Great Sutton Shows was on the West Coast in the 1960s. Miss June Sutton used to reminisce about playing Watts and carrying pails full of quarters out of her candy wagons at the end of the day.
After the tragic lost of their son, David, who was electrocuted while working on the Merry-Go-Round for a film in California(?), they eventually moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana and had their WQ there in the early 1980s.
As the 1982 season came to a close there were rumors circulating about the show heading to Venezuela instead of sitting around all winter. Six weeks after coming off the road and working on equipment at winter quarters in Gonzalez, Louisiana, everything that could move was packed and driven to Jacksonville, Florida. The rides and joints and candy wagons were loaded up and sailed off for Venezuela (the country in South America.) The crew went back to Louisiana and somehow the Suttons managed to get passports for every worker that wanted to go to Venezuela.
In January, 1983 a planeload of carnies from Sutton Shows flew into Caracas. They met up with Olympic Expositions, Klaesen Brothers, another show with rides, and a side show. An asphalt lot was built into the side of a mountain about four miles outside of Caracas and set-up began. It wasn't noticeable at first, but the lot was actually on a significant slope. The danger with that became apparent when the ride jock pulling the Teacup ride stopped to check something out while moving to its spot, jumped out of the cabover for a moment and the next thing anyone knew all hell broke loose as the unmanned truck started rolling down the midway. He almost caught it, then realized that he'd never be able to brake in time, so watched in horror as truck and ride sailed off the cliff at the end of the lot. The truck probably stills lies in that ravine today, but they were able to pull the Teacup ride back up and it played the spot, it just didn't bounce up and down as it should have due to damage to the hydraulics. The Tornado Coaster was flat on the ground on one side and on nearly 3 feet of shims on the other to get it as close to level as possible.
From February through May 1982 the combined show played three spots in Venezuela: Caracas, Valencia and Maracaibo. During the Maracaibo spot rumblings began that the government wasn't happy with something that was going on. Whatever the reason, the show sloughed with no word on the next spot. Then men with machine guns started stalking around the lot, harassing the bosses and scaring the hell out of the Viet Nam vets on the show. Word finally came down that the show would be embargoed and not allowed to open again until the bosses did whatever it was that the government wanted them to do. Almost all of the equipment was moved into a locked impound lot across the street from a chicken processing plant in the middle of nowhere outside of Maracaibo. And all of the carnies were sitting outside of the impound lot with nothing to do as show season opened up back home.
The Suttons were able to rustle up a few rides and a candy wagon and tried to fulfill their commitments on the Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana circuit they'd built up. But with all of the "good stuff" sitting in South America, it wasn't a patch on what they'd put on just a year earlier. The situation was absolutely desperate at that point.
What follows is unconfirmed legend: The heads of the shows that were still in Venezuela managed to convince the government officials that the only way they would be able to pay what they owed was to be allowed to open the show again for a week-long engagement. A spot was selected and everybody prepared to move. Rather than each truck pulling 2 or 3 pieces of equipment to the spot, someone worked it out so that no double backs would be necessary. The day of the move arrived and things progressed with military smoothness, the drivers got their directions, loaded up and moved on out. Unbeknownst to any of the drivers, there was a ship waiting and at a certain point along the route, someone was on the road telling the drivers to take a turn that put them onto that waiting ship. By the time Venezuelan officials realized what was happening, the ship was loaded and pulling out of the harbor. Some say shots were fired, but who knows at this point?
They limped along down South through the end of the 1983 season, but nothing was really the same after the Venezuelan debacle.
Edited by user
Wednesday, May 5, 2021 6:45:59 PM
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