Buckles Blog: DeLand, Florida #3

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

SAVE3025, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Anonymous said...: Looks like the walking long-mount! I'll never forget when I first saw this presented by Rex Williams in the mid-60s (he was not yet working them on horseback). If you were in the front row grandstand, I swear the bellies sometimes swayed right above your head! WOW!

Sad that this herd, for years 11 strong (5 working the center ring, 3 in each end ring), disappeared so quickly in the last decade. Who can provide the names and history of all of the Acme Circus Operating Co. elephants??

All of a sudden, Syd, Hattie, Beatty's Anna May and all those other names I so often heard were gone. Sad warning, this will happen again starting about the years in the 2000-teens when today's middle-aged elephants grow old.

Dick Flint
Baltimore; 26 June, 2007 16:27
Bob Cline said...: Mr. Flint,
We all recognize Buckles as the elephant Historian, no questions asked. I'm certain he can offer more information than I can but here's just a little bit to get your interest for now.

I have 30 different elephants under the Acme Circus Corp. ownership. By time Jerry Collins bought the show in 1980, there were only ten left. When Johnny Pugh and Doug Howadel had the show from 1983 to 1994 the herd increased to 11 and actually added a 12th elephant for a brief period of time.

If you want, I'll send you want I have. It's not 100% complete but reasonably close.
Bob
fivetiger@marlboroelectric.net; 26 June, 2007 22:48

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