Friday, May 15, 2009

King Bros.-Cristiani Circus 1952 #5


Scan11668, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 5/15/2009 06:11:00 AM

7 comments:

Bob Cline said...

This truck always interested me with a Polar bear in the back and a Hippo in the front. Did they both share the water tank? The swing door on back makes one wonder how they loaded the Polar Bear in particular safely. Was there another door on the inside? All the photos I've seen shows the truck as is. Did the sides get covered up during transport?
Bob

15 May, 2009 06:58
gordon dodge said...

wasn't this semi with hippo and polar bear owned by Diano?

15 May, 2009 07:18
Anonymous said...

Man, If that bear gets out of that cage, I'm out of here!!!

15 May, 2009 18:56
johnny h. said...

In 54 I was a parade marshall on horseback and when we passed downtown Mr. King would come out of the leading hotel in his suit [looked like a doctor or lawyer with his oval spectacles on and he would stand in the street with a yard stick in hand and if the hip was in the water he would push the yard stick thru the bars to get the hip on the deck. Town folk would give him the oddest look you can be sure.

16 May, 2009 08:58
johnny said...

I believe the polar bear was long gone.

16 May, 2009 09:00
Richard Reynolds said...

King –Cristiani got this hippo, named George, in 1952 from Memphis’ Overton Park Zoo. It was one of the many calves produced by the long lived and prolific pair, Venus and Adonis. Other of their offspring went to the old Robbins Bros of Granger Iowa and to Kelly-Miller of Hugo.

Hippo George would subsequently see a lot of service on the Strates carnival, then Ralph Emerson’s zoo in Connecticut, and finally, in 1974, he went to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, TX. He logged many further years there.

This cage-semi was built for King as best I recall – no connection to Tony Diano. It was painted yellow with red and sliver trim and lasted through the 1954 season.

A new one was built during the winter of 1954-55 for use beginning in 1955. I saw it under construction in Macon quarters.

Again the date on this photo is suspect. Joe Bradbury caught the opener and reported that the animals in the semi were two deer and the hippo - - no polar bear mentioned in his review, and he was usually very accurate. Perhaps the bear as added later.

James Harshman recited the parade lineup for the 1953 show in WHITE TOPS, July –August 1953 and he reported that that this semi carried the hippo, the polar bear and deer.

If you look closely at this photo you can see the deer in the compartment at the very end with the bear in a compartment beyond that.

Yes, when this semi moved overland, there were sideboards on it.

The polar bear was still with King in 1955. It rode in the front of the new cage-semi with the hippo in the rear portion with water tank.

16 May, 2009 13:15
henry edgar said...

johnny -- loved your comment about mr king! it's so typical! one of our great losses is that no one has written a book about this man who was such a master of his craft, who could make tons of money for other people but always had trouble keeping his own shows going

16 May, 2009 16:50

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