The Gilmore family moved to Strong in 1949. In 1956, they started in the ride business.
By Jim Smedley
Staff Writer

FRYEBURG – Roland Gilmore was a hustler, con and a carny.

His education only extended to the sixth grade.

But Gilmore, nicknamed Smokey, recognized a good deal and he was able to parlay that into what has become New England’s largest carnival: Smokey’s Greater Show.

“My dad was Smokey,” said George “Bud” Gilmore, who has been running the show since his dad died in 1970.

Gilmore, 60, said his father even conned his family into thinking his name was Ronald.

“I looked at his birth certificate after he died and saw that his real name was Roland. So, all those years we didn’t even know his real name was Roland.

“My mom went by Eldora and then, after learning about my dad’s name I checked hers and it was Aldora,” Gilmore said.

He did say he checked his name and it is indeed George.

Smokey was born in Vergennes, Vt., and ran away from home when he was in sixth grade, Gilmore said.

“My grandmother remarried and he didn’t like his stepfather,” Gilmore said.

He said Smokey started hustling, making money any way he could, to survive. He’s unsure about some of his father’s early years, but knows that Smokey ended up in Fitchburg, Mass., driving cab during World War II. Gilmore said some of the armories there had carny games and his dad often worked at them.

Gilmore said one of the stories – and there are a few – of how his dad got the nickname Smokey comes from his hustling time in Fitchburg. He said his dad learned that he could put a quarter into cigarette machines, kick them and get “a lot of cigarettes” out.

Then, he’d sell them.

“When I was born he worked on an island off Portland that the Navy used,” Gilmore said. “He worked with the guy that used to own Damon’s restaurant in Augusta, but I can’t remember his name now.

“The first day there he saw that my dad had no lunch, so he split his sandwich,” Gilmore said. “He looked at my dad and saw he had no socks. He just didn’t own any then.”

Gilmore said in the next several years Smokey ended up owning the restaurant and store business on the island.

Sugar, coffee and hams were rationed then, Gilmore recalled. He said the Navy always made sure Smokey had enough supplies. What they didn’t know, according to ‘Gilmore, was that ‘Smokey would take some of the products and sell them to the carny shows around Fitchburg and they would use them as prizes in games.

“He knew how to make a buck and keep a buck,” Gilmore said.

The Gilmore family moved to Strong, Maine, in 1949.

Smokey had a hot dog stand that he would take to fairs. His wife, Aldora, took a job in Foster Manufacturing, making toothpicks at that time.

“Smokey tried a job as a night watchman for about a year,” Gilmore said. “But he didn’t fit into regular jobs too well.”

In 1952 they bought a farm in Freeman Township and harvested lumber.

Smokey started out with 30 acres. When he died he owned 4,000 acres.

Gilmore said he, his mother and brother always cut and harvested wood in the winter and would build something that they could take to fairs along with the hot dog stand.

In 1956 Smokey rented some carnival rides and went to the Commons in Durham, N.H.

“He called it Smokey’s Greater Shows, for some reason,” Gilmore said.

In the early 1960s, Smokey assumed the contracts to do carnivals in several locations in New England, from a man that owed him money, according to Gilmore.

“He added rides and had seven when he died,” Gilmore said. “We have 50 rides now and run about 30 locations a year. There’s no bigger carnival in New England.”

Gilmore said he doesn’t plan to run the carnival business forever.

He has a son, Andy, who is an electrical engineer.

“He knows better than to be in this business,” Gilmore said.

Gilmore, who has a degree in secondary education, admits the carnival business has been good to him.

He’s not cutting lumber in the winter anymore.

“We live in Florida during the winter now,” he said.

jsmedley@sunjournal.com

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