Brad Bryant’s big break into show biz involved a baby, a lime green Monte Carlo, and a front porch in Pemberton Estates Court. To get the job as a promoter for Feld Entertainment, he had to interview with the maestro, Bill Powell, who worked out of his Florida home. There was no job description.
Today, driving to meet Bill and his son Cory to learn how to build a yacht, their latest group endeavor, Brad couldn’t help but remember that day in 1987 when he flew to Tampa to interview for a job with the producer of the Greatest Show on Earth — Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and Disney on Ice shows.
Bryant was running an Arabian horse farm in Pinehurst, N.C., at the time. His brother, Bob, who now runs the Indy 500 Foundation, had been hired first by Feld’s Richard Adler in Atlanta. Bryant called his brother.
“How’s the new job?”
“I thought I would be putting up flyers on telephone poles, but this is like a real company. I’m buying media and designing ads.”
“You’ve only been there a week!”
“I know. There’s an opening here with Bill Powell. Let me see if I can get you an interview.”
And he did. Powell was looking for promoters and would be happy to interview Bob’s brother, Brad.
Brad called Powell, who told him to fly on down, handing him over to has assistant, Joyce, to make arrangements. That set the tone.
Joyce set up a flight at 7, so Bryant could be at Powell’s home at 10 a.m. “The ticket will be in your name at the airport. I’ll pick you up at the Tampa airport.”
“How will I recognize you?”
“I’m short and fat and I have knee-length buckskin moccasins and a purple hand-crocheted shawl.”
“I think I can identify that.”
Bryant put on his best suit and boarded the airplane. In Tampa, Joyce picked him up in her lime green Monte Carlo and they headed to Bill’s house.
Bill was on the phone. For hours.
“I sat on his back porch for a couple of hours. Sherry, his wife, had just Cory, who was maybe a year old. So, I’m there and the person who is supposed to watch Cory isn’t there yet. Sherry has to leave for something for her group sales business. So they go, ‘the sitter will be here in a minute, here.’ And they hand me Cory Powell. I’m holding this little baby, in my suit, on the porch. Joyce says help yourself to anything in the kitchen. I’m thinking, ‘shall I make a sandwich? I’m hungry.’ Then Cory does what baby’s do. I go to the office door.”
“Shhh, I’m on a call.”
“Your kid needs to be changed.”
“Oh, who are you?”
“I’m here for the interview about four hours ago.”
“Oh yeah, give me a minute.”
It all started right there in Pemberton Estate Courts in Florida. Bryant clearly passed the test and now that baby is 30-some years of age and joining Bill and Brad on many an adventure. They are still the best of friends.
As to the job, “we made it all up. We started it. We had such good times. I remember when Bill was heading to South America when I was still a puppy promoter.” They staged an off-to-South America dinner at a restaurant in St. Petersburg, Fla.
“Bill, you’re going to Colombia and Venezuela. That’s dangerous country. What do you do for personal protection?“
“What!”
He fell right into their trap. Bryant and Bruno Falkenstein, who ran the restaurant and whose brother was chief of police, had arranged to borrow a bulletproof vest from the police chief, who proceeded to bring it to their table at the farewell party.
“We think you should wear this down there, Bill.”
So Powell packed it in his carry-all on the plane. Dick Haskell, Feld head of operations, was with Powell on the trip to Bogota and reported back. Before deplaning, Powell dons the bullet proof vest (the big, old cumbersome type) covered by a large sweater and a business suit coat, and proceeds to wear it to all his meetings. And it was hot in Bogota.
When he returns, he complains about it.
“Oh, we were just kiddin’ with you, Bill.”
That’s the kind of life it was. Everybody pulled pranks. Everybody learned a ton.
“What a great experience. I hear from people today, 40 years later – do you remember when…? Oh yeah, we got away with that.”
“Mr. Allen Bloom gave us that opportunity,” Bryant said, remembering the late, great master of circus promotion and operation. — Based on a true story as told to Linda Deckard
Photo: Brad Bryant in his Florida “office” today.