More on "Cleopatra".

Scan10252, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Johnny was kind enough to take the time to answer my questions on the "Cleopatra' movie. He said he worked on it's production for over a year due mostly to his father, Digger Pugh's, connection with Pinewood Studio in England and his business dealings with Circuses in Europe. When they first started, the Togni elephants were used but for some reason had to leave, Digger contacted Dick Chipperfield and a deal was made for four elephants but no trainer was available and they were accompanied only by a Mahout. So at age 19 Johnny found himself in charge of a herd of elephants. Johnny told of his experience herding them from the baggage car to the movie back lot. After the confinement of the long trip from England to Italy, they were pretty frisky and even attempted to climb into every fountain they passed but after a few days they settled down and for the most part they were fine animals. He said that the pictures of them shown on the Blog recently were among the few things surviving the tornado that destroyed his home in DeLand. The girls seen in the pictures were supposed to be tossing gold coins into the crowd and upon their arrival at the podium, Marc Anthony would swoop the first girl off the elephant and as the herd passed by, replace her on the last one. Johnny added that racing back and forth from the set to the beach where the girls were, was so demanding that he decided to spend his movie income on a new Jaguar. He even managed to park it on the back lot saying that he was carrying supplies for the elephants when actually it contained the day's supply of beer, courtesy of Richard Burton. After the elephants went back to Chipperfield a search began to locate horses like the ones used by the Roman Army. Again Digger Pugh saved the day by locating a number of that breed in Scotland so the procedure was repeated with Johnny now attempting to ride one at night while it jumped from a barge to the shore below and repeatedly falling into the freezing water. When the movie was finally wrapped, Johnny found himself back in England without enough money to buy petrol so the Jaguar was sold. When the movie finally came out he was with Mills Bros. Circus in the US and on a Sunday off "Cleopatra" was showing down town. After Johnny's detailed descriptions, all the performers were anxious to see him in action but as we now know almost all of his efforts were cut. Incidentally Mr. Pugh mentioned that business so far this year has surpassed all expectations.