Calvin and Ruby Black

1903-1972 1913-1980

Born Calvin Anderson Black in 1903 in Tennessee and Ruby C Ross in 1913 in Georgia, they married in 1933. Calvin and Ruby Black were a husband and wife team whose unusual folk art environment on a desert highway entertained travelers for more than twenty-five years. According to Calvin’s wife, Ruby, he taught himself to read and write.  Black worked in carnivals and circuses, where he later helped to operate a puppet show and learned ventriloquism.  The Blacks moved to California after their marriage, and during the Depression, Calvin prospected for gold in northern California.  In 1953, the Blacks bought land, sight unseen, near Yermo, California, intending to run a “mineral and rock shop”.  Calvin began to carve dolls to put in front of the shop, hoping they would attract travelers and get them to stop in.  Soon, Calvin started to add moveable dolls and merry-go-rounds.  Also, among the attractions were wind-driven constructions, a train, and several stagecoaches.  Eventually, there were enough dolls for Calvin to set up and operate the Bird Cage Theater and its “Fantasy Doll Show”, a mixture of a stage show and vaudeville act performed by some seventy carved and painted dolls.  Almost everything in the Possum Trot assemblage came from a local dump. Everything he had he built, he never bought anything.  The dolls were simply carved and of jointed wood; their faces were painted and they were dressed with cloth.  The Blacks used wigs, paint, amplifiers, all sorts of fabricated metal, old toys, and other found objects.  The building housing the show was made of wood and tin.  The Blacks called their place Possum Trot (southern slang for the shortest distance between two points).  As word of this unusual environment in the middle of the desert spread, Possum Trot became one of the most colorful tourist attractions and amusement stops around, with people going out of their way to pay a visit and see a show. Today, the dolls are in collections scattered throughout the United States, but they were originally intended to be seen together as the characters in the various Bird Cage Theater productions. Possum Trot was the subject of a 1974 documentary movie, Possum Trot: The Life and Work of Calvin Black. ⁽²⁾ ⁽⁶⁾