Sunday, October 22, 2006

Ringling-Barnum 1941 #10 (Eric Beheim Collection)


Ringling-Barnum 1941 #10 (Eric Beheim Collection)

Posted by Buckles at 10/22/2006 08:19:00 AM

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow are those African Elephants? I was told Joe Frisco Sr. broke the first one here in the states. He must have been pretty young in 41.

22 October, 2006 16:20
Bob Cline said...

Actually Africans are nothing new to the Circus scene. The following are just a few examples.

The Ringling Bros. Circus had a couple of Africans in the show's menagerie from 1888 to 1900 named Fannie and Zip.

Jumbo was an African elephant. He was exhibited with The Barnum and London Circus and then his greiving "Mate" Alice that joined the show after his demise in 1885. The Barnum and Bailey Circus carried a couple Africans in the early 1900's named Mike - a male, & Topsy - a female.

The Adam Forepaugh Show carried Mungo - a male, from 1880 to 1882, Annie - a female in at least 1868, and Bismarck - a male in at least 1888.

This RBBB photo in 1941 would include the African Female named Sudan and the African Male named Puqua. There were three Africans imported to the Ringling show in 1938 with one dying shortly after arrival. Puqua died in the tragic Atlanta Poisoning of the elephant herd in Nov. 1941. Sudan died in quarters on Christmas Day in 1947.
The RBBB show has since had several other Africans including Bonnie and Tyronza in the 1970's, Kongo who was with Gunther for so many years, and a male named Diamond in the 1950's that went to the Knoxville Zoo.

The Cole Bros. Circus in 1935 picked up a full grown Male African from the Detroit Zoo named Safari. He had originally came from the Hagenbeck Zoo in Germany in 1928. They promptly renamed him JumboII. He died on Thanksgiving Day in 1936.

With the Endangered Species Act in 1973 stopping the importation of the Asian elephant, Africans become more sought after. As a result you see the fine African acts today of the Barreda-Jacobs family, Doug Terranova's act, Terry Frisco's act, and Brian Franzen's 2 Africans and 1 Asian act to name a few.
Bob

22 October, 2006 20:06
Anonymous said...

Richard Reynolds says --

The two AFricans shown here in 1941 were Sudan and Puqua, with Puqua on the inside. Puqua had nice tucks, straight down as usual for the forest elephant. Puqua was a female as was Sudan. Sudan, who had littel in teh way of tusks, turned out to be an ordinary bush elephant. They together with Congo (a male with very impressive straight down tusks)were brought over by Howard Bary for the 1936 RBBB show (not '38). Congo made only one season and died in 'Sota in early'37.

The were advertised by the show as Pygmy elephants.

They were collected by Bary at the elephant training station, run by the Belgians, at Gangala na Bodio, in the eastern Congo. Originally there were 5 of them but two died en route here aboard the ship.

23 October, 2006 19:45
Anonymous said...

Another fine African act is Jorge Page's Daisy and Bambi, 2 of the finest looking Africans in the business. I belive they were broke by Gunther as well. George Carden used to own Africans not sure what ever happen to them. Carson and Barnes had their african's Paula and Christi on the road for years. Maybe a day will come when we will see them back on the big show again.

27 October, 2006 03:20

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