Thursday, September 21, 2006

Smokey Jones in California #4


Eric Beheim sent me these two pictures of my good friend Val De Leon of the Oakland Zoo who had acquired Smokey to train this little fellow and in so doing, named the elephant after him.
If you enlarge this picture you can see the "slot link" Smokey would make to chain small elephants, easy on-easy off. However the credit for "brummel hooks" goes to Scott Riddle, when he went to work for me in 1973 with the Ringling Show, he showed me a set (they were stainless steel) and explained they were used on yachts. It just so happened that there was a Marina across the highway from the Winter Quarters in Venice and we placed an order for twenty sets but when they arrived they were brass. I don't know of anyone today that hasn't used them.

Posted by Buckles at 9/21/2006 06:01:00 AM

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have dozens of these links. Use them to hang bird houses, wind chimes, etc from the top of the Lynis and trees. Must be left over from my Yacht days. Easy to take down in the winter. Stops the pilfering. Also deture pets who can open gates, but I don't want to pad lock.

21 September, 2006 08:37
Anonymous said...

Question from Eric:

Is "Smokey" still in Oakland? I would imagine that he is "plenty big" after all these years.

21 September, 2006 15:45
Anonymous said...

Smokey died at the oakland Zoo a few years ago

22 September, 2006 08:09
Anonymous said...

smokey was quite a craftsman. making nice elephant hooks. he visited me on ringling in calif.and laid out a verity of bullhooks. gunthers german guys eagerly bought them but it wasn't payday but smokey sold them on time payment and showed up on payday. gunther bought a cane hook and marveled at what a great invention it was. smokey would make tiny little curios out of metal and alot of leather stuff, wallets, those little leather cubes, etc. I always ribbed smokey that he sure must have learned alot as a kid in reform school. he would respond with his smokey chuckle but never denied it. when he came to florida in the winter he liked to come to our house and beat out mary ruth and the girls in nickel dime poker games.

23 September, 2006 14:44

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