From Don Koehl

Dear Buckles, I wonder if you can please help me concearning records in the article Ringling elephants 1888-1968 by Chang Reynolds, in Bandwagon That article was of course written years ago, and may have been corrected later, and/or I may misunderstand, or falsely interprete the text. I hope you may be able to sort this out. I read through the article Ringling elephants 1888-1968 by Chang Reynolds, in Bandwagon. On page six, he discusses the Barnum and Bailey group in 1918, before all elephants were joined at RBBB. Hes naming them as : Katie, Albert, Bessie, Coco, Lizzie, Fanny, Nellie, Baby, Jennie, Topsy, Jap, Mighty, Queenie, Mary, Juno, Hattie, Pilot and Jess. Later, he discuss the whereabouts and what happened to them. Among other details, he mention Nellie going to Houston zoo, and I interpret that she is one of the former Barnum and Bailey elephants, not Ringling bros.

To Henry Penndorf

SAVE2932, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Referring to my handy, dandy notebook I came up with this list for the 1955 Ringling elephant herd. The number in the show was "Mamas in the Park" which I have shown numerous pictures of on the Blog (little elephants in baby carriages). Elephants are listed in order of their seniority with the show. #22-28 are the seven punks added in 1953 "The Seven Wonders" and #29-48 are the twenty trained the previous winter by Louis Reed and Smokey Jones. Hugo Schmitt only presented the finished product in the ring since he had returned to the show with the understanding that he wouldn't have to be involved with overall operation. Baptiste Schreiber arrived with elephants #49-50-51 arrived just prior to departure from Sarasota, bringing the herd to 51. The final elephant, "Louie" an African (name later changed to Diamond) was delivered to the show while playing Detroit in July. I might add that three more older elephants were left in Sarasota, "Ringling Jennie", "Eva" and "Wallace Jewel" making a grand total of 55.

Bertram Mills Circus 1930/ Adele Nelson Elephants

I have told the story several times regarding the circumstances that forced Louie Reed and his wife Adele Nelson to travel to England to train their newly purchased baby elephants so I will not belabor the point but it turned out to be a stroke of good luck since people were so impressed by his training that they were immediately engaged by the Bertram Mills Circus. This is the program cover from their final season in England showing Miss Nelson with "Myrtle", "Tillie" and "Jennie".