Nuf Ced #1

Nuf Ced #2

Nuf Ced #3

Sparks Circus 1920's #1

This is Franz Woska, well known animal trainer that presented a cat act on the show for years. I have a loose leaf folder with all the elephant men of note listed and the order of the shows they were on. I wish I had done the same for cat trainers, Mr. Woska had an outstanding career and after the Sparks Show was taken off the road following the 1931 season he remained in the Sarasota quarters as a trainer and sometimes would present a cat act to the public.

Sparks Circus 1920's #2

I love this picture, all it says on the back is "Rose Alexander of the Alexander troupe". This is a good example of how basic circus life was. The performers had a couple of buckets outside waiting for the water wagon to come by to fill up and Mz. Alexander would have a collapsible rack in her trunk she could hang things on and that was about it. When we showed in urban areas my mother would go marching off the lot with a bundle of dirty clothes, knock on doors until she found some woman with a washing machine, she would always offer to pay but more often than not it would turn into a social event and sometimes she might even bring back cookies and stuff as well. In poorer neighborhoods it was just the opposite, the people would come on the lot with food for sale and offers to perform various services. On the Cole Show I once overheard one of the candy butchers say "I wonder if Sally and Suzie will be by this year?" My wildest fantasy was to actually catch a glimpse of Sally or Suzie.

Sparks Circus 1920's #3

Johnny Herriott was once telling me of the outstanding horse trainers of this period and Carlos Carreon shown above was high on the list, especially with liberty acts.

Sparks Circus 1920's #4

This is the show's wrestler Tommy Mullins that appeared in the concert or aftershow. To those of you who don't know, it occurred to someone years ago that after the performance had concluded and the show was being dismantled, if you started removing the general admissions seats first the front grandstand would be available for another half hour and if you had something really unique you might be able to sell tickets for an after show. At first it was like Vaudeville with singers, dancers, comic numbers, etc. and was actually a concert and the name stuck. How it turned into a Wild West Show I couldn't say and why a wrestling match was added is equally a mystery other than the fact that it's uncomplicated and quick since after all the tent was coming down. With the Cole Show the Wild West people would thunder into the tent and line up on the front track and tip his or her hat when being introduced by Col. Thomas. Then entered Jimmy Ray who looked about like Mr. Mullins above and a cash prize would be offered to anyone who dared to try to last X number of rounds with him. Also on the show was a nice looking young guy, seems to me his name was Red Robinson who would always be the volunteer and when asked if he had ever wrestled before would answer no but being an ex Marine and just back from the war he was familiar with ju-jitsu. this piece of information was enthusiastically received by the audience but violently opposed by Jimmy Ray. Being ever the sportsman, Col. Thomas would leave it up to the audience to decide. By the time the match occurred, Otto Griebling, now in civilian clothes and for a few bucks, served as the referee.

Continuance of Arabic wardrobe

The second man seated on "Lizzie" from the left is Cheerful Gardner and he would often wear a variation of this type wardrobe in the ring as long as he worked elephants. It's hard to know what show this is since the Corporation swapped elephant herds and trainers the winter of 1924-25 between Hagenbeck-Wallace and John Robinson. My dad worked for Cheerful when they moved the elephants from West Baden to Peru. On the other end of the exchange was Bert Noyes and herd moving over to the Robinson Show. Cold this morning, I suspected something yesterday when I spotted the little old lady next door, carrying in the brass monkey from the front lawn.

Orton Bros. Circus 1922

Not to be outdone, this is my Aunt Nellie doing her Theda Bara dance. I'm sure that many an Iowa farm hand had restless nights after seeing this.

Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus 1931

But all things pass and now the Wallace Show elephant men (including Arky Scott standing to the right of the girls) are Chinese. The two male elephants are "Prince" and "Tommy" (one tusk).

