 We opened the show with 3 single acts, "Anna May" and "Babe" (a German Shepard) in the center, "Jackie" rolled a barrel in one end and I presented "Sue" in the other end doing a plank walk. After the other two elephants had exited, she would approach the ramps that had been pre-set on the front track. One day I went to Sid and explained that on a rough lot , I would go to great pains to level this contraption so the ramps wouldn't wobble and would he please ask the clowns not to use it as a platform for the pre-show coloring book pitch and he replied, "Pal, you know it's things like that, that pay your salary!". So as far as I know, those ramps are still in a ditch behind a Shopping Mall in Oxnard, California. But Sid was right, later when I got more young elephants to train, Elephant Rides had come into fashion and all extra space was devoted to ride howdahs and loading platform.  |
Sunday, May 06, 2007
To Casey
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2 comments:
Thank You for sharing the trick and the story!!
I am gonna try putting a hind leg up and down a ramp in my cat act.
On another note, I heard something on the blog about a man with a front leg walk on a lion, is this true, and if so does anyone have a photo?
I thought the box office
and the phone room paid your salary and the extras were extras for the producer.
Someday I'm going to find that instruction book on show business that I keep misplacing.
And to think that these were SHOW OWNED elephants that might have been injured if the ramps were unsteady.
Still, it was a hellava TRICK, I'm sorry I never saw it.
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