Eliose Berchtold #3

These next two pictures were lifted from the 1954 Bailey Bros. and Cristiani Circus program. This is the first season after leaving Floyd King and the Cristianis had a Ball Park Show with Big Bob Sevens as partner and General Agent. If memory serves me correctly, they toured Alaska that year. For all these years I thought the bears did "iron jaw" as well but I now see that such was not the case.

Eloise Berchold #4

Eloise Berchtold #5

This is the article accompanying these two bear act photos in the program. A bit of a fire storm when I previously mentioned that they didn't use Eloise name. I'm well aware that when stock shots are used you might say "Circus Lovely with Bruno the Bear" but in this case we see a Cristiani truck in the background so they surely must have known who she was and since animals in the big cage is always a feature act, why Rahna Keo?

Al G. Barnes Circus 1937 Program #1

This is the same Al G. Barnes Circus as before however they tacked on the wonderful old "Sells-Floto" title for good measure despite the fact that the Floto Show had been terminated five years earlier.

Al G. Barnes Circus 1937 Program #2

Al G. Barnes Circus !937 Program #3

I'm sure a lot of you remember Harold "Tuffy" Genders at right who went on to become manager of the Ringling Show. In front is his wife Grace but I don't know the name of the catcher. The act is billed as "The Flying Artonys" so we know who got most of the money.

Al G. Barnes Circus 1937 Program #4

I believe this is an earlier Hagenbeck-Wallace photo with Horace Laird and "Kinko" in the back row and Poodles Hanneford and Earl Shipley in the center of the front row.

AlG. Barnes Circus 1937 Program #5

Caption on this picture is: "Daring, exotic, Amerika Olvera, internationally famous aerial marvel" and it looks like she means business.

Al G. Barnes Circus 1937 Program #6

I had the pleasure of meeting Bert Nelson in 1972 when we were out West with the Vargas Show. Parley Baer introduced us and we had dinner between shows, what a charming and classy gentleman.

Al G. Barnes Circus 1937 Program #7

This is an old Ringling-Barnum picture they rehashed for the program but is quite impressive if it's the first time you've seen it. Big crowd at the club last night, lasagna served in the dining room. I was seated next to Dr. Brown who is the new Director at the Circus World Museum. Highlight of the evening was the recognition of Mary Ruth Herriott's birthday. An added bonus was the late arrival of CHS members Fred Pfening, Paul Ingrassia, Steve Flint, Jim Elliott, John Goodall and my introduction to Bob Cline (all Blog Site contributors) whose Convention is day and dating us and will host the Sunshine Boys later this afternoon.

Besalou Elephants #1

The name for this elephant act was the combination of the owners names Bessie Polack and Louie Stern. Mr. Stern seen at right dockside during the arrival of his elephants in 1953 that were later moved across town to Louie Goebel's Animal Farm in 1000 Oaks for training. The man at left is Sam Ward one of the Polack Show's best promoters who handled the Medinah Temple date for many years. The act made it's debut the following winter amid much fanfare.

Besalou Elephants #2

Mac MacDonald presents his masterpiece. "Mary", "Jean", "Millie", "Betty", "Kathy" and "Opal" named for Peggy and Mac's friends such as Millie Ward, Betty Bell, Kathy Goebel and Opal Page. Not much dialogue required this morning, like all great acts, this one speaks for itself.

Besalou Elephants #3

Besalou Elephants #4

Besalou Elephants #5/ Peggy MacDonald and "Opal"

Tom Packs Elephans #1

This is Mac's third act, trained for the Tom Packs Circus the winter of 1948-49. By chance these elephants arrived by ship into New Orleans during Thanksgiving week of the 1948 Shrine Circus which was on the Tom Packs route. By now my father was working Mac's second act, the Bailey Bros. Elephants (later belonging to Caren Cristiani) and was appearing on the bill at the date. One day Jack Leontini comes to my dad explaining that the elephants had arrived and they had to be brought to the building, along with him was an Indian gentleman with a crisp British accent named Shondu-randivan who had been overseeing their voyage from India (my father later made the mistake of introducing him as a mahout and was immediately corrected with the explanation that he had received a College education and was by no means a "mahout" meaning someone who lived in the jungle with the elephants). The elephants unloading and movement to the building by real mahouts, is another involved story but in short, it was done and now Mr. Leontini was looking for a trainer. Right away my dad recommended Mac but for some reason he had gotten away from elephants and was now operating a Wild Life Show. After considerable effort Mac was finally located and flown into New Orleans but after seeing the punks he almost turned around and went back, they were skin and bones, infested with lice and internal parasites and to make matters worse, the one later named "Mary" had one leg slightly shorter than the other three, managed to navigate OK but had a noticable limp. Leontini and Mac finally made a deal but it was with the undersanding that the training be done in Florida. They ultimately decided on Capt. Hyer's place in Sarasota.

