Under the Electric Sky Read Online Free PDF

exception to Lynch’s run and made it known to the young upstart. The two met in a Halifax hotel in early September of 1929 to hammer things out. Williams arrived for the encounter immaculately garbed in a fine suit and hat, chomping on a cigar, with a few rough words for this new kid who had the audacity to think he could usurp dates and locales from the king.
    Ben threatened in loud, violent tones. Bill shot back with matched intensity. There was something about Williams’ persona Lynch admired, even if he was the enemy on this night. He seemed to take his role seriously and he had that air about him the best showmen have – maybe it was the cigar. But the kid was not going to back down, no matter how high and fast this rotund royal figure roared. Lynch understood he was where he belonged and nobody was going to tell him any different. After a few hours of bad noise, they agreed Williams would keep the New Brunswick circuit and Lynch would take Nova Scotia. It was the big break he needed after doubling the size of the business. He was now guaranteed the contracts for the large fairs in bigger centres across the province, still retaining the smaller villages in between. The gentleman’s agreement held up until the Second World War suspended the big fairs across the region.
    Little is known about Williams’ operation as it existed throughout the Maritimes between the two wars. He held contracts for all the major fairs in the Maritimes and Maine and around the end of World War One he purchased the Joseph G. Ferari Shows out of the states and toured it through the Maritimes under its original name, later renaming it Williams Standard Shows. He died at his home in New York in 1943 and was repatriated in a ceremony at Hardwood Hill cemetery in Sydney.
    Lynch, on the other hand, took a right at the second star and rolled into the future, purchasing the most exciting rides found anywhere and growing his business as fast as he could. Within five years, he had cemented a strong reputation throughout Atlantic Canada as a showman with extraordinary class. His name was quickly becoming synonymous with warm summer evenings and magical midway excitement. It wasn’t a real summer in Maritime communities until the Bill Lynch Shows arrived, lugging the necessary equipment to transform any town into the City of Lights.
    â€œAugust evenings are just made for loitering and there is no gayer, happier place to loiter than an exhibition midway,” proclaimed a story in the August 25, 1934, issue of The Halifax Mail . “Bill Lynch and his carnival boys and girls will be back again. No need to introduce him, for his aggregation of tents, rides and booths is known from one end of the Maritime Provinces to the other...There is surely no brighter, cleaner, better-run outfit of a similar type on the road.”
    Stories from a variety of publications throughout the 1930s demonstrate Lynch’s expanding eminence. The Nova Scotia Provincial Exhibition News of September 1, 1931, called Lynch “the showman with a conscience” and went on to commend his operation. “Bill Lynch, a local boy, deserves credit for his enterprise in presenting the greatest midway attraction that Halifax has ever seen.” The same impressions popped up all over the region. Charlottetown’s The Guardian of August 18, 1934, said Lynch “is a far cry from the days when he started out comparatively unknown to his position today as the premiere midway proprietor east of Toronto.”
    Legions and fire departments everywhere were clamouring to book Lynch to play their town. He was the man they wanted and accepting less was not considered an alternative. He was a fair businessman, they were beginning to learn, and willing to share a portion of his profit with the different organizations that booked him. “The legion is to be congratulated in being behind the move to bring a good clean show to town with business methods above