Thursday, January 24, 2008

"Tommy" 1949 (From Buckles)


Scan000010760, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

"Tommy" and "Charlie" two young males among the seven elephants imported by Ben Davenport in 1947.
"Mary", "Maud", "Norma", "Bessie", "Konti", "Charlie" and "Tommy".

Posted by Buckles at 1/24/2008 06:34:00 AM

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maud, Bessie & Konti from the King Bros. Circus & Beatty-Cole?
Has to be! It's like looking at old family photos!
:-)
Cindy Potter

24 January, 2008 15:55
Anonymous said...

are these the Maud and Konti that were on the Beatty show in latter years? We had a Maud that came to Circus World from CBCB in 1984.

24 January, 2008 16:39
Buckles said...

When the Dailey Show folded these five female elephants were given to Norma Cristiani who took them on the Cristiani Bros. Circus but were often booked out as an independent act.
They were eventually sold to the Beatty Show in 1960.
Rex and Barbara worked the act several seasons with the Tom Packs Circus including that show's winter engagement in Havana, the last of which included the overthrow of the government by Castro.
They fled the hotel and moved into the arena with the elephants and during which time the trials were held upstairs and they could hear the firing squads nearby as the verdicts were rendered.

24 January, 2008 17:24
Anonymous said...

Dailey Bros. owner Ben Davenport gave daughter Norma five elephants--Norma, Mary, Maude, Bessie and Konti--in 1950 as a wedding present after she married Pete Cristiani. They became the Norma Cristiani elephants and were used on various circuses and Shrine dates until (according to Norma) she sold them to Beatty-Cole in 1960.

The last time I saw Maude, she was one of four Hawthorn elephants on Walker Bros. during the 2000 season. Norma, who was booking Johnny Walker's show at the time, got lots of good advance press by alerting newspapers along the route that

Maude was gong to be celebrating her birthday (Norma understimated Maude's age by at least 10 years, which was the acceptable thing to do with a lady.)

Children were encouraged to bring apples to feed Maude at her special birthday party (around noon on each lot). After the "party", Ringmaster Scott Taylor led the group into the tent and, after introducing the stars of the show, presented everybody a certificate showing they had attended Maude's party. And who could resist such a good reason to return for the matinee or evening performance?

There are a lot of great jackpots around those five elephants.

Lane Talburt

24 January, 2008 17:29
Buckles said...

I stand corrected, Barbara read this and said they took the Pete & Norma Five down there several times but had the Howard Suesz elephants the year Cuba fell.
She added that one year "Maud" took off at the boat docks, ran to the end of the pier and almost fell into the Atlantic Ocean.

24 January, 2008 17:35
Anonymous said...

Saturday,January 26th
HAPPY BIRTHDAY -
Norma Davenport Cristiani.

Also celebrating birthdays on the 26th - Dolly Jacobs Reis and Ann Copeland

24 January, 2008 18:04
Anonymous said...

Although you don't see it on printed lists, Konti was sometimes called Connie and even Bonnie during her early days on Beatty-Cole.

Norma had a tumor that hung down from her left jaw as I recall; wasn't this surgically removed?

24 January, 2008 19:02

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