Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Chris Zeitz #7


Scan11139, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

My dad wrote on the back:
"Chris Zeitz Supt. of Elephants and Menagerie with John Robinson Circus 1922. 1st elephant "Betty".

CHRISTIAN ZEITZ

1901-03 Ringling Bros. (elephant hand)
1904 Ringling Bros. (herd worker)
1905 Great Floto Shows
1906-09 Sells-Floto Circus
1910 Norris & Rowe
1911 Dan Robinson
1912-15 Howes Great London (Corp. owned)
1916-22 John Robinson Circus
1923 Sells-Floto Circus

At the conclusion of the 1923 season Mr. Zeitz retired and purchased a ranch in Kissimmee, Florida where he died 1-5-53 at age 77.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any insights on the elephant births on Ringling and SF and Zeitz's involvement or lack thereof?

Buckles said...

By the time the first calf was born with Sells-Floto, Zeitz was long gone.
However he would have been in Baraboo during the birth of the Baldy/Alice calves.

Casey McCoy Cainan said...

Would it not be unusual for an elephant man to retire at the age of 47? Did he maybe have a health issue or hit the lottery?

Buckles said...

I remember reading how this all came about but I can't recall the source or details.
Since this was well before the days of elephant rides, he possibly did the noble thing and married into money.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the banner man had a field day here.
Bob Kitto

Anonymous said...

Bob: I think Studebaker was a National tie-in that Sells-Floto had, like Dick Scatterday used to do in our day. In other words this was set during the winter rather than on show day by the heel-and-toe man.