Friday, March 12, 2010

From Maggie


!cid_X_MA1_1268344298@aol, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 3/12/2010 05:51:00 AM

7 comments:

John Goodall said...

Thank you Maggie for posting a picture of the Al G. Barnes Elephant tableau which is in the collection of Circus World Museum, Baraboo, WI.

12 March, 2010 12:24
Anonymous said...

Did the elephant carving come from Jungleland? The orginal carving of the elephant coming from the wagon at Jimmy Wood's lot in Venice Calif. Did the CWM build the rest of the wagon and what year?

12 March, 2010 16:53
Anonymous said...

The Bode Wagon Company sold an array of unused carvings to the Barnes show before the 1922 season. They were affixed to several tableaus and air and steam calliopes, the bodies fabricated by the Barnes circus. The tableau featuring large elephants was one of them.

Following Barnes abandonment of the street parade, the decorated wagons ended up in various places, including Jimmy Wood's place and perhaps elsewhere. The tableau with an elephant on each side dropped from sight. The elephant body carvings only were mounted on a structure at the World Jungle Compound site, then owned by Trader Horne and William J. "Billy" Richards. At the behest of C. P. Fox, subsequent property owner Louis Goebel donated the carvings to CWM, which constructed a replica of the original wagon and missing carvings. It was modified and re-decorated in 1995 to bring it into closer compliance to the original.

13 March, 2010 06:45
Anonymous said...

The replica may have been constructed for 1987, but that year should be verified.

13 March, 2010 06:51
Anonymous said...

Man that girl is homely... and flat-chested too! ;)

Good talking to you again Gary.

13 March, 2010 17:58
Roger Smith said...

The two elephant carvings adorned the main entrance, as it was then, to World Jungle Compound. Louis Goebel sold Goebel's Lion Farm to Billy Richards and Trader Horne in 1946, but although it became theirs to operate, the sale as such was never completed, and Goebel took it back and tried another sale, in 1955, to James Ruman and Sid Rogel, execs at 20th Century-Fox. They re-named the place Jungleland, and brought in Jimmy Woods to manage it. Woods was considered by old-timers as the best man with a pencil the place ever had. But their expansive plans, intended to rival the just-opened Disneyland failed, and Goebel took it back again. He gave the Ruhe brothers, Heinz and Louie, a try which failed miserably. In 1965, a group including Roy and Marie Kabat, and Thurston M. "Tex" Scarborough and wife Ina, took the place and by 1969, ran it into bankruptcy, forcing closure. This last time, repetitive foreclosures took their toll on Louis Goebel, and he chose not to take it back and continue operations. Broken-hearted, he saw his creation brought to ruin by a final consortium of operators who never intended to pay the place off. He was never the "subsequent owner", he was the only owner, from 1923 to 1969. In my years there, 1965-1969, the former entrance was closed and converted to part of the office space. The elephant carvings were long gone, and in their place was a long sign reading JUNGLELAND. The public entrance then was the big front gate that swung open to allow truck traffic, and beside it was our ticket booth, adjacent to the bamboo-thatched front office.

14 March, 2010 03:38
Anonymous said...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?VISuperSize&item=370348211412

Note names on sign.

14 March, 2010 10:00

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