From Richard Reynolds

Richard Reynolds says - - - - This ad is from 1933 and appeared in one of the Peru newspapers in advance of the date. The annual circus and rodeo at the Peru winter quarters was a big event, at least in the early 1930s. They would line up newly painted menagerie cage wagons filled with the animals that would make the tour. There are a number of photos of that. The sea elephant (now more correctly called "elephant seal") had been on Sells Floto in 1932 and spent the winter of 1932-33 in the Peru elephant barn where his portable canvas water tank was set up. Sells Floto was shelved forever after the '32 season so the big seal became a H-W attraction. But he did not go on its under canvas tour, appearing only at H-W's 1933 opener at the Chicago Coliseum. Afterwards he was placed on loan - - first in the Cincinnati zoo, then the Philadelphia Zoo and finally the Steel Pier at Atlantic City. According to my sources he then went back to Germany. Though called "Goliath" here and earlier with RBBB and Sells Floto, this animal was actually named "Colossus" With sea elephant Goliath to be the big feature of RBBB in 1928, John Ringling wisely figured he needed a back up in case the original Goliath croaked leaving the show with tons of useless paper and other ad material on its hands. So, Mr. John ordered a second one from Hagenbeck who became known as Colossus. He too arrived in 1928 and was stationed for most of 1928 in the old Bridgeport quarters. In December 1928 he was sent to Sarasota to join the original Goliath. Colossus' turn on the tanbark trail came in 1930 following the death of Goliath at Sarasota in November 1929 after the close of that tour. Colossus, using the cognomen Goliath, toured with RBBB in 1930 and 1931. He was then sent to Peru for the '32 Sells Floto show. As an aside, my Mother and Dad (who were then dating one another) saw Colossus do his last ever trip around RBBB's hippodrome track. That was at its 1931 season ending performance here in Atlanta on the night of September 14, 1931. They used to tell me how spectacular he was, and I wished I could have seen him. However I was not on the scene until 1934.