Unidentified!

03-08-2012 05;21;47AM, a photo by bucklesw1 on Flickr. As mentioned yesterday, the first time this trick appeared here was in 1948 and was trained and brought here from Europe by Hugo Schmitt in 1948. My first effort at this was in 1972 when John Cuneo sent me up to Southwick's place to look at a female Asian about shoulder high with the interesting name of "Popsicle". They delivered her to our place here in Ruskin where her name was immediately changed to "Billie" after one of my sisters in law. She was already trained to lay down and sit up but John wanted some power tricks added to her repetoir. I soon received a letter from one of John's lawyers with some sort of disclaimer and instructions to train a "first class" hind leg walk and one foot stand. I called John and explained that Mack MacDonald trained first class stuff whereas I just eked out a living but he replied that the letter merely pertained to legal matters and to press on. After getting the job completed I sent a few pictures and mentioned to John that were booked with Miller-Johnson Circus and had to leave for California shortly and to come get his elephant. To my surprise he called Charlie Germaine and booked her with Miller-Johnson as well, so I took her with us on a season that included unanticipated stipends for both John and myself. In the program we worked "Anna May" and Barbara's number in the first half and in the elephant display Oscar Cristiani was in the center, Smokey and Kari worked "Anna May" in a brief routine in Ring 1 while "Billie" and I did astonishing feats in Ring 3. So to sum it up, I did very well that year and John did even better winding up with a free elephant. I might add that during our first day in San Bernardino a meeting was called and Charlie introduced everyone to the new owner of the show, Clifford E. Vargas.