Walker Evans Florida.pdf

7/26/2019 Walker Evans Florida.pdf

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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 .

1 8


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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

21


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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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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


45/85


46/85


47/85


48/85

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.


49/85

RI GH T

Balcony Car, Circus Train,

Winter

Quarters, Sarasota


50/85

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


51/85

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 .


52/85


53/85

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


54/85


55/85

T h estarswere Old Mo doc, the grea t O P P O S I T E


56/85

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,


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


57/85

4?

Even though Ringling

B ros , left


58/85

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


59/85

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.


60/85


61/85


62/85

P A G E 4 6

Circus

Wagon (Calliope Car),


63/85


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


64/85

Inland

Landscape

B

E L O W

Pelican

on a Dock

4 9

The W orld is a poorer place


65/85

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


66/85

True,thewater does tendto be a little


67/85

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


68/85

O P P O S I T

elican

L E F T

Three

alms

B E L O W

Gulf of

Mexico


69/85

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


70/85


71/85

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


72/85

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


73/85

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 "


74/85


75/85

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


76/85

61


77/85

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


78/85

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


79/85

6 4

Postcard Displa y

1941

6

7

/ i 6 x

5' /4 .in .

84 xM

9

56 8

7

4

P A G E

i i

Ci r c us Tr ai ner Lead in g El ep hant

Wi nt er Quar t e r s , S ar as o t a

1941

6 V . 6 X 7

1

5 / 3

Z

in .

84. XM 956.94 1

P A G E

i i i

R ui n Tab b y Cons t r uc t i on

1941

7 / . 6 x

6

7

/, 6i n .

84.XM.956.844

P A G Ei v

Tor n R i ng l in g Br ot her s P os t e r

1941

6

V s a

x 8V ,6 in .

84.XM.956.914

P A G E

R es or t P hot og r ap he r a t Work

1941

6 Y

4

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l3

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8 4 . x M . 9 5 6 . 9 4 8

P A G Ei x

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f r o m

S t . P e t e r s b ur g Al l i g at or Far m

1941

5 - V . 6 X 5 V ,

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84 xM

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38

P A G E X

Tw o

G i ra f fe s,

Ci r c u s Wi nt er

Quar t e r s ,

S ar as o t a

1941

5 ' 5 /

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6

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