Al G. Kelly & Miller Bros. Circus 1946-47

Only "Tena" is kept after the purchase of the Russell Bros. Circus elephants from Art Concello, "Mary Ann" and "Mona" were sold to Floyd King. They now have an impressive looking herd: "Margaret", "Elsie", "Tena", "Daisy", "Dixie" and "Myrtle". As often mentioned before, I would never have gotten into the elephant business had my dad not needed a truck driver after he got his own elephant act. On rare occasions, like when we were playing a shopping center parking lot, he might let me work the act but the audience, rather than watch me, much more enjoyed my father at the back of the ring yelling "No!, "No!", No!" Can't you do anything right?'. My big break came when D.R. booked three rings of elephants on the Texas Shrine Dates in the mid-1950's and was short a herd-worker. So I worked the three elephants above at left, in an end ring, "Margaret", "Elsie" and "Tena" or I should say they worked me. Everything started out fine, all three rings finished together but it didn't take long for the wise old elephants to figure out they had a chump and worked slower and slower, the other two rings (worked by Logan and John Carroll) would have to wait longer and longer for me to finish. When the dates concluded, if there had been one more day, the elephants would have been walking backwards. I had a nice uniform tho.