Tom Packs Elephants #2

"Alice", "Jean", "Mary" and "Penny" in the sitting long mount with "Tommy" out front. This picture was given originally to George Emerson but after the fact since Mac and Peggy left the Packs Show in 1953.

Tom Packs Elephants #3

Peggy MacDonald and "Tommy" on the handstand bottles. An example of an elephant's agility by managing to swap feet on such a small surface, doing foot exchanges as seen above and then closing with a hand stand, one front foot on each bottle.

Tom Packs Elephants #4

Tom Packs Elephants #5

Slivers and Jo Madison took over the Tom Packs elephants in 1953 and one of the first things he did was to retire "Mary" to the New Orleans Zoo since her limp was becoming more noticable. She was replaced by "Shirley". In 1956 the act was sold to Jungleland in 1000 Oaks where this picture was taken. Then sold to Rudy Bos. Circus in 1960 where they were worked by Arky Scott and finally to Circo Bells in Mexico in 1964.

To Mr. Hoffman

I never knew Remo Cristiani or his elephants, in fact I was surprised to find this picture. I introduced myself to him once and got the brush off for some reason, so all I know about "Sheba" is what I have in my files. My first record of her is 1959-60 with King Bros. Circus (Bob Snowden) no idea where he got her, then 1961-63 with Cristiani-Wallace Circus (Pete Cristiani) and finally to Remo from 1964 thru 1984 and no further record. The "Ramoni" you mention, I have with Mr. Cristiani 1977 thru 1982. Good luck in Houston.

Mac MacDonald #1

Among my dad's letters, he was asked who the best elephant trainer in America was and he replied "Mac MacDonald and Hugo Schmitt and the rest are a pretty sorry lot". I later worked for both men and have to give Mac the nod. His history spoke for him, his esteem was such that circus owners would buy complete herds for him and each bacame the top act of the day. Here he is pictured in 1944 on the Clyde Beatty-Russell Bros. Circus with Art Concello's five elephants "Daisy", "Margaret", "Elsie", "Dixie" and "Myrtle". His best remembered acts were Dolly Jacobs elephants "Modoc", "Empress" and "Judy" followed by the Bailey Bros. Circus elephants "Christy", "Carrie", "Babe" and "Shirley" (later became the Oscar Cristiani elephants), the Tom Packs elephants and finally the his mastepiece the Besalou Elephants for Polack Bros. Circus. I'll start off today with his first act in 1939.

Mac MacDonald #2

This would eventually become Mac's first act. Here they are seen on Cole Bros. Circus shortly after delivery in 1937 with Jimmy Reynolds and Eddie Allen. For some reason despite touring this season and the following 1938 season with Robbins Bros. they were never trained and sold to Bud E. Anderson in 1939. At this point Mac was Larry Davis' assistant on the Ringling Show and for all practical purposes ran the department. Unfortunately, when Walter MaLain took over in 1939 he brought Slivers Madison as his assistant and Mac managed to get a job with the Bud E. Anderson Circus who had just acquired the elephants pictured above now named "Modoc", "Empress" and "Judy".

Mac MacDonald #3

After leaving the Ringling Show his first job with completely green elephants was for Bud E. Anderson. This is the show's winter quarters in 1939 at Emporia, Kansas. "Modoc', "Empress" and "Judy" are the three in the center. Mac told me that despite coming from the Ringling Show he knew absolutely nothing about training an elephant. All he knew was how to handle the big ones. He tried elaborate rigging which for the most part failed and in desperation asked the horse trainer Matt Larish (the man in the suit above) for advice on some things and finally got the job done.

Mac MacDonald #4

Now on the road with his first graduating class flanked by "Gentry Babe" and "Eva" on the left and "India" at right in 1940. Following the '41 season "Modoc", "Empress" and "Judy" were sold to Terrell Jacobs.

Mac MacDonald #5

This is William Woodcock Sr. with the Terrell Jacobs Circus on the Conklin Shows in Canada 1942. My dad pointed out that whenever doing this cross mount "Empress" and "Judy" locked trunks as seen above and mentioned that even on his first elephants, MacDonald was always trying different things. I might add that this was Fred Logan's first circus, being a Canadian, he joined up as a teen-ager and worked for my dad. At the end of the season he stowed away in a shifting box and went to Peru.

