Friday, June 02, 2006

Baptiste Schreiber #3


This was the finished result in more ways than one, the show folded July 16th 1956 in Pittsburgh, returned to Sarasota and it's under canvas days we over.
This act fared little better, I was on the show the next season and Benny White told me that in the Garden these elephants would blow the horns in practice but lost interest while in the ring, he said the best thing in the act was Schreiber's dancing.
I remember seeing an article in Life Magazine at the time showing several being chased in Manhattan, seems they missed the turn and rather than return to the basement went thru the glass doors and down 49th Street.

Posted by Buckles at 6/02/2006 06:15:00 AM

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Buckles, Does it do any good to chase an elephant? Do you follow them to keep them in sight until they deside to stop? Seem like when they are running they would not pay a bit of attention to anyone. I don't think herding them like cows in a sampede would be wise. I only saw {and was on} one of the five punk elephants on Kelly Miller when fire works spooked them. If I remember they stopped when they ran againest a semi. It was over so fast there was not time to be scared.

02 June, 2006 08:52
Buckles said...

Jimmy Reynolds trained some elepahnts for Circo Atayde in Mexico. One day there was a frantic knock on his trailer door "Senor Reynolds! Senor Reynolds! the elephants have run away"
He replied "Lets all check our contracts. I am the tamer and the trainer not the trekker and the trapper!".

02 June, 2006 09:07
Anonymous said...

Buckles, are some elephants just more prone to be runaways? I'm thinking of "Barbara" who ran from Carson & Barnes into a nursing home in Indiana in the 70s (no inuries but she did broke glass entering and exiting)and who I assume was one and the same who ran away from the herd while with Culpepper & Merriweather in California several years ago.
Lane Talburt

02 June, 2006 10:45
Buckles said...

Again, elephants are a lot like people, some are flighty while others are not.
I think you are mistaken regarding "Barbara" with C&M, thats a different elephant with the same name.

02 June, 2006 13:03
Bob Cline said...

Hi Lane,
Sorry if this posts twice. it didn't show up the first time. Both of Culpepper and Merriwether's elephants were Africans. If they ever had an Asian on the show, I am not aware of it.
Bob

02 June, 2006 14:01
Anonymous said...

Buckles and Bob: Thanks for setting me straight on the two Barbaras. Now if straightening the rest of life were so easy...
Lane T

02 June, 2006 18:54
Anonymous said...

I have worked for the Culpepper and Merriweather Circus since it's begining,(22 years), and can say that Bob Cline is correct, the show never owned any Asian Elephants. In recent years though we have leased/hired acts that have had Asian Elephants. At this time there are no Elephants on the show. Also back in our first year we did some dates for John Strong and he wanted to increase the size of the show for his dates, so he hired an older couple that had an Elephant named Akili, but they weren't on the show very long.-BJ

02 June, 2006 22:50

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