| Many might not know that Strates carried two stock cars for the menagerie. Both were built by the Warren Tank Car Co. between 1920 and 1927. Neither stock car ever saw any circus life having been on carnivals their entire careers. Both are at the Circus World Museum now. The one for the elephants actually has end doors at one end to store a tractor or truck. It was restored and used in the parade train. The other one was never restored and remains on a siding beside the train sheds. These photos show the bunk area for the attendants, the stable area, and the open area. This car was painted with a huge Polar bear on it near the door. As all Strates vehicles were painted vividly, the Stock cars were no exception. That leads me to believe that the stock car in Hal's pictures was just acquired. |
Friday, December 14, 2007
Strates Shows #1 (From Bob Cline)
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There was another stock car (#8) that was left in winterquarters and cut up for scrap the winter of 72-73 along with 2 old coaches and at least 1 old Warren flat.
From the book: "Seeing is Believing. America's Sideshows", by A.W.Stencell:
In 1956, Arnold Maley and Floyd King put out two units of their King bros. Circus, but business was so bad that whitin two weeks they were abandoning animals and equipment. By June, both units were closed. By late fall, E.J.Brady, a Macon, Ga. investor in the show, fred up some of the animals and sold them to the James E.Strates Shows. Fro 17,000 Strates bought three elephants - Mona, Alice and Marge - plus Friendly George the Hippo, a polar bear, a leopard, two lions and a black bear. The carnival was in Shelby, N.C.,when the animals arrived, and Strates put them under a tent formerly used to house the Dancing Waters show.The elephants finished the season moving by truck, but next year Strated added a circus stock car to the train for them. In February 1958, the show purchased three more elephants from Pollock bros.Circus. The zoo worked as a regular back-end show until 1969, but the show kept the elephants for publicity purposes. To pay their keep, a 10-cent midway grind show titled Tarzan's Elephants featured the elephants for several more season, until they were sold.
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