Mac MacDonald #6

This is in Terrell Jacobs barn in Peru and shows his wife Dolly in practice with "Judy", "Modoc" and "Empress". At this point these three would run at the drop of a hat, "Modoc" took off in Peru and wandered around the countryside for a day or so. One morning a farmer awoke to see her standing in his field asleep, he approached her with a pitch fork and tried to chase her off but got kicked around for his effort. Later when Dolly had the act booked with Stevens Bros. Circus they had the elephants trucked down town each morning in the small communities where my dad would unload them along with a tub and do a few tricks right on the main street. Afterward he would stand on the tub himself and explain to the local citizenry the marvels they would see at the circus. One such day while making the speil he looked around to see the elephants, three abreast heading back to the lot, a local farmer delivering produce in his truck was approaching from the other direction and quickly made a U turn in an attempt to out run them. Could you imagine, that poor guy had probably made that delivery for fifty years and have this happen out of the blue.

More on California Bill

From: "Kelly, Mary Lou" Feld Entertainment, Inc. Subject: Update on California Elephant Bill (AB 3027) To Circus Fans and Supporters in California: A hearing was held on this bill (AB 3027) on Tuesday, April 25, in Sacramento. In addition to Ringling Bros., there was a great deal of opposition to the bill from zoos, veterinarians, organized labor, other exhibitors and venues and arenas who would be impacted. The bill would impose arbitrary space requirements and tool restrictions that are objectionable to the circus, other traveling exhibitors, and the zoos. This bill would still make it impossible for us to present our elephants in California and would force most zoos to either close their elephant exhibits or spend tens of millions of dollars. The bill was passed by the Assembly Public Safety Committee in a 5-2 party line vote. However, three of the "yes" votes said that in light of all the opposition, they would NOT vote for the bill on the Assembly Floor unless it was significantly changed to address the opposition from business, labor and the zoos, but voted yes as a "courtesy" to the sponsor. The bill now goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, where the economic impact becomes the focus. If this Committee passes the bill, it then goes to the full Assembly floor for a vote. We encourage all California Circus Fans and other supporters to contact their Assembly members and ask them to oppose the bill. The following two website links can help: California State Assembly website: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/defaulttext.asp (click on "Find My District" to find out who your state representative is): National Animal Interest Alliance alert (which includes a great template for drafting your letter or e-mail on this issue): http://capwiz.com/naiatrust/issues/alert/?alertid=8682791&type=ST&show_alert=1 Thank you to everyone that contacted the Public Safety Committee members prior to this week's hearing. We greatly appreciate your support and efforts, and we will keep you posted on further developments. Best regards, Mary Lou Mary Lou Kelly Grassroots Coordinator, Government Relations Feld Entertainment, Inc. Phone: (703) 448-4000, ext. 27238 E-mail: mkelly@feldinc.com

Robbins Bros. Circus Program 1938 #1

1938 was probably the worst year in circus history, the last season for Hagenbeck-Wallace and Al G. Barnes. Even the mighty Ringling Show folded in mid-season and had to re-group. Jess Adkins and Zack Terrell decided to take out a second unit that year and paid the price. They settled on the Robbins title for that show, a name that goes back to "Burr Robbins" in the 1800's and later "Frank A. Robbins". I was even on a "Robbins Bros. Circus" in 1949 owned by Bob "Catfish" Stevens and I recall that Jack Smith took a show out of Hugo using that title in 1965. The Cole Show didn't make the season and such features as Clyde Beatty were moved to this show to finish out the tour. If nothing else they had a nice colorful program cover.

Robbins Bros. Circus Program 1938 #2

Since the show was new, there probably were no pictures of it when the program went to press. With the exception of a portrait of Hoot Gibson, most were former Hagenbeck-Wallace pictures, Mr. Adkins had once been the manager of that show. This is an impressive photo. As they used to say in those days "Hold onto your hats!" because everyone wore one.

Robbins Bros. Circus Program 1938 #3

No idea who this pretty lady is.

Robbins Bros. Circus Program 1938 #4

A young Ernestine Clarke with Hagenbeck-Wallace about 1934.

Robbins Bros. Circus Program 1938 #5

Happy Kellems with statlets Francis Gifford and Ann Miller. Hap is listed in the program but this would be an earlier picturre with another show.

Robbins Bros. Circus Program 1938 #6

This is a classic Depression Era picture, since it was free everybody could afford it. Either H-w or RBBB.

The shoe is on the other foot.

Just received an eMail from a Mary Lou Kelly of Feld Entertainment in regard to the impending Legislation in California that would , for all practical purposes, end peforming elephants in that state. She concludes by saying: "We encourage all California Circus Fans and other supporters to contact their Assembly Members and ask them to oppose the Bill". I will certainly do all I can and urge others to do the same. I will ask Shannon to put the complete message on the Blog this afternoon but I must ask, " Where was Ms Kelly when the members of the Circus Historical Society, soon to hold their Annual Convention in Florida, asked permission to tour the Elephant Stud Farm recently?'.

