not very produc tive. (I won der
if M adira and her middens had any-
thing
to do
with
this.)A
journey
to
Tallahassee*yielded a
single
port ra i t
of an antebellum mansion and as ide-
walkscene. Tam pa and St. Pete regis-
tered as group portraits of grim, elderly
w o m e n .
Only Tarpo n Springs acqu itted
itself
we ll: Evans loved the diving suit
(p .
39)and the
amateurish mura ls (pp.
3o 3i ) ,versions ofwhichstilldecora te
the Tarpo n Springs of today.
*RalphWaldoE m e r s o n ,noless ,
descr ibedT allahasseeas "a
gro tesque
plac e," set t led
b y
"office h olders , speculators ,
an d
despe rados ." Even
in
1826, fewwriters were wil l ing
to giveth ewest coas tabreak .
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O P P O S I T E
Antebellum Plantation
House at Tallahassee
L
E FT
Negroes at Tallahassee
35
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*6
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8
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P A G E
26
The Green
Benches
at
St. Petersburg
PA G E 27
Winter Resorters
P A G E
28
Winter Resorters
R I G H T
Sponge
Diver s
Suit,
Tarpon Springs
For
h isSarasota photograph s ,
Evansmanagedtocapturethethingsthat
wereunique to the tow n. First , of cours e,
came the
circus. Timeaf ter t ime
h e
j o u r -
neye d out to the east of tow n to visit
th e Ringling circus winter quartersa nd
pho tographt h ean imals , th e archi tec-
ture, the ra i l road cars , and m ost of
all,t he elabora te, hand-carved ci rcus
wagons
that
were
usedi n
count less
parades down the M ain Streets of
count less Am erican towns .
9
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Iti shardfo r us toimagine th ehold th e
circus had on everyday
life
six ty or so
years
ago.
For many children, the day the
circus cametotownw as thehighpoin t
oft heyea r .
The story of Sarasota and the cir-
cus is a sad one, particularly because
it began so happily.Backin the
19308
Joh n Ringling, the bra ins of the five
Ringling brothers , came to Sarasota for
avacation.
He was
imm edia tely s t ruck
by
th e town 's poten t ia l and began buy-
ing upeverythingin sight, developing
it ,
selling lots, laying
o ut
streets ;
he
was,quite literally, building a city.
he twentieth centuary has
killed of f m an y th ing s, but
its saddest casua lty m ay
well be the circus.
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RI GH T
Balcony Car, Circus Train,
Winter
Quarters, Sarasota
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L E F T
Ringling Bandwagon, Circus
Winter
Quarters, Sarasota
P A G E S 36-37
Uninhabited Seaside
Residence in Sarasota
(Ca d Zan,
formerly the
Ringling Residence)
35
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3 6
Heconstruc ted a palace on the bay for
himself
a nd hiswife
M ab le
and hiscol-
lec t ion of Old Masters and b egan work
on a
RitzG ar l ton Ho te l .
In
1927
h e
moved
his
en t i re opera t ion
here f rom
B ridgepor t , Connec t icut (where,inter-
estingly, W alker Evans also took ph o-
tographs
in the '40 8 b ut
that's
an o ther
s tory) .Sarasota suddenly becam e unique
in theworld:it was a
one-industry
town,
and
that industry
was thec i rcus .
For years it was a role that Sara-
sota played proudly .
In no
t ime
the
win -
ter quarters, withitsm enager ieand
rehearsa ls opento thepubl icin anou t -
doo r
arena bu i l t to the exac t spec if ica-
t ions
ofM adison Square Garden , becam e
thebiggest
tourist
a t t rac t ion in the
state. I t was the Disney W orld of its day.
Touristsstillshowuplookingfor i t . And
w h e n
the
depress ion hi t ,
the
circus
enabledthe townto survive quite nicely.
T h e p e r f o r m e r s putdown roots here,as
mu ch as c ircus perfo rm ers can , and for
a
small town
in
Florida, Sarasota devel-
oped
quite an ec lec t ic pop ula t ion m ix.
