Talk:Skeeter Reece

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A fact from Skeeter Reece appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 4 October 2022 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that when Rain Pryor drew a picture of her friend Skeeter the unicycling clown in school, her teacher said that there were no Black clowns?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2022/October. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Skeeter Reece.

Wikipedia

Noting

This article was inspired by a post at the Teahouse, Wikipedia:Teahouse/Questions/Archive_1161#My_husband’s_Wikipedia_page_disappeared. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 13:47, 29 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Potential sources

Copypasted from User talk:Mamadancer:

I'm looking for sources and have found some that may be of use. What is primarily wanted are a few that are at the same time WP:RS, independent of the subject and about the subject in some detail, so anything you can think of in that direction is prio 1.

Sources need not be online, but that is of course where most people (and me) are looking, how else could we read them unless we happen to have the same newspaper/book. I found one of the books you mentioned here [1] (it's free to register), can you tell me where Reece is mentioned, I didn't find it? You can reply here, I'm watching this page (not 24/7). Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 16:49, 16 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. I just saw your message to me. There are no page numbers in”A very young circus flyer”. Although Jill K wrote a message to my husband in our copy, I don’t think the text lists his name. He is sitting on the ring curb next to Tato during rehearsals. In the Geo magazine (April 1982), he has several pictures and quotes. One is a full spread of him standing on the steps of his train car- #56. But the Internet posted it as “Skeeter Heece”. Instead of “Skeeter Reece”. I have searched the Internet for information on the Easter performance at the White House (1982) but cannot find any. We only have our personal photos. He loved Marlon Perkins who was also performing, so he took a bunch of pictures of him.

In “Jokes My Father Never Told Me” , Rain talks about Skeeter on page 77.

In “Clown Alley” his picture is on page 297. A story about him is listed on page 394 and again on page 398.

He taught at the Ringling Clown College in 1980 and 1981 .

In late 1982 we lived in Palo Alto California and the TV news did a segment on him. I have been searching for some online record of that, but that was before the Internet. We had a VHS tape of it, long ago, but it was lost. (Maybe it was done in early 1983?)

In Japan, he performed for Fuji TV but in a live show in the country where few people spoke English. (That was in 1989).

We have a lot of newspaper clippings, but often, I did not even clip the name of the paper Only the article. One has a headline “Skeeter Reece finds athletic skills are useful as a clown”. By Claude Harrison. (No date or city or name of paper)

”Bring on a clown and hear his story” by Martin King (no city or date)

Ebony Magazine July 1980 article about Denise Wilson, includes picture with Skeeter.

Article from San Jose Mercury August 31, 1981 article by Gail Tagashira on kids growing up in circus. Picture of Skeeter with Kathy Farfan.

November 26, 1982 San Jose Mercury News has Skeeter carrying Santa on his shoulders .

Pennisula Times Tribune Feb 26, 1983 article “The man behind the clown face may surprise you” by Phyllis Brown

San Francisco Examiner August 25, 1982 article on a new restaurant. Skeeter was an entertainer there A picture of him in the article. Heading: “ A new kind of pirate rolls into Silicon Valley- on skates.” No byline. Just “special to the Examiner”

He performed with the Smothers Brothers in Jacksonville, Oregon June 18, 1994. There was an article in the Mail Tribune June 19, 1994

These are some of the things I’ve been searching for, but I would love help. I am struggling quite a bit. I am sure you are much more skillful.

I am very grateful for your offer of help. Mamadancer (talk) 05:01, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

A Very Young Circus Flyer--Skeeter is on page 8. sitting on the ring curb next to Tato. (Starting Page 1 with Tato in his costume.) Mamadancer (talk) 02:12, 31 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Btw, if we can get some sources that reasonably meet WP:BASIC, I can start a new version of the article. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:22, 16 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Did I do this correctly? Did you get my reply? There was something about the conversation being “archived”. I will try to check my email messages more frequently. I am at work tomorrow and may not catch them right away.

Thank you so much — to everyone who is trying to help. Mamadancer (talk) 05:14, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hello again! I have seen your message and will get back to you. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:06, 22 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you so much!! I have more articles as well. And I am also trying to find some of them online somehow. (I typed this from work. I do not remember my password to log in. It's at home.) This is Mamadancer. 204.62.106.47 (talk) 21:12, 22 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

A small correction: Rain Pryor's book is called "Jokes My Father Never Taught Me."