John Robinson Circus early 1920's #1

This is an unusual picture since normally the train was loaded at night. You see lots of pictures of the unloading. In this case it might have been a matinee only date and therefore an early loading. You can see the water wagon already spotted and locked in while a pull-up team is bringing another heavily loaded wagon up the runs. The man bent over along side the rear wheel is carrying a chock block which he will keep snubbed up tightly should the rope break.

John Robinson Circus early 1920's #2

"High Steppin' Candy Butchers". Some things never changed, my job with the Cole Show in 1946-47 was to put up a menagerie stand exactly like this one while the other butchers were humpin' lumber in the big top. I was a big kid at 12 and could do it easily, once you got the counters set up with about a half dozen jacks, you were in business. Looks like the same type oil skin table cloth and I built up an identical display out of Cracker Jack boxes. The one thing I didn't like was I had to wipe the counter a lot when the elephants threw dirt on a dusty lot. Sometimes it even got into the bug juice. I'm sure a lot of people, even showfolks, didn't know that on a railroad show the daily routine for the elephants and baggage horses was just the opposite of everyone else. When the horses had finished loading the train at night they were loaded into the stock cars still wearing their harnesses so they could immediately return to work when unloaded in the morning. Once the show was up they had their own tent where the harnesses were removed, they were washed down and they spent the rest of the day eating and sleeping. The same applied to the elephants although they didn't have to do the amount of work the baggage stock was required to do, if you went into the menagerie between shows the whole herd would be down and asleep.

John Robinson Circus early 1920's #3

Paul Nelson was the youngest member of the famous Nelson family of acrobats. Here he is riding one of Mme. Bedini's horses. By the time I knew Paul on the Cole Show one of his sisters, Estralia, had married the owner of the show and another, Hilda, had married the manager. Mr. Terrell referred to Paul as "Little Jesus" and the fighter Jack Dempsey tagged him "Battling Nelson". I'm sure a lot of you remember Paul from the Mills Show.

John Robinson Circus early 1920's #4

Part of the big show band lined up for spec. Looks like they had an Egyptian theme this year, after completing spec and remounting the bandstand they would shed these awful looking things and resume playing the show. Whoever laid out the lot didn't account for the telephone pole in the middle of the back door. When the Rudolph Valentino craze swept the nation it not only supplied us with "Hindustan", "Sheik of Araby" and a lot of hot dance steps, it gave an excuse for circuses to use these bath robe type things for animal people. The best feature was that one size fits everybody. I wore one 35 years later when I helped Harry Haag Jr. lead Jack Joyce's camels.

"Mary" and Theol Nelson

I don't know if this picture is legit or not. Richard Reynolds would know. I feel it only fair to warn people that I have at my immediate disposal two Ray Dirgo characatures and a drawing recently received from Paul Gautheil should there be any more disruptions like yesterday.

Indian rhino at the London Zoo/undated

I have never seen an armored rhino, this one sure seems to be a sweetheart.

Cole Show zebra hitch 1943

This is another picture from the Cole Show winter quarters in Louisville, they have the zebras snubbed down pretty good. When we joined the show at the tail end of the 1944 season, my dad was told that after several exciting events this hitch while exiting Spec, took part of the bandstand and several musicians out the back door with it and was forthwith discontinued. The two ladies are Mickey Freeman and Marjorie Nelson and driving the hitch is Ted White who was Arky's assistant on elephants and was unfortunately killed during the '43 season by one of the Ranch elephants "Joe" while unloading in Prescott, Arizona.

