Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Barnum & Bailey elephant herd/ European tour


Surprising how the Barnum elephants have developed a life of their own on this Site. I'll answer all yesterday's questions here as well as I can.
They took 18 elephants to Europe, 10 large and 8 small. Of the three men in the lighter uniforms, the one at left is William "Elephant Bill" Newman and the one in the center is George Bates standing next to "Mandrin". There were 4 big males "Fritz" at left is easy to spot, at the extreme left partially hidden is another tusker "Don Pedro" and the 4th male "Nick" was tuskless. All four of these males died in Europe
Among the 6 females were "Gyp" (Gypsy) dating back to the early 1870's with P.T. Barnum as well as "Babe" and "Columbia" the latter now is 18 years old.
The punks were "Pilate" (male), "Chief" (male), "Queen", "Juno", "Coco" (tuskless male), "Bessie", "Mary" and "Ruth" (yes this is "BabyRuth" later owned by Wm. Hall). These young elephants were added in the early 1890's and not to be confused with Pilate, Chief, and Queen of the 1880's.
As regards to Cooper & Bailey in Australia the 1877 Route Book states: "Titania" presented by Prof. Geo. W. Johnston. That same year a Melbourne program has: "Betsey" trained by Charles Warner. Again in 1878 we see: "Titania" presented by George Johnson. This man Johnson was later Menagerie Supt. with B&B in the 1880's.
I get the feeling that Cooper & Bailey only had one elephant in Australia and her name was "Betsy" and her stage name "Titania".

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I visited the Kelly Miller Circus in Troy IL yesterday and have a wonderful time . For some reason I always thought when an elephant was named it was for life and no other elephant could be named that same name. Have no idea where I got this idea. I REALLY enjoyed riding an elephant again after all these years, Tom and Cindy Wells were just wondeful to my friend Kathy and I. I cried when I had to leave and get back to my NORMAL life. This was a very nice small circus. Everything looked fresh and new. Usually a circus starts to show wear and tear at the end of the season. Thanks to the circus that made us both feel welcome, Cathy could not believe they let her ride an elephant. I made her do a Barbara/Babe style after the ride. The camel ride was a first for me. 44 years is a long time between visits. I will not let that happen again.

Buckles said...

Rebecca, you are late this morning, I'll bet you overslept.
Too excitement on the Kelly Miller lot.

Anonymous said...

There is a time difference between our states. 7 there is 6 here. I was up at 5 as I had to get a pet ready to go to MO to have her stitches removed after knee replacement surgery. It an hour drive one way. It is true that a circus makes one feel like a kid again. We took three cameras and extra film. Like you quoted Kirk Douglas. "what the F happened" No way will I send the pictures to anyone. Some how a 63 year old posing on an elephant is not a pretty sight. I look like everyones grandmother. No way can I make silver hair look like a platium(sic) blond.

Anonymous said...

I think Rebecca meant to say "Roy" and Cindy Wells. John Goodall

Anonymous said...

See how excited I get talking about my circus day. Roy was wonderful and I felt like I had met everyone before. Just like old friends. Sometimes I forget my own name.

Anonymous said...

I read somewhere where Cooper&Bailey took six elephants on their 1877-1878 tour to New Zealand,Australia,Java,India,China and South America,a jouney of 76,000 miles.
One of the elephants was"Prince",a fine a large elephant about 3.5 tons,Prince later died in Hamilton Ontario with the Barnum&Bailey show in July 1883.

Anonymous said...

The famous elephant trainer
George M. Bates considered Mandarin,the worst elephant ever brought to America.
However Mandarin did the yeomans work of the Barnum herd.
Whens he was killed and sent to the bottom of New York Harbour
off Sandy Hook New Jersey in November 1902,he was reportly worth twelve thousand dollars(thats 1902 American dollars).

Anonymous said...

I counted 15 names you had listed,what where the other 3
elephants?