Friday, June 08, 2007

Hagenbeck-Wallace 1933-34 #8


SAVE2933, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Noted historian Gordon Potter counted 31 elephants with Hagenbeck-Wallace in the Chicago Coliseum and a like number on the lot at Elkhart, Indiana 9/1/34.

Posted by Buckles at 6/08/2007 05:45:00 AM

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

"WOW" such a shame the likes of this are never to be seen again.

08 June, 2007 06:07
Harry Kingston said...

There is a reason why you had a photo like this with all those elephants in a great circus parade.
Jess Adkins, was manager of Hagenbeck-Wallace in 1934.
He was one of the all time best mangers of his time.
Also he was the one that wanted Cole Bros.-Clyde Beatty to also have a parade and in 1937 they had a great parade also.
Jess was loved by all the circus fans back then.
So thank you lucky stars that Jess Adkins was around to see sights like this shot.
Great days of the circus teh way it was.
Harry

08 June, 2007 10:58
Anonymous said...

Wow. is right! Only 8-bulls on Ringling Red, 7 on Ringling Blue and 1 on the Gold tour. There were no elephants in the show of Cole Brothers in Harrisonburg in April. I'm 57 and I guess I was born too late. I remember around 10-bulls with Fred Logan in the early 70's and the most ever seen was around 15-with Ringling. What about the 52-bulls in list posted yesterday? One can only imagine.

08 June, 2007 12:35
Bob Cline said...

Dear Anonymous,
Carson & Barnes fielded close to 30 elephants in the early 1970's. I've got some photos of the picket lines I'll dig out for Buckles if he doesn't already have some.
Bob

08 June, 2007 13:01
Anonymous said...

Too bad we don't have a set of Joe Hieser's Hagenbeck-Wallace parade shots to show them Harry. The ones taken downtown here in front of the Rice Hotel are great.
P.J.Holmes

08 June, 2007 13:49
Harry Kingston said...

I am 59 and feel like I missed out on alot of the real circus.
But i have many memories of the 1955 Ringling show with all those elephants.
Also the King Bros.-Cole Bros. parade and the 1956 Clyde Beatty railroad Circus with the one the only Clyde Beatty.
Also D. R. Millers, Carson and Barnes 5 ring Circus like Bob Cline said with all those elephants and what a sight it was.
P. J. Holmes, and I saw a many a Carson and Barnes show and enjoyed every minute of it.
Fans we better enjoy what we have now as times are changing and in the future one elephant show might the the norm.
Ah memories of great shows in the past.
Harry

08 June, 2007 15:31
Anonymous said...

Richard REynolds says - -

This bull herd stretches for almost two blocks in single file. That's most impressive. When the separate Ringling and Barnum shows paraded they usually marched the bulls two by two, thereby making the herd pass in only half the linear distance.

I believe Buckles agrees that the thinking behind doubling up was to cut down the chance for mischief along the way.

Of course, Gunther always walked his from the train to arena single file whereas the Blue show of Hugo and later Axel and Buckles doubled them up.

The Rice Hotel - -was that in Houston? A Joe Heiser connection would say so.

09 June, 2007 13:09
Harry Kingston said...

Richard,
Pete Holmes, is referring to the shots that Heiser took in front of the rice hotel in Houston, Texas.
You know Heiser was a well know fan from way back like Joe Bradbury.
I met Heiser a few times at the local circus fan meetings in Houston.
I asked him every time at the meetings, I would like to get a set of photos from Cole Bros-Clyde Beatty when they played Goose Creek, Texas.
No soap with Joe and he gave all the negatives to the circus world museum so they are locked up at the circus world museum forever.
What ever old folding camera Joe used must have been a darn good one as his shots are sharp and clear and the best.
Richard, your fantatic description of Ringling in Altanta and your details make us wish we had been there to see it all with you.
I corresponded with Noyles Burkhart that was legal adjuster
for Ringling in 1955.
He told me about Beaumont, Texas when they played it.
He said after the 2pm show a sheriff's deputy came to his wagon and said Mr. you have to separate the black and the whites or you are going to jail. Noyles told me how it was done in the big top.
I had never heard of the color line in a circus.
Richard, us fans love that detailed descriptions of the way it was.
Thank you so much for that.
Harry

09 June, 2007 15:34
Anonymous said...

Harry, are you saying a deputy went up and ordered the show to segregate the audience or face jail? What year was this?

10 June, 2007 16:51
Harry Kingston said...

Roger,
Yes, Noyles said that a sheriff's deputy did say if yuo do not separate the blacks and the whites that his rear was going to jail.
this was 1955 when the Ringling show played Beaumont, Texas the last time under canvas.
I can remember going in the County court house and for many years the restrooms said Men, Women and Colored.
This was the South back then.
Have times changed.
Harry

10 June, 2007 20:32
Anonymous said...

Joe Heiser was a WWI vet and old time circus fan.He took over 1400 photos of circus material. I got to see alot of them as he was a regular at our local meetings here in Houston. Harry is correct that all his photos came out sharp as a tack. The photos of Hagenbeck-Wallace in downtown Houston was from a 2nd story window across from the Rice Hotel. He was great to take his time and bring different sets of photos to the meetings.
Joe left his collection to the Houston Public Library,but when I went looking for the photos years ago,they informed me that they had given some of them to the CWM. When we visited the CWM,that was on my list and Fred let me look at the H-W photos again. I don't know how many the CWM got from the Houston Library. About the only place that I can remember seeing any of them printed was in the Whitetops with the Hagenbeck-Wallace articles in the 70's. Its too bad that they can't be available for this site.
P.J.Holmes

11 June, 2007 00:22

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