Saturday, September 02, 2006

Rudy Bros. Circus 1973 (A bonus picture from Jimmy Cole)


The Morgan Berry elephants presented by Eloise Berchtold. (Mr. Berry at right)
"Teak", "Thai", "Tunga", Buddah" and "Raunchy" (Ranchipur).

I never saw these elephants work, Smokey Jones did most of the basic training and I remember him saying at the time that he was going to make a bull tub with only one leg, that would be it in the foreground.
The elephant would carry it into the ring like a barbell, set it on end, climb up and go to work.

Posted by Buckles at 9/02/2006 12:39:00 AM

4 comments:

Buckles said...

These elephants are all males.
Mr. Johnson's "Thai" is a female.

03 September, 2006 00:58
Bob Cline said...

The Morgan Berry elephant Thai is still currently a breeder at the Houston Zoo. He helped produce a female baby named Bella born August 17, 2004.

Gary and Kari Johnson have kindly corrected my spelling of their elephant. It is Tai.

Bob

03 September, 2006 07:51
Anonymous said...

I believe Tunga is still at the Portland, OR Zoo. Don't think he's sired any calves (yet). When I saw him several years ago they refered to him as "Tidy Tunga" because he conveniently defecated in one corner of his stall.

03 September, 2006 10:39
Bob Cline said...

We have never met. We have corresponded on a few occassions. They have a website. I don't know if they have an updated picture to share with you or not but there are two pictures of Tucker on their website.

Bob

05 September, 2006 18:06

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