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Chapter 4
“Friends O’Mine”
On September 15, 1924, Vince asked his friends to write in his diary, under section called “Friends O’Mine.” The diary said “Will Make their (X) here, in the first column, their home town in the second, the date, in the third, and “here a line O’Good Cheer” in the fourth column.Other notes come from his photo album and scrapbooks. The material below is based on a diary and scrapbook Vince Picard put together during his circus years. He was twenty years old.
Among those who played with the Bob Eugene Troupe during the 1924 season were Stuart Roberts, Joe Masker, Toney Antone, Charles Eugene, Bob Eugene, Vincent (Pic) Picard, Bill Lennett David Warner, Vic Shepherd and Bill Mays. (Notes from the Hagenbeck and Wallace Circus)
“Charley Eugene has a felon (inflammation of the tip of the finger or fingers) on his right hand and has not worked all wee. He says no one knows how lucky he is when he has his right health.”
Robert Eugene, “My home town.” North Adams, 242 Beaver St. Mass. “My Boss.” (1924). The Bob Eugene Troupe was one of the most renowned horizontal bar troupes in the United States from around 1915 through the end of World War II. In 1924, according to the Hagenbeck and Wallace 1924 show board stated that “The Bob Eugene Troupe of eight people [were] to furnish two aerial bar acts and four men in parade, and all personnel in the tournament.”
Joe Masker continued to perform with Bob Eugene until the 1940s.J.P. Masker (Vince Picard’s partner). “My home town.” Saginaw Mich. 2012 N. FayetteSt. (September 15, 1924. “Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust; I’ll do backs between or bust, by Sandwich King.”