To Dick Dykes

The three little elephants with me are "Billie", "Teddy" (your Guffy) and "Tena" in 1972. We were on our way to California and had stopped on the Carson & Barnes lot in Texas to turn over the two smaller punks I had trained to Kenny Ikirt. The larger one Billie (I named her after my sister in law) was owned by John Cuneo and would continue on West with us and "Anna May". After staying with the show for a few days we camped at Gee Gee's place in Dallas where Smokey Jones joined our little caravan bound for the Miller-Johnson Circus. The first day after our arrival in San Bernadino, Charlie Germaine called a meeting of all performers and announced that he had just sold the show. I thought "My God, this after driving all the way from Florida?" but Charlie then said "All contracts will be honored and at this time I would like to introduce you to your new boss Mr. Clifford E. Vargas. Right away I contacted Chet Juszyk and Smokey made a deal to import a punk, which became the last of the $3,500 elephants "Tika". You are right "Teddy" remained with Carson & Barnes for about three seasons and was then sold to Mexico. "Tena" was sold to Cuneo the following year and appears in the recent photo of his 3-act worked by Darryl A. At the conclusion of the '72 season Mr. Cuneo picked up "Billie" (the first time he had seen her) and put her into his act where she became quite well known.