Monday, June 05, 2006

"Charlie" #1


Eric Beheim sent me these next photos of actor/body builder Joe Bonomo in who's autobiography describes working with an elephant named "Charlie" in the 1920's.
This picture taken on the set of a serial titled "The Great Circus Mystery".
I have no record of this elephant at all. Does anyone else have any info?

Posted by Buckles at 6/05/2006 06:24:00 AM

8 comments:

Bob Cline said...

A quick run through the internet this morning says this movie was made as a silent movie in 1925 by Universal Pictures Corp. It featured Joe Bonomo, Louise Lorraine and Slim Cole. It was on 30 reels and is now presumed lost. As for Charlie, He doesn't sound familiar to me either but I'll check my records when I get home tonight.
Bob

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

From Eric:

Mr. Bonomo might have been mistaken about the elephant's name.

05 June, 2006 10:53
Bob Cline said...

A little more through the internet today says this movie was done in 12 chapters. You saw a chapter or two each time but apparently not the entire movie. The climatic pretense to the movie is some disgruntled hand releases the Elephants ( note this is plural ) and causes them to run amuck through the town. Our Hero, Joe Bonomo, is successful in diverting a major catastrophe and getting the elephants back to the show grounds.
As for the elephants, my records indicate only that Charlie was a Male Asian with the Selig Polyscope Co. ( Movie Studios )from 1924 to 1925. I don't have anything other than that.
I also found the Universal Pictures elephant, Minnie, was bad sick in January of 1925 from overeating the holiday treats specifically the box of candy canes she got into. She is not in my records so that's a new one on me as well.
Bob

05 June, 2006 18:06
Anonymous said...

The Geo Eastman House here in Rochester houses the International Photography Museum I know they have a huge collection of silent films - most are inaccessible to the public, but this gives me a quest. cc

05 June, 2006 23:54
24-HOUR-MAN said...

cc, G.E. House has a nice collection of circus photos on their site too.

06 June, 2006 08:42
Anonymous said...

Thanks, Bill. The reference Bill Strong refers to is: www.eastmanhouse.org/. There are several images of Circus Knie as well as some historical photos.

06 June, 2006 09:54
Anonymous said...

While your at it,would you look for the Selig moving picture two-reelers",
The Adventures of Kathlyn",
which were produced around 1912.
It stars the former
Ringling Bros./Prof. Sam Lockhart elephant"Toddles".
"The Almost Human Elephant".

10 June, 2006 16:11
Bob Cline said...

Having just explained the acquisition of Toddles under the Return of Animals post, The Adventures of Kathlyn was made in 1913 to 1914 as 13 chapters or episodes on 27 reels. It is a silent film. According to the internet film sites tonight there is one print in the Cineteca del Fruili Film archive of only the first episode. The remaining film is considered lost. In 1916, the same cast reshot the film again this time as a full length movie.
Bob

10 June, 2006 23:49

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