Saturday, September 23, 2006

Harry Rooks with "Schenley Black" in 1950


Mr. Rooks was head horse trainer with the Kelly-Miller Show in the early 1950's. Originally both he and his wife Viola had been aerialists, his specialty was head-balancing trapeze.
Mr. Rooks and my dad put together a couple of elephant-pony acts that year. They were very simple numbers, the elephant and pony would both waltz, lie down, sit up together and close with the elephant standing on two tubs while the pony did the figure-eight back and forth under it's belly. Probably be a sensation today.

Posted by Buckles at 9/23/2006 06:43:00 AM

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

HARRY ROOKS WAS QUITE A GUY. I SAW HIM ON THE WINTER DATES DOING A WONDERFUL DOUBLE HEAD BALANCING TRAPEZE KNOWN AS VIOLETTA AND ROOKS. VIOLA HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN MARRIED TO NOTED EQUS DIRECTOR HORSE TRAINER ALLEN HAUSER. ALLEN HAUSER WAS ALSO MARRIED TO A NOTED WILD ANIMAL PRESENTER BY NAME OF LA VERNE WHO WOULD ALSO DURING HER CAREER BE MARRIED TO GREAT HORSE TRAINER JOHN SMITH AND TO FAMOUS ELEPHANT TRAINER WALTER MCLAIN. SO I SAW HARRY AT BOTH THE TOP AND BOTTOM OF QUITE A CAREER AND AM PLEASED TO HAVE WORKED WITH HIM. HE WAS NICE GUY.

23 September, 2006 17:49

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)