 Mr. Montgomery framed his show in 1944 from the ground up that included a lot of animals. He bought an elephant "Betty" from the Asheville, N.C Zoo but she was not trained for the ring, I have no further record of her after 1947. I don't know if this picture was taken while with his show or later when he was Menagerie Supt. on the Ringling Show. I never met Mr. Montgomery but I remember seeing him around the Sarasota Quarters the winter of 1956-57 where he remained until all surplus animals were sold.  |
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
C.R. Montgomery Circus 1944-47 #1
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Buckles: Any chance this Betty might be the notorious Betty we had at Jungleland? Only Arky and George Young could get around her. Tony Gentry was trying to chain her feet in the truck one day when she tried to crush him. Bimbo was next to Betty, and leaned against her to save Tony. The shouted commands of Wally Ross went unheeded by Betty, so Wally stabbed Tony in the butt with a bullhook and dragged him out. Betty was sold at our auction to some guy, I think a car dealer, who chained her out front as an attraction. I heard shortly thereafter she got out of hand with no elephant man in attendance and was put down.
Some may know Mr. Montgomery made some early money with his mink farm. Benny Bennett butchered meat for the minks, who lived in cages with screened tops. Local cats climbed atop to vie for scraps of meat, and Benny said there were many cats minus their toes.
She was one of the Besalou elephants named after Betty Bell.
I took that job in 1965 with the understanding that I would eventually add "Anna May" but since the truck only had room for six elephants we had to wait until one was sold.
How we decided on "Betty" I don't recall, I never saw her go after anyone.
When we closed at the LA County Fair I loaded all six and drove directly to Thousand Oaks, dropped off "Betty" and then headed for Harlengen, Texas where Smokey Jones was waiting with "Anna May", we had her in the act the next day.
Buckles this set of photos reminds me a lot of retired equipment that was out back at Howared Suez' winter quarters in Edmond,Ok in the late fiftes while Hagen show was out on the road. The old grave yard of rigs out back around 30 pieces the older ones with the Hagen title of the 40s vintage and later models of Clyde bros. Do you know what years Suez had the Hagen show out? I remember there were four elephants Of which three were with Little Bob Stevens in the 60s. Frieda, Terry and Punk.Punk I believe went to Boots Maden. Little Bob had also purchased a lot of Hagen equipment in the 60s from Suez for the mighty Sells Bros. I was wondering if Suez might have purchased some of the Hagen show rigs from another show?
Was this C.R. (Cecil)Montgomery Circus based in Tangent, Oregon? From my uncle Milton Newport's memoirs, I have learned that C.R.Montgomery circus existed post WWII in Tangent, Oregon. The animals were housed at times at the farm of Joe Montgomery on hwy 99E--zebras, lions, tigers; elephant(s) were probably kept out near Cecil's rendering plant near Western Star Grange four miles west of Tangent. I am interested in learning more. I grew up in Tangent 1943-1961. Gloria Newport.
I am C.R.'s granddaughter, Dawn Montgomery. I knew him later in life when he lived with us in Tangent during the summer of 1967 or 1968. He created a crawdad trap and he and I would take a little rowboat and set the traps along the Calapooya River around Tangent and Shedd. We caught an awful lot of crawdad and if I remember correctly he sold them to Jake's Famous Crawfish in Portland and shipped some to a university on the east coast for research.
I am CR Son. This picture was taken with my dad and Snooky our chimp. The picture is of her in one of the circus wagons.
Sonny
I am related to CR Montgomery and i'm learning about my family history from my great aunt(Shultz) and i'm amazed about all of this.
I am Keith Schultz. C.R. is my great uncle. my father is eugene Schultz. My father and C. R. spent a lot of time togather. My father helped to develope the mink ranch. my father also was a lion trainer and went in with leo the lion who he raised from a cub.
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