Friday, August 26, 2011

To Glenn Sullivan


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Posted by Buckles at 8/26/2011 04:51:00 PM

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thankyou for the information.Was she quite short in stature?.It appears that way in the photo.I have seen Sri Lankan elephants in their native country and they seem to be taller than 'Marcella'.
Regards
Glenn

26 August, 2011 16:58
GaryHill said...

That photo is of in her last days. She had lost alot of weight and was getting poor. I think there are a few photos of her that Buckles put up in the past few days. She was a very good looking elephant in her day..nice elephant to be around too..

26 August, 2011 23:31
john herriott said...

In early 70s I was on Blue Show with Hugo Schmidt. I would be in elephant tent [Hugo and Axel had beer concession] when Hugo crapped out the herd late in program after teeterboard acts. Anyway after they were unchained the hands stood back and Hugo would Command"Awwall Riiddyyett" and 19 elephants would immediately stand on what Hugo said was Derr Hinderlegs. One elephant at the end of the line would just stand on all fours. So foxy old Hugo said to me,"You know Chon circus fans say, "When hugo Schmidt says Shtand, all elephant shtand on der hinderlegs and another circus fan says,"No they do not. I saw them from outside the elephant tent and one is not trained and doesn't stand up". He said that Marcella was getting too old to work in the acts but he still had her lead the long mount to give her exercise. He thought about retiring her but said he had a bad experience doing that. I asked why? He said that a couple years ago he gave an older Ringling elephant to a man he knew that had a Game farm up in New England foiguring she would have a nice rewtirement. So the following year fro Boston he went to the game farm to see the elephant and lo and behold there she was standing with a Houdi in the hot sun or cold doing elephant rides. He said no mkore giving old elephants away.[sidenote; this was in the days when the elephant trainer had complete jurisdiction in all aspects of the elephant dept. Now they can not even hire the help.] So, I would say that in some circles hugo is maligned because he did not have the looks or charisma of GGW, but I assure you the best interests of the elephants was in him. He should be recognized in the "Ring of fame" or the "Circus hall of fame.

Fast forward. In late 70s I was on Blue with Axel and we got word that Marcello past on in Haines City Circus World. Axel was quite taken as Marcella had been part of his life since being with Ringling. I too felt bad remembering that times with Hugo in the elephant tent and knowing the history of this great elephant, so in tribute to Axel at the time I wrote a lengthy poem about Marcella and her life. Its one of my favorites and the ending goes like this=

She survived the fires, the train wrecks and desease and always to her trainers she tried to please.
And finally she retired with arthiretic feet her days of work complete.
She munched her hay in the Florida sun after years of work and a job well done
And soon she wrent to that celestial home with plenty of food and drink and space to roam.
But if you sit in the elephant tent and hear all the stories of the times that were spent
One of the stories that may come to recall
is about Marcella one of the best elephants of all. johnny

27 August, 2011 09:14
Chic Silber said...

Very nice John thank you

Somewhere it should be noted

"Poet Laureate Of The Circus"

among your other achievements

27 August, 2011 11:47

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