Also, I found a few articles. I am going to try to copy and paste them here:

https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AMNEWS&t=pubname%3A1508AFD0E83DBED6%21Las%2BVegas%2BReview-Journal&sort=YMD_date%3AD&maxresults=20&f=advanced&val-base-0=Kentucky%20Country%20and%20Riviera%20Hotel&fld-base-0=alltext&bln-base-1=and&val-base-1=1987&fld-base-1=YMD_date&docref=image/v2%3A1508AFD0E83DBED6%40EANX-NB-16EE3043709D57CD%402447155-16EE0223071B3EA9%4069-16EE0223071B3EA9%40

Another:

https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AMNEWS&t=pubname%3A1508AFD0E83DBED6%21Las%2BVegas%2BReview-Journal&sort=YMD_date%3AD&maxresults=20&f=advanced&val-base-0=Skeeter%20and%20Crazy%20Girls&fld-base-0=alltext&bln-base-1=and&val-base-1=1988&fld-base-1=YMD_date&docref=image/v2%3A1508AFD0E83DBED6%40EANX-NB-16EDAA9EE12C895F%402447164-16ECF759D7D8670E%4041-16ECF759D7D8670E%40

Another:

https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=NewsBank&t=&sort=YMD_date%3AD&fld-base-0=alltext&maxresults=20&val-base-0=skeeter%20%20reece&docref=news/0FD393460904B8DB

Another:

https://access.newspaperarchive.com/us/florida/sarasota/sarasota-journal/1977/11-09/

I found these from the library databases. I don't know if you will be able to open them without my library card number. I am hoping they will send. The Ebony magazine article did not.

Thank you again. Mamadancer (talk) 02:50, 24 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Sadly, non of the above is available to me, except the Sarasota I got via another channel. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 14:19, 30 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Mary Ellen Mark's people (the photographer for the GEO magazine) corrected the page, so the circus train picture with my husband now says correctly

Skeeter Reece. (Not Heece)Mamadancer (talk) 23:32, 25 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 14:24, 30 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Pinging people

@Mamadancer@Tony Fox@FloridaArmy@Anachronist@Jenhawk777@Nick Moyes@Valereee

Hello Wikipedians, hope you are well. This is a new draft for a subject that was on WP for years, then deleted in March for not having any sources. It happens, WP:BLP etc etc. Subject's wife (say hello to Mamadancer) turned up at the Teahouse asking for help, and I thought this was an article it would be nice if we could have. Sources are not that easy but maybe possible to find (pre-internet career). Mamadancer has listed several which I copypasted above, so if you are interested, please dig in and see what you can find (and use you super search-powers further). Perhaps another American can access the infoweb links, for example.

On sources/text currently in draft. Quite WP:ABOUTSELF heavy, so my guess is it would not survive article-space yet. The video-interview [2] is quite interesting, I recommend it (someone should make a drama about this guy, how about Lee Daniels' The Clown?). I think the unclejrproject.com-bio [3] counts towards WP:GNG (but is not enough), and I based that on that The Smithsonian knows who they are [4]. My reading is "Yes, we interviewed him but we looked at other stuff too." The 2 newspapers are better than passing mentions, but don't tell us much about Reece. You can read the Sarasota Journal if you have WP-library-access and log in first. The obit is just there for the family-fact, not GNG. Thank you for your attention. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 15:02, 30 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Gråbergs Gråa Sång Thanks for the ping. I can certainly try to help out with this, though I'm a bit tight on scheduling right now. Give me a few days to poke around and see what I can see. Tony Fox (arf!) 06:06, 31 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Time we have, thanks for responding. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 07:19, 31 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Tony Fox I've got this [5], too bad I can't see the rest of it. At least partial WP:GNG-point, perhaps. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 07:07, 9 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Nevermind, readable here [6]. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 07:11, 9 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I'm thinking of moving it to mainspace, Tony, @Anachronist, what to you think? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 07:53, 9 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Posted at RX, Wikipedia:WikiProject_Resource_Exchange/Resource_Request#Draft:Skeeter_Reece,_clown,_1950-. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:29, 9 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Ping to @Mamadancer, just to say work is progressing. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:31, 9 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I made some tweaks. The topic is something that probably should be notable, but the sourcing so far isn't great; the coverage by independent sources isn't significant coverage. I don't see how the Uncle Junior project would count toward meeting GNG criteria because it's based 100% on interviews and quotations, not coverage of the subject.

I found a couple of examples of more significant coverage here and here. I hope that's helpful. ~Anachronist (talk) 03:20, 10 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Those do indeed help. Counting Uncle Junior as a GNG-point may be a bit of wishful thinking, but it's good for WP:ABOUTSELF. I'd argue that "it" is in the video though, c. 9:20. But not important. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 06:43, 10 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Moved to article-space. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:20, 10 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Sources

A few sources in the current article are afaict WP:OFFLINE. I added them, they were mailed to me by a WP:RX-editor and Mamadancer. If someone should find online versions, feel free to add url:s. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 18:05, 15 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]