W ehad
aerialists
f rom
Europe ;
we had
mid ge t sfora t ime w e had more ex -
M un chk in s than
any
place
in the
wor ld ;
Iusedto seethemin the supermarke t ,
but sadly most have passed
away.
And
wehad the Ringlings themselves, with
their mans ions
on the bay andtheir
Dynasty-like struggles over control of
their empi re .
W hen Evans visited in1941the
circusw asstill in itsglory days,and
glor ious they were. One small ex ample:
the
elephants
he
photograph ed going
through
their
paces
in the
ou tdoo r
arena would , in a ma tter of weeks , begin
wor k
o n
their
new
showstopper
for the
194?seaso n. I t was a "Circus Polka"
with mu sic com missioned especially
f rom Igor Stravinsky, to be choreo-
graphed byGeorgeB alanchine, with
c o s tu m e s b y N o r m a n B e l G e dd e s .
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B E L O W
Unfinished Boomtime Hotel
O P P O S I T E
Circus Trainer
with
Performing Elephant,
Winter Quarters, Sarasota
38
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T h estarswere Old Mo doc, the grea t O P P O S I T E
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c ircus elephant bur ied somewherein an
unmarked gravein the Kens ington Park
subdivis ion , and V era Zor ina , who was
then
Balanchine's
wife.
T he
N ew
o r k
Times
(April
10 ,
1 9 42) p ron ou n ced
it
"breathtaking":
Thecast inclu ded f i f t y ballet girls,all in
f l u f f y p ink , and f i f t y danc ing e lephants .
They came into the ring in artificial, blue-
lighted dusk, first the l i t t le pink dance rs,
then the grea t beasts. The li tt le dance rs
p i roue t ted in to the three r ings and the e le -
phant herds gravely swayedand nodded
rhythmically.
The arc of
sway
widened and
the s to mping p icked up wi th the music .
In the central ring Mo d o cthe Elephant
danced
w ith amazing grace ,
and in
t ime
to
the tun e, closing in
perfect cadence
with
th e crashing finale.In thelast dance f i f t y
elephants m oved in an endless chain
aroun d the great ring, trun k to tail , with
the li t t le pink ballet girls in the blue twi-
l ight behind them. The grou nd shook wi th
th ee lephants ' m easured s teps.
Jus t whenthingswere getting really
bad
and the
c ircus needed every break
i t
couldget, Sarasota ungratefully zone d
it out of town . I t seem s that circu s pe o-
ple live with an inordinate am oun t of
strange eq u ipmen tgau dytrailers, wild
animals, trapeze riggingin the b ack-
y a r d a n d
one by one a l l these necess i-
tieswere prohib i ted . Theyh ad b e c o m e
a l i tt le em barrass ing
in a
carnival,
hon ky- ton k so r t
of
way. B esides,
th e
town
h ad
foun d
a new
source
o f
weal th:
th e ret i red Midwesternersw hobegan
moving herein the 19508.
Tw oCircus Trainers with
Performing Elephants,
Winter Quarters, Sarasota
PAGE 4 2
Three C ircus Train Cars,
Winter Quarters.
.Sarasota
Televosion killed the
circus, But Sarasota, t
its sham e, helped out.
4i
o
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4?
Even though Ringling
B ros , left
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in 1960, f irst movingtoV en ice , then
to Tam pa, Sarasota remains a c ircus
town .
Over
a
doze n smaller c i rcuses
a re
headqua r te r ed here , though the i r p er -
f o r mance sch edules get smaller and
smaller with each pass ing
yea r .Man y
of the great circus families are still here,
though mos t o f the youn ger m emb e r s
haveleft th e
bus iness .
My o ld
neighbor
Gu nther W allenda taught his tory a t
Sarasota High. And O lympia Zacch in i ,
th e
daughter
of the
f i rs t wom an shot
out o f acan n on , is ap romin en t local
artist.
Thereis oneR ingling left in
t own ,
Pat
Ringling Bu ck.
She is a
gossip
columnis t jus t l ike m e. Or she was.
N owshe'sa
critic .
