Red Show Rehearsal #15

Red Show Rehearsal #16

Red Show Rehearsal #17

1973 Gran Circo London #1 (From Buckles)

This is actually a continuation of yesterday's Blog. At the close of the 1972 season we camped out on the Carson & Barnes lot in Texas on the way home and wound up making a deal with the Padillas's who had purchased three elephants from D.R. "Mary", "Penny" and "Blondie" and leased two smaller ones "Bunni" and "Betty". We wound up being included in the deal to look out for D.R. interest and incredibly Ben showed up with the Kellner elephants "Sue", "Lovie" and "Jackie" and off we went to Mexico with nine elephants and a scruffy kid  from the show named Gary. We made a street parade thru each town on opening day and it was impressive but business was light and by February Ben had returned his three to James Bros. and Eddie Kuhneman took "Bunni", "Betty" and the lion act back to Hugo reducing the herd to four. It wasn't long until "Mary" and "Blondie" were sold to an Animal Park in Puebla for $10,500 I was told, leaving me with "Anna May" and "Penny" to take care of.

1973 Gran Circo London #2

1973 Gran Circo London #3

1973 Gran Circo London #4

1973 Gran Circo London #5

1973 Gran Circo London #6

1973 Gran Circo London #7

1973 Gran Circo London #8

Kenneth remained good to his word all three gentlemen returned as promised (sans Feld Sr.) and we made a deal in the Holiday Inn restaurant despite being kicked on the ankle repeatedly by Mrs. Woodcock during the money part. No contract was offered which I would later regret. Kenneth then mentioned that we were only the second act he had ever hired, the first had been a European act of some sort that his father despised. I was instructed to be at the Venice Quarters in November and so it went.

1973 Gran Circo London #9

1973 Gran Circo London #10

40 Years Ago! #1 (From Buckles)

1972 was quite a year. It began with me receiving $10,000 cash from D.R. Miller to purchase the MGM elephants from the Strates Shows which is a story in itself. During our conversation I mentioned that John Cuneo was flying me up to Boston to look at an elephant at Southwick's and he said if they had any more for sale let him know. Before long a cattle trailer arrived with four young elephants two females and two males. The female was Cuneo's and already named "Popsicle" which I quickly changed to "Billie" for my sister in law who lived across the road. She was the largest and somewhat trained but John said he wanted me to add a hind leg walk and one foot stand which I did. D.R. then called to ask if I would put a 3 act together with his three but I explained the female (Tina) was very small and still on a bottle but I did what I could with the two males "Kelly" and "Ted" (Ted Bowman). I had mentioned to Mr. Cuneo that we had "Anna May" booked with Miller-Johnson that year and to my surprise he called back saying he had just talked to Charlie Germaine and "Billie" had been added to my contract. So to make a long story longer, with the extra stipend for both parties, I received an unexpected bonus and John wound up with a free elephant. These pictures were taken on the Carson & Barnes lot on our way to California.

40 Years Ago #2

40 Years Ago! #3

More Macon Winter Quarters #1 (From Hal Guyon)

Attached are some pictures of the old Sparks WQ building in Macon taken in 2010.

More Macon Winter Quarters #2

More Macon Winter Quarters #3

More Macon Winter Quarters #4

Photo of the inside of the old round Sparks Bldg at Central City Park.