Tuesday, September 27, 2005

George N. Bates #1


I'm surprised over the chatter on the Blog Site regarding this elephant "Babe" shown here with her long time keeper George Bates. I think this picture was taken about 1907 while both were in their declining days. The show received much publicity with the birth of Babe's calf "Young America" and was introduced to the press as "Hebe" . Rather odd to name an elephant after the Greek Goddes of Beauty, but on the lot she was "Babe".
Her calf was born 3/10/80, weight 214 lbs. and height 35 ins. while still with the Cooper & Bailey Circus and she is credited as being the factor that would eventually lead to P.T Barnum and James A. Bailey's partnership. Again, on the lot the calf was called "Columbia".

Posted by Buckles at 9/27/2005 07:01:00 AM

12 comments:

GaryHill said...

Who was the father of this first baby? Was he on the same show? Just wondering? Thanks, Gary

27 September, 2005 08:25
Buckles said...

I really couldn't say. In a case like this you depend on the written word and I have seen credit given to both "Mandrin" and "Basil".
All three of these were in a 5-act trained by Stewart Craven in 1873 for the Howes Great London Circus. Craven is given credit for inventing the pyramid type elephant act we see today, up til that point they only did single acts I suppose.
As to the sire of "Columbia" maybe my friend Richard Reynolds might comment, I regard him as the definitive word on these type things.

27 September, 2005 09:50
Anonymous said...

This is good stuff. I'd always imaged that the live births on shows in the 19th Century were largely animals already carrying a calf when imported. I hadn't really thought about it, but I imagine that males were more common on shows in that era than later

27 September, 2005 10:11
Buckles said...

I'm sure you already know that during the winter of 1902-03 the Ringlings imported an elephant from Hagenbeck that was accompanied with a nursing calf and immediately named her "Baby Baraboo" and was advertised as having been born in Winter Quarters.
They knew no shame.

27 September, 2005 10:27
Anonymous said...

Shame didn't put warm bodies on soft pine seat boards would be my guess. If only they'd thought to call a goat a unicorn, those Wisconsin boys might have made something of themselves.

27 September, 2005 13:35
Bob Cline said...

Dear Buckles,
Richard Reynolds and William Slout have provided me with information they uncovered in 1875. The same elephants with Howe's Great London Circus actually had a live birth in St. Joseph, Missouri on May 31st I believe. I'm going by memory while here at work. The Female ( who remains unidentified ) was left behind as she had her baby. The baby was a huge sensation. The Circus wired back to the Mayor and named the baby Joe in honor of the townfolk. Unfortunately there hasn't been anything found of the calf's existance after such a remarkable event leading us to believe the calf didn't live very long. Once again the Male is unidentified also so, no Dam or Sire can be positively recorded but we do know know the first live elephant born in the US did in fact occur in 1875. Many thanks to Richard Reynolds for pushing me in the right direction. Bob

27 September, 2005 14:12
Anonymous said...

Wasnt it Stewart Craven who nick named her Baby?

27 September, 2005 17:32
Anonymous said...

Was there a elephant called"Basil' with the Cooper&Bailey show in 1878?
I thought perhaps that may have been Mandarin's name when he was a punk .
Also I read in the book THE ASTONISHING ELEPHANT by Shana Alexander,that a elephant called Mandarin died while the Cooper &Bailey show was touring Australia,New Zealand and South America around 1878 and 1879.
Reportly Mandarin's carcass was dumped into Wellington Harbour at New Zealand.
If so then possibly Basil may have been renamed Mandarin in 1880?

29 September, 2005 15:17
Anonymous said...

Here is a quote from the Sept-Oct,1936 White Tops article about Stewart Craven.
"In 1878,he bred "Hebe" a female with "Basil", the first baby elephant ever born in captivity."
BTW Those quotation marks are from the article itself, which meant that it was a quote from Stewart Craven's son or another family member at least.

29 September, 2005 15:42
Buckles said...

The elephants in the Stewart Craven group that produced the baby elephant were never with Cooper & Bailey on the Australia/SoAmerica tour. They were with Howes Great London at that time and "Columbia" was born with Cooper & Bailey Great London Circus after retuening to the States.
I am unaware of a "Mandarin" with Bailey in Australia, I think Ms. Alexander is in error.
The "Mandrin" trained by Craven remained with Barnum & Bailey thru 1902 and was executed at sea returning from the European tour in the fashion she discribes in the Australian incident.

29 September, 2005 21:55
Anonymous said...

Im not sure which page its on in that book,but I rember that he was apparently in musth, put aboard the ship
and died from eating sulpher matches.

01 October, 2005 14:36
Anonymous said...

Thats reference is on page 129
of the book THE ASTONISHING ELEPHANT.
Im sure it was the author's source rather then the author.
It states that in in 1881 Mandarin died however according to my notes from a circus book,the Cooper&Bailey show
left San Francisco on November.8.1976 and returned to New York City December.10.1878.
Is it possible the Cooper&Bailey show left behind a elephant for the zoo in New Zealand and they named it Mandarin?

03 October, 2005 15:57

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