Monday, July 10, 2006

Zellmar Bros. Circus 1926 #5


Tillie Keys at left and Mrs. Sims with "Ruth", Engesser's first elephant. It looks to be about a 70' push pole big top in the background.

RUTH
1925 Wm. P. Hall Animal Farm
1926-27 Zellmar Bros. Circus
1928-38 Schell Bros. Circus
1938-68 Little Rock, Ark. Zoo
(Died in Nov. of 1968)

By 1939 the show had four elephants "Ruth", "Mary" and two punks "Patsy" and "Bolo" (a male).

Posted by Buckles at 7/10/2006 06:11:00 AM

2 comments:

Bob Cline said...

Buckles,
Can you tell me anything about Patsy? She's a new one for me. I had Bolo so I'm not sure how I missed her.
Bob

10 July, 2006 06:49
Anonymous said...

I had been wondering if you knew anything about a circus elephant named Ruth at the Little Rock Zoo and here she is! She was "my" elephant!! I was born in 1937 and we lived just a few blocks from the zoo. As a small child we went every Sunday and took an apple, which we quartered, and I fed it to Ruth. After a while she would see us coming and head for the railing. In those days there was just a low railing separating us from the different animals. Each year the zoo had a huge Birthday Party for Ruth and WE got to eat the cake. When I got older I went to the zoo to see her several times a week.
We moved away in 1953 but I saw her one last time in 1962 when I took my 4 year old daughter to see MY Elephant Ruth. Thanks for bringing back some good memories.
Robin

10 July, 2006 21:37

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