| Photo CBCB60-001- This shot of the Hippo Pit show is from 1960. Thought the bust of a Hippo mounted above the sky board is kinda interesting. This truck number was #22. The Hippo bust was gone by 1962. |
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
CB-CB Bannerlines #2
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
I remember the pit show for Big Otto the "blood sweating Hippo from the Upper River Nile" on the 1958 Beatty Cole show. They had an endless tape that played continuously during the performance times. I remember it from my childhood when I earned my first free pass helping with the set up. I could stand in my backyard and see the show setup off in the distance and listen to the matinee performance as it was going on. I talked with Roy Zinser one time and he said that Frank McCloskey always wanted Roy to spot his trailer near the front of the lot, which was always near Big Otto and all of the smells that went with the location. Roy said that Big Otto was actually a female. I bought a nice Beatty Cole poster for Big Otto that is nine foot tall from Roy. King Brothers had a Hippo pit show on their 1966 show. I don't know if it was the same set up from Beatty Cole or another one that they may have built themselves.
The hippo always got front page news photos, so even if the pit show lost money it was a great Photo op.
Although she had many caretakers
over the years she seemed very fond
of "Tiger" Charley Gore who had a
variety of responsibilities on the
show but also worked at Frank's
Winter Park estate on Via Tuscany
during the off seasons
Chic
Big Otto was indeed a female hip. She had a long history. Born in the Cincinnati zoo, she was acquired by Zack Terrell for his version of the Cole show in 1943. Because the war was on she got the name “War Baby.”
In the terrible Rochester WQ fire of early 1940 Cole had lost its hippo, a pygmy that had come from National Zoo.
To help out, John North loaned Terrell the RBBB Nile hippo Chester who toured with Cole that year and also in 1941 - 1942. When Cole got its own hippo from Cincinnati Chester was shipped back to Sarasota.
The “new” Cole hippo was with the show until it closed in 1950. She then went to Paul Kelly who put her with other shows, including Kelly Morris in 1952 and 1953 and the Gem City shows in 1954.
Kelly sold her to Bob Snowden who had her on the Royal American Carnival in 1957. Toward the end of that season he put her with the Clyde Beatty show where she was a pit attraction. Snowden sold her to the Beatty show and she went out with it in 1958.
Press man Floyd King renamed her “Big Otto.” In March 1958 she got loose from Deland WQ and was at large for a time. This made the press everywhere. I always figured old Floyd staged the “escape.”
Big Otto was with the Beatty show in 1958 and then Beatty-Cole from 1959 until her death around 1975 or 1976. She died as a result of injuries sustained when her semi rolled off the highway in northern Alabama near Muscle Shoals.
The poster of Big Otto was a poorer copy of one used on RBBB beginning in 1942.
Does anyone have a photo of Hoxies "Homo-Pongodie" show?? The story I always heard (please correct if wrong) was that he bought it from a roadside zoo..and that Hoxie loved the show because it doubled as a concession stock truck..yet it flashed the midway and made few dimes to beat...
Didn't Frank McClosky's brother have the hippo show during the early to mid 60's.
Bob Kitto
In the early 60's, they had an alligator pit show. One of the alligators died and on the move from Racine WI, to Beloit it somehow got in a ditch beside the highway. The State Police were all over the show that day, but someone got payed off and the event was never mentioned again.
Bob Kitto
Frank's brother Walter (not to be
confused with his partner Walter
Kernan) would visit the show from
time to time but lived year round
in Winter Park and managed Frank's
estate and worked part time in the
printing office
The McCloskey family name is Polish
and sounds like (Mikelshevski) but
is spelled quite differently
Frank had it changed early on
Chic
Fascinating info on 'Big Otto'. I recently acquired a small cardboard poster with this hippo featured on it from the CB-CB shows and was trying to figure out his(her) bio & year of poster issue. Based on this info I've narrowed it down to either 1959 or 1964. Thanks to all.
Post a Comment