4
P A G E
4 3
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Man at
Work
on
Circus
Wagon,
Sarasota
R I G H T
Detail
of
Circus Wagon,
Sarasota
O P P O S I T E
Circus Winter Quarters,
Sarasota
4 4
B ut if the circus is but ashellof its
f o r mer self ,
i t has
given Sarasota
a
his -
tory of c rea t ive endeavor unpara l leled
in thewo r ld . Thisis thetown wherethe
f amousgag
with
all the
clowns piling
out
of the tinycar was invented. This is
where Franz Unus l ived,
t he m an who
coulds tand
on one
f inger .
Andthen
the re wereth e elephants . What th eNew
o r k Times
didn't
telly ouab ou twas an
incident that occurred during
a
rehearsa l
atthewin terquarters.Things w ere
going
f ine
until
a
sudden no ise f r ight-
en ed
the
herd
and
they
all
took
off en
masse, heading sou th. T he image of a
dist raught Geo rge B alanchine chas ing
a
he rd of eleph ants, all c lad in p ink
tutus, downLockwoodRidge
Roadthat ,
to
m e, is
Sarasota,
a nd
always will
b e.
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P A G E 4 6
Circus
Wagon (Calliope Car),
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Winter Quarters, Sarasota
P A G E 4 7
Ringling
Bandwagon, Circus
Winter Quarters,
Sarasota
48
A
friend ofmine ,visiting
Sara-
sota for the f irs t t im e, called it "pretty,
but notthat
pre t ty ."
It is f lat as a bo ard.
The vegetationi sscrubbyi n some areas ,
tropicalino thers . There isnothing dra-
matic
or brea thtaking about i t ; when
real beauty takes over, i t com es
f rom
the changing colors of the sky and water.
This was som ething W alker Evans
was n o t
much in te res ted
in. He was
clearlya n
artist
who did not
fall
victim
to
nature 's charms. N o wo nder Ansel
Adams hated
h is
work .
The
only natural
thing he really l iked was
driftwood,
which
at least he could collect. One can
even sense
a
certain hosti l ity
in his
photograph s of the M angrove Coast 's
L E F T
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Inland
Landscape
B
E L O W
Pelican
on a Dock
4 9
The W orld is a poorer place
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5
beaches and swamps.TheswampsI can
understa nd; back in those days they were
not
revered
a s
fragile ecosystem s, they
were the enemyuselessfor anypur-
posewhatsoeverand full ofdangerous
things like alligators. Many Floridians
still look upo n them
this
way, and not
without reaso n. Alligators, reveling in a
b ig
comeback
f rom
the ir endangered-
species status, are makingof fwith chil-
drenand small dogsat analarming rate .
At
one retirement comm unity they have
avolunte er alligator patrol duringpoo-
dle-walkinghours .
livehere for any length oft ime , th e
pelican becom es abou tasinteresting as
the squirrel. Seabirds have a down-
s idethey
a revic ious , s tubbo rn, and
greedy.They are always getting caught
in
hooks
and
fishing lines
and
then
being rushedto thePelican Man's Bird
Sanctuary,
one of the
town's more
popular charities.
Ican
forgive
th e swamps.I can
forgive
th epelicans,who do,
after
all,
mate
forlife.B ut Ireally wishhe had
tr ieda
little
harder withthe beaches.
They are ,af ter all,ourb readand bu t -
ter.
O ne of
themeven
won a
Best Sand
in the
Wo rld contest. They
can
hold
theiro w nwitha nyresort in theworld.
for not gaving a w alker
Evens pha tograph of a live
al liga ter: the y w ere his k ind
of anim al.
Instead,
h efellfor the pel ican.If you
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True,thewater does tendto be a little
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5*
tepidandcalma nd
ba th tub- l ike ,
p a r -
ticularly
in
August,
and
they
are
eroding
ata nappalling
rate .
B utthey rem ain th e
town's pride and joy, not to me ntion a
little gold mine.
B ut where ar ethey?A ll we get are
several
shotso fmisshapen
palm
trees
growing mu ch to ocloseto thewaterl ine.
Wh e reis the Lido Casino,the glorious
ArtDecobeach pavi lion c ham pioned
by
hishos t , M r.Bickel ,bu tsadly torn
downin the 19608? W here are thepale
tourists ,
the
tots with pails ,
th eshell
collectors?
