Friday, July 21, 2006

From Eric Beheim #4


This is "Kernaudi" namesake of one of the five original elephants Hugo brought to this country from Sweden in 1947 "Kernaudi", "Minyak", "Mudu", "Sabu" and "Icky".

Posted by Buckles at 7/21/2006 06:26:00 AM

8 comments:

Buckles said...

In 1972 Hugo brought 19 elephants from UK, 12 of which had performed with the Billy Smart Circus and 7 were untrained.
In 1963 John Ringling North framed an indoor cirus to tour Europe, bought an elephant act from the Chipperfields and hired two more acts in Europe to fill out the three rings.
Hugo was sent over to get the display organized and remained quite a while.
The show was not a success and after it closed the Chipperfield elephants remained in limbo at the Althoff quarters six years until Gunther added them to his Circus Williams herd when he came to the US in 1969.
"Cita", "Rani", "May", "Suzie" and "Jennie".

21 July, 2006 09:49
Anonymous said...

Was Minyak in the movie "The Greatest Show on Earth"?

21 July, 2006 11:06
Anonymous said...

From Eric:

The music Bill Pruyn used for this hind leg walk was a old Russian-gypsy song that Paul McCartney had adapted into a pop song for Mary Hopkin. The lyrics went: "Those were the days, my friend. We thought they'd never end." (How true this turned out to be!)

21 July, 2006 11:32
Buckles said...

Yes it is, she was with the Ringling Show thru 1961 and toured with such shows as Hoxie-Bartok Circus and United Nations Circus before her death in 1964.
Hugo Schmitt told me that she had been born in the Hagenbeck Zoo in Germany and that he touched her before the mother (his own words).

21 July, 2006 11:32
Buckles said...

On the subject of circus music, when I was on the Ringling Show in 1957 working for Hugo, in finale Harold Ronk sang a song with the following lyrics:
"Open the window wide and let the sun in.
What have you got to lose,
Nothing except the blues!"

And closed with:
"Just let the sun shine thru, do,
Just let the sun shine thru".

I scarcely thought anything about it until Dave Mullaney pointed that it was in reference to no longer having a tent and would be seen showing in outdoor venues from time to time.

21 July, 2006 11:47
Anonymous said...

"Those were the days, my friend" music was also used by Gee Gee Engesser for the walking long mount at the end of her act with Roxy, Gee Gee, and Schell ca. 1979.

21 July, 2006 17:29
Anonymous said...

This song began, "Once upon a time, there was a tavern..." In Thousand Oaks, just down the Boulevard from the Compound, there was an Oriental restaurant named the Rice Paddy. Its bar was the Tiger Room, and for all purposes, it was "our bar", belonging to the Jungleland guys. We all ran tabs there, and we could close the bar at 2 am, and make 5:30 am studio calls. We could do that in our 20s. I played "Those Were The Days" many a night in there, and it became a most plaintive theme for us when Jungleland closed, followed not long after by the Rice Paddy. I'm fully taken back there whenever Mary Hopkin sings the song I want at my funeral.

21 July, 2006 21:13
Anonymous said...

Both Kernaudi & Mr. Schmitt have such an exelent vertical posture ! What an exelent photo , spotlight & all.

22 July, 2006 08:03

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