Thursday, November 24, 2005

Clyde Bros. Circus (Howard Suesz)


Rex Williams gave me this, knowing I collect such things but I forget the date and circumstances. Seems like he said the act was booked in Hawaii with Fernandez when this picture was taken in either 1961 or 62.
Rex would use artist's chalk to decorate the elephants "Mary". "Sue" and "Ruth". He usually drew flowers and tic-tac-toe but on days like today he would draw jack-o-lanterns, etc.

Posted by Buckles at 11/24/2005 06:28:00 AM

7 comments:

Bob Cline said...

Happy Thanksgiving Buckles and family! I hope you have grand day with them all. Thanks for making all of us a part of your life. Your historical notes are fascinating and brings back some great memories for some of us as well. Got to work at 4:30 this morning trying to get the day over with and home before noon. This is a great way to start the morning. Again, you are another one of the many things I give Thanks for this holiday season. Best to you and yours,
Bob

24 November, 2005 06:42
Anonymous said...

From the Nov. 18,1950 Billboard--
R.R. RATES PUT DAILEY TRAIN IN SCRAP YARD.
Michaels Company Gets 28 Cars;
No Showmen as Possible Buyers.

24 November, 2005 10:44
Anonymous said...

From the Nov. 25,1950 Billboard--
BULL MARKET LIVELY;
Ringling-Barnum reportedly will puy about 15 elephants on the market. Dailey Bros. may sell part of its collection. Both King Bros. and Mills Bros. have announced they contemplate major additions to their elephant line-ups.

24 November, 2005 10:50
Anonymous said...

I went down to the CSX railyards in Tampa and observed the unloading of the Ringling train. Also, the elephant walk. There were 9 elephants in the herd.
There were 4 new sleepers waitng for the show when they arrived in Tampa. It took about 5 hours for the CSX train crew, along with the Ringling train crew to reposition these new sleepers amongst the excisting train, and spot all cars in their approiate postions. I'll have to go back and take another count of the cars, but it seems to me that there are over 30 sleepers.
Jim

24 November, 2005 11:00
Buckles said...

This is an interesting article, the Ringling Show only had 28 elephants when it appeared and two of them were owned by Baptiste Schrieber.
Shortly afterward while the show was in Havana, one of those died "Manula" and the other "Lelabardi" and a Ringling elephant "Minnie" went to the Mills Show.
Concello eliminated one of the elephant cars off the train but Arky managed to get the remaining 25 into two cars. Also gone in 1951 was the menagerie tent.

24 November, 2005 11:10
bailey said...

Hello
hows it going there

30 November, 2005 04:41
Mary Sue Suesz Sagor said...

Buckles, what a nice surprise to see daddy's elephants, which were named after my grandmother MARY, my mother, RUTH, and me, SUE - I remember when we got them, they were shorter than me-and I was less than 5' tall!
They had many trainers through the years. I don't remember Rex Williams being married to the girl using the name Gina. I believe she was one of the Dubskis, a multi-talented family who also worked for daddy for a number of years. I admit, I could be wrong about that, as it was over 40 years ago, but I believe that's the way it was.
As for being on the Ed Sullivan show: my dad was good friends with Sullivan and we frequently booked acts on the show: sometimes animals, sometimes acrobats, aerialists, or jugglers. I got to meet some of the stars he hosted, Connie Francis and Jay North (Dennis the Menace) among them.
I am glad you have this website, it keeps daddy alive! Mary Sue Suesz Sagor

18 August, 2010 16:06

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)