Circus

Roy Bickel joined the circus as a teenager and at one point held the record for traveling the longest distance after being shot out of a cannon.  One day he was asked if he wanted to make a little extra money helping with the rigging of the sound system –and Roy soon found his career!  He rigged the Disney stage shows beginning in the 1960s and later rigged rock concerts (big and bigger) all around the world.

Harold Burt was just about 3 years old when a musician from a traveling circus came to his North Carolina town and sold his parents a clarinet for young Harold. His life has been filled with music ever since. In 1950, he established the first high school band in Cary, NC and he served as the program’s first musical director. In fact, Harold formed ten such bands before opening his own store, Burt’s Music. In 2000, the city of Cary honored Mr. Burt by asking him to be the grand marshall for the city’s annual parade.

Tomcat Courtney was raised in a cotton field outside of Marlin, Texas. When he was ten years old he saw Bill Bojangles dance in a traveling minstrel show and Tomcat was hooked. He left home at the age of 14 to dance in the circus where he also sang and learned to play the guitar. His style of playing was based on roots music and the blues that he not only heard, but he loved. As a songwriter, Tomcat penned “Cook My Breakfast,” “Disaster Blues” and “Railroad Avenue.” He also became a strong force in passing the blues traditions down to the next generation, looking for every opportu

Rick Drumm inherited his father’s love of music. His father established Ronnie Drumm's House of Music and Rick spent must of his childhood in the store and playing drums with his father’s many bands and combos.

Ronnie Drumm had a full and fulfilling life in music! As a child he picked up the trumpet, which he played during his time as a big band leader, musical director and educator. Ronnie worked with a who’s who of entertainers such as Steve Allen, Bob Hope and Jack Benny as well as a long stint as musical director for the Ringling Brothers Circus. He opened his own music retail store, which his son, Rick Drumm, worked in as a kid before himself becoming a leader within the music products industry. Ronnie is most proud of the teaching he did in both the school programs as well as priva

Stu Goldberg established Marina Music in San Francisco at the beginning of the guitar boom.  The folk music craze was in full swing and the Beatles just hit the USA and within a few months Stu opened his own music store.  His small store had a very big impact on the music industry and soon became a hang-out for Bay Area musicians.  Stu joined the circus when he was a teenager and knew how to talk to people and how to work a deal.  He was a pioneer in traveling to Japan in the 1960s to create working arrangements with several guitar makers who would then supply Stu with a range of

Kevin Ray Clark grew up with music in his home and played in a family band at church. He was inspired by the musicians playing at Disney World and pursued the trumpet in his school band program. As he got older, Kevin started playing with the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus Band. As his skills improved, he worked his way up to become one of the musicians he used to look up to and started playing at Disney World.