Friday, July 27, 2007

Sparks Elephants on the move 1920's #5


Scan10124, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Spotting cages in the menagerie was something of an art form, once inside, the wagon pole on each cage would be removed at the last minute so they could be butted up against each other almost like riding the flats.
My dad told me that on the Ringling Show, after spotting each cage, "John" would walk along the back side to the front, place his front foot on the hub and with a quick shot, jack-knife the fifth wheel so that at night when the poles were replaced, they would all be pointing inward and the cages could be moved by the baggage stock simultaneously if need be.

Posted by Buckles at 7/27/2007 06:10:00 AM

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

In some photos of the Ringling menagerie interior, the front wagon gears were turned at 90-degrees to the wagon bodies. The poles remained in place. A rope barrier was then tied between the pole ends to serve as a barrier to keep the towners away from the caged animals. In some cases, the order of the cages in the menagerie was also the parade order, which makes sense, especially after they returned from parade. I'm sure that there were people even then that wanted to pet the animals.

27 July, 2007 07:48

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