Thursday, February 11, 2016

Professor George Keller


Posted by Buckles at 2/11/2016 05:37:00 AM

3 comments:

Unknown said...

This photo appeared in the January 2, 1939 issue of LIFE magazine as part of an article on the various hobbies people engage in. The original caption reads as follows:

"George J. Keller of Bloomsburg, Pa., once wanted to be a lion tamer. He is now director of art at Bloomsburg State College. To make up for his lost ambition, he has collected albino animals, rare, white beasts with a deficiency in pigmentation. He also owns a few tame lions and tigers, but they are not albinos."

As shown in some accompanying photos, Keller’s collection of albino animals included an opossum, a groundhog, a skunk, a fox and a yearling deer. Does anyone know when George Keller started presenting his cage act professionally?

11 February, 2016 12:21
Billie Lou Henderson said...

George Keller was very nice and friendly (and dapper) on Don McCullough's Eagle's Circus in 1947. He became somewhat aloof in later years. We opened Jan. 5, 1947 in Dayton, Ohio advertised as the "first indoor circus to play in Memorial Hall in eight years." WWII you know. In those years following WWII the crowds were great as were the shows. It's all in Billboard on Google.
Billie

11 February, 2016 12:40
Billie Lou Henderson said...

Prof. Keller's ambitions may have been delayed, but they were not lost. There would have been a couple of extenuating conditions he ran up against. In the early 1940s amateur entertainers were not often hired on circuses etc. During WWII you had to prove that you were a professional independent entertainer to get enough gas. Even then it became harder to get gas and tires as rationing tightened. In early 1945 Pres. Truman announced that all efforts be dedicated to ending the war in Japan. That included all forms of transportation. The Lew Henderson family then joined Bailey Bros. Circus in the spring of 1945. Traveling entertainments such as the circus were allotted the necessities to stay on the road. Pres. Roosevelt had insisted on it.
Billie

11 February, 2016 17:16

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