To show there's no hard feelings here's Eloise

"Dennis the Menace 1966" #1

"Dennis the Menace 1966" #2

"Dennis the Menace 1966" #3

"Dennis the Menace 1966" #4

"Dennis the Menace 1966" #5

Additions to the Blog

Shannon here again, It's the weekend and I'm at it again! This whole thing about this Blog was dad sending his emails with pictures. As most of you know, it started slow....a dozen or so, then a couple dozen, then 75 to 100, then it got up to close to 200 people were receiving emails with picture attachements! Then BOOM the ISP's like AOL - Roadrunner - Earthlink and others in an effort to protect their customers from spam and virus started to block ANY and ALL messages with a file attached going to multiple email addresses. To many it looked like spam. And 7 months ago this web site was born. If your curious on how well the site has done click this WEB SITE STATS. It's doing pretty well. Now for those that miss the emails I found another solution. On the right hand bar you will see SUBSCRIBE, under that enter your email address. You will recieve a confirmation email and Bingo every day you will receive a email of the days postings. I also addedd RSS feeds for those who are web savy. You can do some pretty cool things with RSS feeds. If you don't know what they are don't sweat it. But for those that do.... here's the link I also have the link on the sidebar as well.

Bobby Gibbs

Dalilah and I just returned from buying stuff for Christmas dinner and while there the subject of roasting chestnusts arose which brought a Bobby Gibbs story to mind. He used to make the peanut pitch with Gopher Davenport's show in which he proclaimed that these peanuts were freshly roasted and came from the Clifford Vargas plantation in Macon, Ga. and if anyone could roast your nuts Mr. Vargas was the man. He further stated that in some bags, a ticket for a free elephant ride, was included but admonished the audience to search the bag thoroughly since on occasion the working men, while taking down the seats, would discover an empty bag with the ticket still inside and all work would cease while they were out front riding the elephant.

Gee Gee Engesser #1

This is Gee Gee at the Cole Bros. Circus winter quarters at the Fairgrounds in Louisville, Ky. prior to the opening of the 1945 season. Zack Terrell loved horses and maintained first class horse trainers ahd high-line horseflesh. This is the wheel team (wheelers) that would be the anchor for the sixteen horse hitch that would thunder around the hippodrome track. I remember it as tho it were yesterday.

Gee Gee Engesser #2

Gee Gee's sister Vates was also on the Cole Show that year and here we see her in the ring barn practicing web. The girls of course, were multi-talented having been raised on Shell Bros. Circus owned by their father George. GeeGee remains active in show biz today, in fact I chatted with her on the phone yesterday. Her son Bill runs the Broad Mob with the Ken & Nicole Show.

Gee Gee Engesser #3

Here we see Gee Gee in rehearsal with Justino Loyal whose riding act was to be featured with the show that season. I recognize Pat Scott at right and maybe Gee Gee can identify the others. Gee Gee and John Herriott are first cousins and strangely enough exactly ten years later on the Texas dates, Justino approached newlyweds John and Mary Ruth with an offer to work in an act like this one he was putting together for the Ringling Show. They opted to go with Gil Gray.

Radio

It's hard for most people today to realize today that sixty years ago we used to listen to evening programs on the radio with the same intensity that people watch sit-coms on TV today. Looking back, the unique thing was that you had to imagine what they looked like and the best means of introduction was a simple knock on the door and the usual assortment of characters would drop by the host's home each week. My favorite was Digger O'Dell and with his great baratone voice, his opening line was always the same " Greetings, tis only I, Digby O'Dell............the friendly undertaker". That's all he would have to say and we would laugh. His exit line would always be, "Well, I guess I'll be.............shoveling off." All I knew was that his real name was Willard Waterman and I pictured him as being lank and lean but when I later saw him in the movies he was just the opposite.

Male elephants

I received several questions regarding certain male elephants and it's easier to reply this way. Eloise Berchtold had 5 big Asian males she worked that were owned by Morgan Berry, "Teak", "Thai", "Tunga", "Buddah" and "Raunchy" (Ranchipur). "Teak" as we know died in the Circus Gatini incident in 1978. "Buddah" the following year after fatally attacking Berry. "Raunchy" went to the San Diego Zoo in 1980. "Thai" went to the Houston Zoo the same year. "Tunga" to the Portland Zoo and I think that today he is the breeding male at the Cuneo farm. You are right Vargas did indeed buy a number of elephants from Gene Holter and the big male you mention was named "Colonel" by Wally Ross after my dad. It later became "Colonel Joe" and his ownership today remains rather obscure but he is appearing with Circus Krone in Germany.

