 Finally, the extensive Images of America Series issued by the prolific Arcadia Publishing firm published this past July a 128-page picture book by Jeffrey Maulhardt about Jungleland with this great cover illustration. Dick Flint Baltimore "Frank Phillips must have loaned them this picture of he and "Teddy" from his previous Downie Show days." Buckles  |
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
From Richard Flint #4
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
I believe that Frank Phillips did the "fighting lion" on Cole Bros. when my dad was there. I always thought it was odd that in a very few seasons Cole Bros. would go from the big fighting lion and tiger act of Clyde Beatty down to one old lion in a cage in the side show. Zack Terrel must have known what he was doing as Cole continued on for a number of seasons under Terrel as a major circus.2nd onlt to Ranglin.
Arcadia also printed "Early Los Angeles County Attractions," which includes some coverage of the Ostrich Farm and a quick peek at the Selig Zoo. The entire story of the Los Angeles area wild animal activity, including several circuses wintering in Venice and the LA area [Norris & Rowe, Sells-Floto, Al G. Barnes, etc.], several parks and piers with wild animals, the 1920s Horne operation, Gay's lion place and other operations awaits an ambitious writer.
There are two pictures in this book of Roger Smith that are captioned "Hubert Wells."
How many other errors are there?
Arcadia also has a "picture book" history about the Central Park zoo and another one about the early development of Miami Beach. It has some fine photos of developer Carl Fisher's elephant Rosie helping with the construction of hotels or whatever. Rosie later wnet to the Candler zoo and finally wound up with Dailey Bros. She was a very large female.
The Frank Phillips photos in this book came from his personal collection, which he and his wife, Siva, gave to Richard and Tuve Kittel.
Phillips died in 1963, two years before my arrival out here, so I missed knowing him. I enjoyed becoming acquainted with his widow, Siva, who doubled in brass in the Jungleland Snack Bar and as Mabel Stark's housekeeper. She was a rather distant woman, but well-respected by Compound personnel.
Ole Whitey is right--photos of me on pages 44 and 46 are named as Hubert Wells, among numerous errors very telling in a book written as history. Since history is the focus of this blog, maybe further notes should be offered for posting here.
The text in too many of the Arcadia book series vary greatly in quality. They seem to accept anything sent in and many of these "local historian" authors accept anything that comes their way as far as facts. There are all kinds of historians: those that accept anything, those that get caught up in all the little details and that's all they can write about, and those who question the detailed facts but judiciously use them to tell a good story that is readable.
Nevertheless, the Arcadia books often gather a great group of illustrations. I think it funny that the Jungleland book has a cover that isn't really Jungleland. And yes, anonymous, the west coast trained animal story merits exploration because it can be a history that is more than just facts by telling an important part of the story of how America perceived wild animals at a pivotal point in the story of man's evolving relationship with animals.
Dick Flint
Baltimore
Californians are indeed unique.
Many years ago, immediately following the credits of a movie I was attending, appeared the statement: "Some people claim that movies should be more like life whereas we believe life should be more like the movies."
Over the years I have come to the conclusion that this should be the State Motto.
Buckles, that motto could very well fit the liberal left too.
Post a Comment