From Buckles

Scan000011225, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. This is the first picture I ever saw of Gunther, I didn't quite know what to make of it. I was introduced to him several times in those early years but never really knew him until I went to work for the company in late 1973. I had just arrived in Venice to take over the Circus World herd from Hugo when I got a call from Gunther who was still on tour with the Red Show. It was a policy that the elephants in rehearsal, in this instance the Blue Show, always got use of the elephant barn but he explained that after five years he had decided to return to Germany for a week or so. He explained that it would ease his mind greatly if his elephants were in the barn while he was away, he added that Axel had agreed to set up his tent during this time. After immediately agreeing I began to think, "Where in the Hell am I going to put them?" He thanked me and closed by asking, "Are you a drinking man?" and when the Red Show arrived a week or so later he made his first formal introduction by handing me this bottle of elegant liquor encased in some sort of flowery paper. My first thought was "I wonder what they would think of this at the Stag Bar in Hugo?.