St. George and the Dragon

Here are some more children's floats showing the wisdom circus owners have used for over 100 years in catering to kids. We all remember the magnificent "Old King Cole" spec, then Robert Ringling's "Cinderella" and John North's "Twas the Night Before Christmas".

Dragon float

I have been told that the formula is quite simple, by captivating a child he will return with his children so that he can relive the experience thru them as an adult and so forth.

Sinbad the Sailor

At one point however from between the ages of 10 to 20 the chain is broken. Entering young adulthood they pursue other interests. In their teens love is in the air, no circus fans they. D.R. Miller often said that at that age he had just as soon they didn't even show up since in those days they would sometimes come to the lot just to cause trouble, particularly when we would show College towns.

Santa Claus float

Lately a lot of that has changed and the Ken Show has decided to convince today's youth that his product can be a lot more fun than "drugs, sex and rock & roll". I personally think that one the reasons people take their kids to the circus in the first place is to get tham away from MTV. Well, we'll see how it plays out.

Spam

As we all do, I get my share of promised fortunes from people with exotic names which I quickly delete but I am patiently waiting to hear from Mahatma Kane Jeeves and I will answer immediately. I'm sure you already know that this was one of W.C. Fields' "nom de plumes" My hat, my cane, Jeeves!

"The Human Pendulum"

The head carry was never high on my, tricks to train, list. It always seemed to me to belong in the "Dare Devil" category like "The man with the uncrushable skull". A lot of people did it tho, I have almost a dozen pictures of different men giving it a shot. Most notable was Cheerful Gardner with Hagenbeck-Wallace, "Blanche" would carry him down the track swinging his body from side to side in about a 90 degree arc, hence "The Human Pendulum".

Wally Ross and "Gentry Babe"

Wally Ross wasn't so lucky. Gene Holter advertised him as "The Human Lollypop". Sounds like something Larry Flint would come up with.

Ruby Haag and "Alice"

Now. isn't this better?

Faded photographs

Shannon here... Here is an example of a before and after with faded images. And after... Color photographs do fade. Unfortunately, the color dyes used in the image irreversibly decay with time. Light increases fading. Fading increases with the brightness of the light and the length of time in the light. When displayed, photos should be kept away from direct sunlight or bright lamps that are left on constantly. Heat also increases fading, even at moderate temperatures, such as 70-75F, found in homes. At these temperatures, fading always occurs, even in the dark! Color photos will last longer if stored in the dark, in a cool dry location. Ususally it's the blue hues in photos that go 1st - it gives them a orange hue. Thankfully with programs like Photoshop you can digitally enhance the blue hues to bring the photograph almost back to the original.

Dalilah and "Charlie" #1

Ringling-Barnum Circus 1978.

Dalilah and "Charlie" #2

After the elephant display and cross mount had concluded Dalilah would return for a final style and Charlie would have to take her out. I had no shame in those days.

Dalilah and "Charlie" #3

Here they are seen headed for school. According to the Press Department anyway.

Dalilah and "Charlie" #4

They even made the company montage one year.

Shakespeare

Just finished watching "Henry V" on Turner Classic Movies only to confirm my opinion that Olivier was the greatest actor of my life time. When I was going to school in Hot Springs they took a bunch of us down to the Paramount Theater to see "Hamlet". Afterward everyone was saying "I'd rather stay in class than sit thru that again". I of course agreed, too embarrassed to admit that I thought it was terriffic. In the right column I see an ad that asks "Bad Credit?, Trouble getting a loan?" Do they think I cater to riff raff?

Mexico City 1973

I just stumbled across this picture of Barbara and the floral display she received regularly from a secret admirer in Mexico City. One delivery came while we were talking with Kenny Feld about coming to the Ringling Show. It's a long complicated story and I'll not belabor you with it again.