Appareently
Evens just
wasnt a neach
erson.
P A G E
51
Tw o elicanso n a
Dock
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O P P O S I T
elican
L E F T
Three
alms
B E L O W
Gulf of
Mexico
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54
enthusiasm for t ra i le rs m atchesmine,
but I
think
that Evans may wellbethat
person ,
m y
imaginary t ra i le r f r iend ,
s o
to speak .
For
year s I 've been trying to get
people to pay
at tent ion
t o
these fasci -
natingthings, but it's clearthattheyare
jus t
no tgoingto .Tha t 'so ne of the rea -
sonsit'ssohardto doresearch about
t ra i le rs . There ' s been noth ing wri t ten
ab ou t
t h e m .
And it
doesn 't look l ike
the
si tuation is about to change. I 've be en
shopp ing a roundm ycoffee- tab le b o o k ,
TrailerStyle, fo r
years , wi thout
a
nibble .
Peoplejus t don ' t
get it .
B ut I have the feelingthat they
were
right
u p
Evans's al ley. Ima gine:
al it tle m etal house that m oves.
Ho w
could
you
not
be
fascinated?
But if he didn t like
the beach he certainly
like d tra ile rs.
I've
yet to
meet another person whose
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56
Andyes ,there
is a
windmill.
It
towers overtheplace,
housing
th e c lub-
P A G E S
54-55
Recreational Vehicle with
Striped Canopy
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How Iwould lovet oshow Evansa
fewo f my
favoritetrailerparks: places
like
M e l - M a r
V illageup inB raden ton .
Heret hetrailersare inwhat Icallt he
"Toaster
Style,"
which clearly caught
Evans's e ye, too [opposite
page] .
Every-
where
yo u
lookthere
are
long- f o r go t t en
names:FirstLady,Pine Tree, Pal, Flame,
and New
Mo on. Clear lyM e l - M a rV illage
belongs to the Classic Period.
O rratherthe Early Classic Period.
Windmill Village N o r th n o tto be con-
fused
with
Windmill
V illage
Sou this
LateClassic. He re
th e
look
i s
1959.
T he
shape islarger, squarer. Goneis any pre-
tense
that
thesethings
can
move. Porche s
sprout,pluscarports .
B ay
windows appear,
and if you 're lucky, you m ay even getfins.
housein itsbase, withthepoo lright
inf ron t .And the
streets
are n a m e d
af te r
Dutch che eses. A good dose
o f
w e l l - d o n e
kitschi salwaysaplus in a
trailer
pa rk ;
no one
knewthis b e t te r
thanEvans.
Recent ly ,when I was in-be tween
houses and had no place to live, I actu-
ally
got to
spendthreeweeks
in
such
a
park. I t was called Tropical Acres, and
it was
heaven .
M y
trailer
w as a
great
b ig
double -wide, with
so
much space
that
i t hadrooms Inever even went in .
(The only problem
w as a
cer ta in wobble
when
y o u
walked f ro m
one end to the
other . ) M y neighbors w ere the n icest
people
in the
world. W hen
my ca t got
lost
they organized
into
t eams
and
comb ed
the park, looking under every
trailer
andeven searching th esewage
treatment
plan t next door . M y favor i te neighbor
wasthe gu y
right
across th e
street.
H is
trailerwas
tiny, barely
8 b y13.He and
O P P O S I T E
Trailer
in
C amp, Sarasota
57
L E F T
Statuette of
a
Cherub
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58
O P P O S I T E
Municipal
Trailer
Camp
hiswifehauled i t down each win ter f r om
Mich igan .
