Monday, May 12, 2008

Catskill Game Farm Elephants_1 (From Henry Penndorf)


Catskill Game Farm Elephants_1, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Buckles,

I enjoyed the pictures you posted of the Catskill Game Farm. They brought back some fond memories of our visits there.

About the same time that you posted those pictures of the Catskill Game Farm elephants, my oldest son called and asked for some pictures of himself as a baby. As I looked through the family photo albums I came across these four pictures from a day th! at we spend at the Catskill Game Farm. The pictures are probably from the mid to late 80's.

As I said in my first ever e-mail to you I remembered seeing an elephant presentation at the Catskill Game Farm, but was not sure if it was you, or not. From the pictures I don't think it was you. I am sure that you will be able to tell who the family is presenting the elephants, and whose elephants they are.

Do you, or any of the Blog's readers, recall or know of the gentleman who presented an elephant demonstration at the Bronx Zoo in the 80's. The demonstration was conducted in an area just in front of the! Elephant House. They said that the gentleman presenting the dem onstration was a former circus performer. His name might be Joyner?

Posted by Buckles at 5/12/2008 06:10:00 AM

5 comments:

Casey McCoy Cainan said...

I believe Larry Joyner, also known as Lawrence Grant when he had his cat act, did some time at the Bronx Zoo.

12 May, 2008 09:17
Anonymous said...

Another vote for Larry Joyner. I saw the presentation sometime in the mid 80s at the Bronx Zoo near the Elephant House. Has I recall there was no ring, no head pieces, etc. It was more of a pick-up logs, elephant anatomy talk with two young elephants. One trick I remember was the elephants would grab large "pillows" and throw them some distance over their backs. A nice talking show that told people more about elephants and gave the elephants something to do.

12 May, 2008 10:37
Casey McCoy Cainan said...

Larry also did some time at the LA Zoo. When I met Larry in 97 most of his stories started with "see I was foolin around with this girl that worked at the zoo" which I thought was mostly exaggeration. A few years later, I move into the top story of a guest house owned by a movie trainer outside Hollywood, the bottom story of which is occupied by a very attractive bird trainer working on the same movie. One day while walking up the stairs I see a photo of the girl trying to mount an elephant, with Larry standing along side the elephant. I yelled down the stairs,"hey thats Larry Joyner working the elephant" and the attractive woman tells me "oh yes Larry taught me everything I know about training elephants, and the scruples of elephant men" At that point I assumed most of Larry's stories were true.

12 May, 2008 11:06
Anonymous said...

Is this a photo of Al and Vidbel?
I can't tell which daughter is which.
Bill Galloway,Rochester,NY

12 May, 2008 15:35
Anonymous said...

This photo is vintage Al Vidbel in every way. Nobody else like him.

12 May, 2008 16:16

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