Saturday, July 05, 2008

Urban Elephant 1923


Urban Elephant 1923, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.


Urban Elephant - 1923
December 5, 1923. Probably Washington, D.C. 4x5 glass negative, National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress.

Posted by Buckles at 7/05/2008 06:05:00 AM

2 comments:

Buckles said...

If I had to make a guess, I'd say this is one of the Powers elephants.

05 July, 2008 11:10
Anonymous said...

Indeed, it must be, as a photo shot at the same time (some people are standing in different locations) appeared in the Washington Post, page 91, on Dec 16, 1923. Three weeks earlier on Nov 25, the Post reported that "Power's Dancing Elephants--Lena, Jennie, Roxie and Julia--will all be on hand for the Monday matinee, December 3, at B.F. Keith's and they will present their wonderful performance twice each day throughout that week. It is interesting to note that these, the most widely known pachyderms in the world, were for years the feature at the New York Hippodrome ... These elephants are Mr. Power's pets and he says they only differ as pets from dogs in their size. Special arrangements are being made already to reinforce the stage flooring to support the 15 tons of elephants." Another Post article of Dec 2 identified the trainer as George Powers "whose mother owns these four famous animals." Bill Powers and Pete Barlow are referenced as the elephant trainers at the Hippodrome in a New York Times of Dec 4, 1905, and I know from other sources that Powers was a former show fixer. I assume Mrs. Jennie Powers, for whom one of the elephants was probably named, was the wife of the earlier Bill Powers and mother of George, the 1923 presenter. Barlow’s elephants appeared in the “Yankee Circus on Mars” at the Hippodrome and then toured with a revamped version of the hippodrome show reaching Chicago by Feb 1906. Buckles, can you add to this and do you know just when Louis Reed got the act?
Dick Flint
Baltimore

05 July, 2008 19:09

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