Smokey Jones in California #1

Smokey sent me these snap shots dated March of 1973 with the words, "Tika" in the center and Holter's two punks "Margaret" and "Shorty". "Tika" belonged to Smokey. The previous year, 1972, while making the long drive from Florida to the Miller-Johnson Show in California, we layed over at Gee Gee's place in Dallas. While there Smokey dropped by explaining that he wanted to buy an elephant so I called Chet Juszyk on the Coast who was an animal importer at the time. Smokey joined our little caravan heading westward and shortly after arrival in the LA area we got a call from Chet that she had arived at the Air Port, simple as that. Smokey figured she couldn't have been over a month old and as it turned out, she was the last $3,500 elephant known to man. We made her a stall in the back of our elephant truck (I had "Anna May" and "Billie"), Smokey named her "Tika" and she was immediately in show biz. Today, as far as I know, she remains with Circus Gatti.