This is the elephant herd of which you inquired the following year 1930.
In the center are my Father, Charles "Front Door" Morgan and Elephant Supt. Clyde "Highpockets" Baudendistl who presented the three elephant acts.
The one-tusker at left is "Charlie Ed" and the big male is "Young Snyder".
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Friday, August 07, 2015
To Harry Kingston
William Woodcock Sr. #1
My father in 1904 with his adopted parents Charles and Matte Woodcock from Hot Springs, Arkansas at their winter residence in Portales, New Mexico.
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William Woodcock Sr. #3
....and as most well adjusted adopted children do, he ran away and joined a circus!
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William Woodcock Sr. #4
 "These three elephants would have come from Hall's Farm where I was later born. My father named "Anna May" after the silent movie actress Anna May Wong (whom he said had hair the color of the "raven's wing") and would later carry Clyde Beatty's riding tiger." |
William Woodcock Sr. #11
The astute observer will note the buckled restraining device as I checked out the routes in the Billboard.
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Thursday, August 06, 2015
To Bob Swaney
In 1971 I got a call from D.R Miller asking me to run up to the Strates Quarters and check out the MGM elephants "Happy", "Sally" and "Queen" as he was interested in buying them.
So I drove up there and went straight to Steve Fanning then tipped him off and asked if this would make any problems for him and he said, "Hell No! Glad to get them out of here!"
So a few days later I receive a dollar sized package bearing 100 brand new $100 bills and not long after that a bull truck pulls up bearing John Carroll and a driver then back to Strates we go.
I remembered Louis Stern once saying that when he sold these elephants to Strates it took a year to get his money.
So as instructed, I asked Mr. Strates if he could come down on the price a little and he replied, "When I say ten thousand, I don't mean $9,999 or $10,001...I mean ten thousand!"
I dropped the package on the desk and couldn't resist saying, "Here it is and you won't have wait a year like Louie Stern did when he sold them to you."
Lucky I didn't get whacked. |
"Tommy"
I visited the Cristiani Show in 1957 while they were playing the Soldier Field parking lot, filling the void after the Ringling Show had moved indoors.
The Diano animals were leased that season and the show was quite impressive. |
Wednesday, August 05, 2015
Relating to Picture #7 below!
Diano Bros. Street Parade 1953.
On the way back to the lot, Jimmy Kaaro riding one of Tony Diano's Africans.
Barbara said that these events were especially grueling since she was nursing Ben at the time.
This Show Biz is all right! And on a somewhat related matter, Grandson Patrick just told me he got a job driving an Ambulance while he attends College here in Tampa. |
Tuesday, August 04, 2015
Weigh In's #1
There was a Truck Stop right across the highway from Circus World where we would weigh the elephants from time.
Here we are lining up for such an event.
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