Downie Bros. Circus 1927

Joe Gilligan and Arky Scott with "Teddy", "Tena" and "Babe".

Downie Bros. Circus

This show was one of the earliest successful truck shows and toured from 1926 thru 1939, the last eight years owned by Charlie Sparks. This currier is dated 1929 when Downie still owned the show. My Dad once said that when he was with Sells-Floto the standing joke about these up and coming Mud Shows was that at least they didn't have to pay the Railroads to move and in a pinch, all they had to do was siphon gas out of some Suckers car to get to the next town.

Andrew Downie

Mr. Downie (McPhee) came from a Rep Show background and was half owner of the Downie & Wheeler Circus 1911-13, later was full owner of a show he named after his wife, LaTena Circus 1914-17 (Barbara's father Ruben Ray was with this show) and from 1918-24 leased the Walter L. Main title. When he sold out in in 1925 he had an outstanding elephant act (put together by Bill Emory) which he sold to 101 Ranch Wild West and from that time on was referred to as the "Ranch Herd" "Babe", "Carrie", "Louie", "Joe" and "Jean".

Downie Bros. Circus/ Big Show Band

Perfect size band for a show this size. I wonder if they had an air calliope in the bandstand?

Downie Bros. Circus/ Animal pictures

Most of these pictures are stock shots but I believe the man with the leopard is Frank Phillips and the elephant is "Teddy" pictured with Frank "Whitie" Creamer. A note to Darryl: When Downie framed this show in 1926 he assembled three elephants "Babe", "Teddy" and "Tena" this is the same Teddy as in your picture taken with Bob Good and Tena the same elephants Rebecca remembers from Kelly-Miller.

Downie Bros. Circus/ Jimmie Walters

This act was billed as "The Frog Man" but in the business it was called aerial contortions.

Downie Bros. Circus/ Karl Larkin Duo

When we had our elephants on the Fair routes in the 1950's, there was no end of unique acts like this. Where did they all go, Las Vegas?

Downie Bros. Circus/ Aerialist Teresa Morales

Downie Bros.Circus/ Full cast and company

Are there this many people with the "Incredible Shrinking Show" these days? On that subject, do they have a group photo like this in the K&N program this season?

To Dick Dykes

The three little elephants with me are "Billie", "Teddy" (your Guffy) and "Tena" in 1972. We were on our way to California and had stopped on the Carson & Barnes lot in Texas to turn over the two smaller punks I had trained to Kenny Ikirt. The larger one Billie (I named her after my sister in law) was owned by John Cuneo and would continue on West with us and "Anna May". After staying with the show for a few days we camped at Gee Gee's place in Dallas where Smokey Jones joined our little caravan bound for the Miller-Johnson Circus. The first day after our arrival in San Bernadino, Charlie Germaine called a meeting of all performers and announced that he had just sold the show. I thought "My God, this after driving all the way from Florida?" but Charlie then said "All contracts will be honored and at this time I would like to introduce you to your new boss Mr. Clifford E. Vargas. Right away I contacted Chet Juszyk and Smokey made a deal to import a punk, which became the last of the $3,500 elephants "Tika". You are right "Teddy" remained with Carson & Barnes for about three seasons and was then sold to Mexico. "Tena" was sold to Cuneo the following year and appears in the recent photo of his 3-act worked by Darryl A. At the conclusion of the '72 season Mr. Cuneo picked up "Billie" (the first time he had seen her) and put her into his act where she became quite well known.

Ringling-Barnum Circus 1941 #1

Ringling-Barnum Circus 1941 #2/ It's all been done before

So, History repeats itself, here we see John Ringling North trying to re-invent the wheel by having Norman Bel Geddes re-design something that had been perfected over the past 100 years. After it was all said and done most of the innovations were either impractical, impossible or thrown off the train at night. In the final analysis, it spite of the fact that a lot of money was wasted, it was a great publicity gimmick and unlike today did not effect the "meat and potatoes" of the show, what the public paid to see, GREAT TALENT!".

Ringling-Barnum Circus 1941 #3/ Alfred Court

Ringling-Barnum Circus 1941 #4/ Lou Jacobs

Ringling-Barnum Circus 1941 #5/ Count Roberto De Vasconcellos

Ringling-Barnum Circus 1941 #6/ Elly Ardelty

Ringling-Barnum Circus 1941 #7 / The Yacopi Troupe

So in summation things havn't changed that much. The man who took his family to the circus wanted a bang for his buck, didn't plan on being enlightened or uplifted, wanted his kids to have a good time, wouldn't mind seeing a little cheesecake himself and even tho they had no intermissions in those days, he would have heard the announcer say "Now you have seen something!".