 |
Wednesday, October 08, 2014
Tuesday, October 07, 2014
1994-95 Blue Show #1
This was the transport vehicle that gillied the two mother elephants "Alana" and "Icky" with their calves "Romeo" and "Juliet" to and from the arenas in 1994.
|
1994-95 Blue Show #9
At the conclusion of the '94 season the show camped at the Fairgrounds in Orlando giving me two weeks to get the little elephants weaned, their mothers sent home and basic training.
I changed Romeo's name to "Ted" but it for some reason it didn't stick.
|
1994-95 Blue Show #11
With their mothers gone we got rid of the big pen and I had a deck built for them to stand on.
One day Erik Jaeger stopped by and snapped this picture of his son who must be close to 25 now.
They now marched back and forth from the lot to the cars with their adopted mothers "Siam" and "Anna May" and as my father used to say....."to see what the world contains beside themselves!"
|
1994-95 Blue Show #12
This picture taken during our last days on the show close to time for me Shannon and "Anna May" to get back to our day jobs with Big Apple.
|
Monday, October 06, 2014
1994 Blue Show #12
1994 was the year that the spec was built around the baby
elephants “Romeo and Juliet.”
|
1994 Blue Show #20
1994 was also the first year I saw an
electric fence being used to corral groups of elephants so that the public could
see them unchained. (The chain link
fence in front was there to keep the public back.)
|
"Tommy"
"I hate onions, always have, when I was a kid I remember my father saying, "Buckles when you grow up, you will discover how delicious they can be on a cheeseburger!"
One of two statements that never came true, the other was "Mark my words, one of these days "Tommy" will blow up and hurt somebody!"
I wonder how many people posed for a picture with this gentle giant during his lifetime?
|
Sunday, October 05, 2014
1994 Blue Show #1 (From Eric Beheim)
The very last time I worked for Ringling was in
1994. That was the first year the show
was using its own self-contained band, which traveled as part of the
company. To ease the “sting” on local
musicians, the circus hired 5 local “standby” musicians who got paid just to
show up and be on hand. (I think this
arrangement lasted for two years.) Anyhow, I was called as one of the
standbys. Once the show started, we were
free to watch the performance, read a book, write letters, etc. I liked to spend my time by the back door
watching the animals – especially the elephants – having their blankets put on
and being led in and out of the arena.
On several occasions I brought along my camera. (This was back when they
still let you take photos out in the backyard.) I was using a 35mm Stereo
Realist camera, which takes large-format stereo (3-D) photos. (Once when I was standing at the backdoor
with my camera, Kenneth Feld arrived from the airport. As he walked passed me, he did a double take
at my camera with its two lenses.) That
was over twenty years ago! Some of these
photos were the very first ones I submitted to Buckles to post on the Blog. Recently, I re-scanned all 20 images and also
cropped them to improve their appearance. Buckles should be able to provide
information as to who and what is being shown.
|
1994 Blue Shoe #8
This shows how the platform was used when Tommy/King
Tusk’s blanket was put on. Speaking of
Tommy, at one performance, I was standing at the backdoor talking with Buckles
when he was led out of the arena after making a circle of the track. He was brought to a stop only a few feet from
us and as he stood there (within easy striking distance of me!) I remember
looking around to check for possible avenues of escape. Right behind me was a large float that was
built too low to the ground to crawl under and too high to jump up onto. Not wishing to appear the coward, I continued
to stand there next to Buckles, who probably noticed the involuntary shudder
that ran through my body. Fortunately,
Tommy didn’t go “Black Diamond” on me, and was eventually was led away. I like to watch elephants, but not quite so
close!
|
1994 RBBB Elephants
The last four on the Blue Show were privately owned, Patti Zerbini owned "Luke" and the final three were Chipperfield elephants.
|
Saturday, October 04, 2014
Dailey Bros. #1 (From Barbara Woodcock)
 |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)