In
their minuscule f ron t yard
they
had a
plas ter goose,
and
each
day
they would
dress
the
goose
in a
d if feren t
outfit . That goose
h ad
mo re c lo thes
than
I
did. If it wasraininghe wore his yellow
slicker,
but if it was
sunny
and
bright,
you
never knew what
h emight
have
on, and i t
reached the po in t whe re I got out of bed
in the
morning
jus tto seewhatthegoose
mightbewearing. M yfavorite
outfit
was
a
gendarme's un ifo rm, complete with a
l i t tle goose -s ized cape. Somethingtells
me Evans would have been very
inter-
es tedinthisgoose; whene ver Ithink
aboutit, I cana lmosthearh im yel l ing
from beyond
t he
grave: "Get
the camera "
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6 o
he M angrove
Coastwas
published
in194?and was a bigh i t e x c e p tfor
the
pictures. They just didn't mesh with
the text.
Bickel
was dispensing popular
history
at its
most eager-to-please,
full
of
"lore" about pirates
and
explorers
and moonshiners. The photographs
supplied
by
Evans were about some-
thing
else entirely. The two sat there
inuneasy proximityas the firstedition
ran its
course,
but for the second and
subsequent editions
the
photographs
were
dropped entirely.
I
doubt that Evans minded much.
Pearl Harbor was attacked while he and
Jane were walkingonSiestaBea ch ;
f r om
thenon, he, like everyone else, had a
di f f e r en t set ofworries.Hewentto
Washington
to
investigate
war
work
but
ended up becoming a movie critic for
Time.In 1948 he switched
over
to the
art department at
Fortune.
It was during
his tenure that Fortuneachieved a level
ofart
direction
and
photography rarely
seen
in a
magazine.
It
could
be
argued
that
his
cushy corporate
job
kept
him
f rom
his art; in reality,
i t l i k e
his Sara-
sotaa s s i g n m e n t b e c a m ehis
art.
Evans
would cross paths with
the
Mangrove Coastagain and again. His
sister
and
brother-in-law settled
on
Anna Maria,
the
barrier island just
north
of
Longboat,
and he
would come
to visit
o f t en ,
usually
to
escape
the
L E F T
Banyan
Tree
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61
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6s
win te rchillor tor ecover
f rom
the ill-
nesses
that
plagued
h is
la ter life.
B ut
lived
and
wrote here, e levat ing
the
lowly
mystery novelto art as hee x p l o re dt he
O P P O S I T E
Circus
Building, Winter
Quarters, Sarasota
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the re
is no
r eco rd
thathe
kep t
up
with
the
Bickels
orthathe
pa r t i c ipa ted
in
th e
life
of Sarasota. I t wou ld have bee n
out of
charac ter
if he
had.
The
B ickel house
still
stands, sud-
denly backin the n ewsasSarasota 's
la test controversy. Th ere
are
plans
t o
demolish i t i thas been derel ic ta n d
ab an don ed fo rover twenty
y e a r s i n
order
to
widen
the
s t reet
in
p repa ra t ion
fo r
a new
RitzCar l ton Ho te l ,
an
ee r ie
echo of Joh nRingling'sea r l i e r d ream .
T he
his tor ica l preservat ion is ts
are up
ina rmsasusua l ,buteveryone suspec ts
they will lose
onthis
on e , too .
T he
city
has a lready des troyed most of i ts pas t,
usuallyaf te rgreat civic debate and ago-
nizing feelings of guilt.
B ut
Sarasota remains
a
very lucky
town. Overa nd overi t hasb een touched
by genius .
First therewas
R ingling
and
th e
circus. Then cameJ o h n D .
MacDo nald,
them ystery novel is t. Forth ir ty y earshe
mora l d i lemm as
of
that
odd new
cul ture,
the SunBel t .
And now we have these ex traor-
d inary photographs
b y
Walker Evans ,
powerful evidenceHarr ie tB e e c h e r
Stowenotwiths tandingthat not every-
on e r e tu rn s
f rom
Florida "intensely
d isappo in ted ,andevendisgusted."
They presen t
a
Flor ida tha t doesn ' t exis t
an ymore ,
and what a strange place it
must have been , so foreign looking, so
handm ade. I f they show anything, i t is
that artif iciality
is
many layers deep.
Andwha t b e t t e rway toillustrate
this
than with pic tures of a small town in
Flor ida where
the
circus
is
king, peli-
cansfill thea ir ,and thepeo ple l ivein
little
tin
houses tha t they
can
move
f rom place to place?
63
The Photograph s
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