Monday, May 12, 2008

Howes 1872 herald-ele (partial scan only)


Howes 1872 herald-ele (partial scan only), originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

The 1871 Howes Great London featured a stellar group of five
performing elephants, the largest number of working elephants on any
show up to that time. Of course, two decades earlier, Barnum's
Asiatic Caravan carried ten but they were not performing elephants to
the best of my knowledge. And, I would note, the new 1871 Howes show
probably eclipsed the first year of the joint Barnum, Coup, and
Castello effort, certainly outclassing them in the magnificence of
parade vehicles and elephants, among else.

Here's part of a bold bill for the Howes elephant act when it was to
appear in Bellows Falls, VT, on June 5, 1872. The additional material
below the top portion that I have scanned states that the elephants
were trained by Sangrino, "a celebrated trainer of elephants in
England." Whether this is a variant spelling of Bostock's black lion
trainer of the 1880s, the first of two black "Sarganos" (real name of
#1 was John Holloway Bright, died 1892), would be only a very cautious
guess. Also featured on other bills I have for this show when it was
essentially the same performance for the three seasons under Howes
management (1871-73) was "MOLOCH, the Unterrified!" [Burke, the
unterrified?] who presented six, not five tigers as I erroneously
stated earlier.

I'll let Buckles and Richard Reynolds elaborate on the elephants but
it is an important performing group that also sired the first live
captive births. One of the nice things about the illustration is that
it suggests some of the routines performed.

Dick Flint
Baltimore

Posted by Buckles at 5/12/2008 06:49:00 AM

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

To Dick Flint; Thanks for your continuing contributions to the blog and your uncanny grasp on circus history. There are very few historians of the circus of your caliber, in fact could easily be counted with using ten fingers, so we with a thirst for this knowledge and the enjoyment of trying to piece it together are so grateful that there are serious circus historians, even tho just a few. I like history of any sort. But I am not a day, date or time person, but only a broad look at a particular era and time. I do enjoy being able to carry on a reasonable conversation on a subject with a qualified historian and Buckles and myself find ourselves enjoying conversing with each other or maybe some others with similar qualifications. I must give the nod to Buckles on so much that he has acquired over the years. But again it is so fascinating for so many of us and of course the Bandwagon magazine and the CHS gatherings are the frosting on the cake. Again, thanks Dick Flint and the other few that keep chugging along.

12 May, 2008 08:42
Anonymous said...

The Howes and Barnum shows both had magnificent parades, dominated by paired telescoping wagons of British heritage.

Howes had the edge in the elephant department, for certain, but the Barnum show had a fine menagerie and extensive museum presentation.

The Barnum show went onto rails in 1872 [60 cars] and added the second ring by 1873, when it earned the first million dollar season in American circus history.

The Howes outfit didn't go on rails until 1875 [42 cars] and seems to have been chronically lacking in the owner and leadership department.

Both troupes underwent ownership changes through the 1870s, though Barnum remained as the mainstay of the one bearing his name.

The bankrupt Howes outfit went to Cooper & Bailey, which went with "Great London." Thereby all the grandness that had once been flaunted under the Howes banner came under the Barnum & Great London name in 1881.

12 May, 2008 10:21
Anonymous said...

John, thanks for the nice comments. One of my great joys was having you and Mary Ruth appear at the Smithsonian for several years (and Weiner for one year). But my fondest recollection is when I arranged for you to play the Genesee Country Museum and I had designed for them a herald that simply lifted parts of several I have from the 1870s but substituted your family name. When I first showed it to you, you picked me up in a bear hug and swing me 360 degrees! Keep your recollections coming for so many of us enjoy reading "comments from the Colonel" on this blog! In many ways now that you and Buckles are retired, we are getting to visit more often than ever! (Hey, remember closing the bar each night at the Harrington with Ward Hall and others when you all played the Smithsonian? Great memories for me!)

Dick Flint
Baltimore

12 May, 2008 22:25
GaryHill said...

Bad news at the Dallas Zoo today. Keke, 39yr female african died from colic. She would colic every year from eating rocks and dirt. I don't know where she orginally came from? I often wonder what happened to the herd from GA in NJ. They only have 8 left of the 28 I had there back in 74?

12 May, 2008 23:15
Anonymous said...

To Gary Hill, "Keke was a Frank Thompson elephant that went from Baton Rouge zoo to Dallas in '98. When she was at Baton Rouge she performed a pretty good three act with the two Asians they had.

13 May, 2008 07:28
Bob Cline said...

I would like to bring to everyone's attention a wonderful book by William Slout entitled "A Royal Coupling, The historic marriage of Barnum & Bailey" printed in 2000.

In it on pages 85 & 86, Mr. Slout tells of Elbert Howes going to Ceylon himself in 1870 to purchase elephants. He arranged for the capture and shipment of 11 elephants from Ceylon arriving in NYC near the 13th street docks on July 22, 1871. One elephant died enroute. They were lodged overnight in the Eleventh Ave. stables of the Hudson River Railroad, then walked to the depot and loaded into 5 produce cars for shipment.

Two of the elephants went to Van Amburgh's Great Golden Menagerie appearing in Illinois. The other eight went to Howe's Great London appearring in Canada at the time. There is documentation of when they were seen and where. They were to be hitched to the huge float the "Car of Juggernut". Mr. Slout then covers the sightings of ten elephants indicating that perhaps the two elephants for Van Amburgh did not ship to him immediately but rather joined Howe's first then shipped out.

