Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Carson & Barnes Circus 1962


Scan000010105, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Chang Reynolds took this picture in June of 1962 at Lebanon, Oregon.
Five elephants are the most Mr. Moore ever had with the show. This group is "Mabel", "Jenny", "Josky" (Purchased from RBBB in 1959), "Wanda" and "Suzie" (obscured behind Mabel).
At the close of the season "Wanda" was sold to a Texas Oil Man named Kilroy, who eventually donated her to the Houston Zoo. Maybe she is still there.
After Jack Moore's death, D.R. Miller purchased his part of the show from his widow Ann. By this time, 1968, the Kelly-Miller Show was owned by Joe McMahon and thru a complicated state of affairs, D.R. regained control of K-M and combined both shows in 1969. He once told me that he thought the K-M title had been damaged and decided to go with Carson & Barnes, which it remains until this day.
The combined C&B elephant herd in 1969 was ""Kay", "Barbara", "Hattie", "Mary", "Minnie", "Virginia", "Mabel", "Suzie", "Lydia" and "Sadie" (the last two former Woodcock elephants).
Bobby Gibbs had "Marie", "Shirley" and "Ione" in Baraboo.

Posted by Buckles at 9/05/2007 06:09:00 AM

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Buckles, 9 of the herd named was on the Circus Maximus run in the fall of 68. In around the winter of 69/ 70 I help Bobby pick up the three he used upon his return from one of his annual winter trips to Mexico as we were both headed up to Rochester NY for Gracy. Our opening date for the year. I also remember Joske as she sure had a large beak. There were three rows of elephants in the old barn down both sides and a row down the middle. I know K.M.+ C.B. and Gibb's herd were there but there seemed to be more than mentioned. I also recall a punk there named Donna that Gibbs picked up. A petting zoo special with bad habits he had in route south of the border. Do you know how many elephants would have been wintered there during this time period?????

05 September, 2007 12:43
Buckles said...

Jimmy- By 1970 we no longer worked out of Hugo, having moved to Florida and in my records I can only account for 14 elephants at that time, including Bobby's three and "Mabel" with Jack Moore.
However in 1972 there were 20 and by 1974 there were 30.

05 September, 2007 15:19
Buckles said...

I misspoke about 1970. There was no longer a Jack Moore unit so "Mabel" would have been included in the 10 elephants with C&B making a total of 13.

05 September, 2007 15:26
Bob Cline said...

Buckles and gang,
Wanda is one of the two elephants at the center on controversy with the Detroit Zoo's decision to abandon their elephant display.
When the decision was made to move the elephants because of the unnatural cold winters, Wanda and Winky were caught in the battle of Detroit Zoo looking for a place to send them, AZA saying not unless we approve, and the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas saying now wait a minute, we still own Wanda, she's just loaned to you.
Her life history is documented in the Asian Elephant studbook under Stud # 228. It notes she was born in the wild in 1958. However the studbook says she came from Disneyland, where as my records say she came from Thousand Oaks to Carson & Barnes.
Bob

05 September, 2007 18:33
Ryan Easley said...

Were Minnie and another cow Babe not purchased together from Zoo New England in Boston in 1973? What became of this cow Babe?

10 December, 2009 23:13

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