Singer Shows late 1920's or early 30's

These are some unrelated pictures I'll send to tidy things up. I'm not familiar with this show at all but anyone who has ever been with a mud show will appreciate it. How many times have you been showing some God awful part of the country and have this happen? Someone has taken down the arrows or you are following a truck that blew the arrows or they can't find the lot or there is no lot or worst of all a shake down.

Jack Hoxie Circus 1937

Dale Riker gave me this picture at the Showfolks Circus last Saturday and is an excellent example to show a novice how a circus big top is erected. "Mena" is taking up center pole #3, the man behind her has the rope wrapped around her harness in a fashion that if she should panic and bolt all he has to do is let go preventing her from taking part of the show down town with her. As you can see the rope is passed thru a pully block at the base of center pole #2, upward to the top of the pole thru another block then down to center pole #3. Once in position, "Mena" will walk to it's base to pull up the final pole. The bales of canvas are already in position to be spread once all the center poles are tied off and secure.

Clyde Beatty Circus 1950

I think this is the only color picture I have of Mr. and Mrs. Beatty. Too bad it's so faded.

1997 Award

This picture means a lot to Barbara and me. Of all the people who came to our St. Armands award, these four knew me the longest and came a long way to stand in the wind and rain that day.

Seils-Sterling Circus #1

The Seils-Sterling Circus was owned by the Lindeman brothers out of Cheboygan, Wis. and it was a very nice looking show. They were quite successful but as was the case with so many shows of the day, eventually fell victim to the Great Depression. The most unique thing about this picture is the man at right with "Lucy" and "Billy Sunday" well known cowboy and Wild West Show owner Leo "Tiger Bill" Snyder.

Seils-Sterling Circus #2

"Billy Sunday" was the shows first elephant, coming from Sells-Floto in 1928. When originally imported by Wm. Hall in 1909 he was named "Billy" after Hall's son but after being sold to Hagenbeck-Wallace in 1914 after the Peru flood, for some reason he was re christened after the popular evangelist Billy Sunday. Here we see Milt Herriott and Al Lindeman in a practice session.

Seils-Sterling Circus #3

This is aerialist Teresa Morales from the Morales family of circus performers. Felix Morales used to do the slide-for-life down an inclined rope upside down. He had a block of wood with a slight groove down the center which he placed on his head, something like a Bell Boy's cap, and away he would go.

Seils-Sterling Circus #4

This "Lucy' could be a pretty tough customer, you may notice she has a "club foot". The lady at right is Verna Lindeman. Smokey Jones knew her well from the Dailey Show and commented that "Lucy" was the most clever elephant he was ever around, someone had taught her a lot of mundane things like folding up baling wire, taking off a persons hat and gently replacing it, etc. He said Art Eldridge once saw him demonstrating this feat and said "Hell I go back 20 years with that elephant" where upon he threw down his Panama hat and said "Pick it up!" "Lucy picked it up and ate it. She could be very treacherous, they knew that if you got too rough with her in the act she would simply back up to the back of the ring and square off, you had no choice but to quickly go to the next trick and she would be all right. The same when working her in harness in a team, she was always the off-lead and if you attempted to pull more then she cared to pull she would reach up and knock you off the lead elephant. LUCY 1918-19 Hall's Farm 1920-23 Campbell Bros. 2 Car Show 1924 J.H. Berry Independent Act 1925-30 Kay Bros. Circus (Wm. Ketrow) 1931-38 Seils-Sterling Circus 1939-41 Lincoln Park Zoo Los Angeles 1942 Jack Joyce Independent Act 1943-44 Clyde Beatty-Russell Brtos. Circus 1945-50 Dailey Bros. Circus 1951-56 Cappell Bros. Circus 1957-58 Gran Circo Union (Mexico) (Died in Jan. of 1958)

Out standing in their field!