The remaining eight elephants on Howe's would be Rajah, Mandarin, Hannibal, Bismarck, Mercury, Utopia, Victoria, and a baby named Princess.

Rajah was supposed to be a killer. I cannot account for Rajah in this time period from 1872 to 1880 so there is some possibility here. I have Rajah going to W.W. Cole in 1881 being renamed Tom. It may be the same elephant.

The only two Hannibals I have recorded, had both died prior to 1871. This is the only mention I have so I have nothing else to go by.

I have a female Asian named Bismarck in 1871 listed on the Col. C.T. Ames Show. She was on the Haight's Great Eastern Menagerie until 1875 then sold at auction to the Cincinnati Zoo. I have found no other mention of a Bismarck being an Asian elephant.

Mention of Mercury and Utopia have never been discovered anywhere else.

Mandarin and Victoria were followed through to the Cooper & Bailey take over.

No mention of a Princess as an Asian has been found in 1871.

I explain all of that to show how confusing some of these elephant's histories can get when you see the 1875 advertisements.

By 1875, their advertising placed names with the five elephants remaining as Chief, Emperor, Sultan, Victoria, & Mandree.

These five as already stated joined the Cooper & Bailey herd in 1879 when Howe's sold out.
Bob

13 May, 2008 08:26
GaryHill said...

Thanks Joey, there is no one to contact at GA anymore that would have any info on where all the others went or ended up?

13 May, 2008 08:27
Wade G. Burck said...

Joey and Gary, Bob Cline
That wasn't the KiKi that Jungle Larrys African Safari used to own was it. She did an act with an Asian named Babe.
Wade Burck

13 May, 2008 09:46
Bob Cline said...

Wade,
I'm not sure. I just corresponded with Nancy Jane and they are moving all the records and stuff to their home in Ohio right now. We can get a definite answer but it may take some time.
Bob

13 May, 2008 10:30
Wade G. Burck said...

Bob,
Kiki and Babe were there in 1974, and then gone in 1977 and replaced by Wama, Roho, and Duvu. Did Babe not get sold to Rex Williams?
Wade

13 May, 2008 10:45
Anonymous said...

Hey guys, this Keke went from Frank Thompson to Lincoln Park in Chicago, then Baton Rouge and Dallas.

13 May, 2008 14:26
Anonymous said...

Bob and Buckles: Someone wrote into the CHS site (# 2415) asking about a "Peanut" elephant.

Does either of you know of this critter?

13 May, 2008 14:29
Buckles said...

Never knew of one with that name.

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

The Dallas elephant went from me (the original importer)to Baton Rouge. Alan Campbell (who was killed in Hawaii by Tyke in 1994) worked as Boss Elephant Man in BTR at that time and trained the 3 act in BTR while he was there, I believe. The animal sold to Lincoln Park Chicago was an earlier import, about 1971. Frank Thompson

13 May, 2008 15:42
Bob Cline said...

Ol'Whitey,
Suzy Lujan, the lady that asked the question about "Peanut", was kind enough to send a picture to me. She was about three to four years old at the time and an Asian Female. She was with a Carnival in the San Fransisco area.

I gave her some ideas to try to find out more like looking in the local newspapers for any articles for more information, permit records, etc. but I couldn't help any more than that myself.

Bob

13 May, 2008 20:03
Anonymous said...

To Wade Burck, I seem to remember 3 young africans at Jungle Larry's in 1976. I don't remember an asian but that was along time ago. Roy Wells would know.

Ric Daughenbaugh

13 May, 2008 20:39
Anonymous said...

Heard from Dallas this afternoon and peta is already hounding them to send the other elephant to Buckley's place.

On a lighter note. Buckles, I was in the yard today and an older gentleman started asking questions about my girls. He told me that he delivered two Ringling elephants (Ruth & Trilby) to the zoo about 50 years ago. It was Roger MacDonald! I invited him 'round back and in the yard. He is on his way from Yuma, Arizona to Florida and he is spending the night in his camper in the zoo parking lot. He's going to come in tomorow and spend a while so I'll get a few pics of him and give him copies of the ones I have of him. He tells me he broke alot of those Arthur Jones elephants but didn't have much good to say about Mr. Jones.

13 May, 2008 20:40
Wade G. Burck said...

Ric,
Originally Jungle Larry had 2 elephants an Asian and an African named Babe and KiKi. They were trained by I believe Sonny Marine, who Roy worked for. Sonny also trained a great male lion act, that Roy later worked. I went there to work in 1974 the year after Sonny left, and Roy was doing the animal show. When I went back for a short time in 1978, they had the three Africans Wama, Duvu, and Roho, and Jungle Larry did the lion show.
Wade Burck

13 May, 2008 22:27
Anonymous said...

Wade,

Thanks, I must be remembering Wamu,Duvu and Roho at Jumgle Larry's. I worked three summers for the Tetzlaff's at Cedar Point in 75,76 &77. I know when I visited Naples in late 76 early 77 the three africans were there and we built an enclosure for them at CP for the summer of 77. The first year I was at the Point George Fluery and/or Jungle Larry was presenting the Male Lions.

Ric Daughenbaugh

14 May, 2008 08:01

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