Sunday, December 04, 2005

Australian engenuity #2


Here we see "Alice" stepping down from the end of the flat car to the bull tub. The braking power is supplied by a girt strap behind her fore legs otherwise the load would push the harness right over her head.

On the Ringling Show I had two elephants "Minyak" and "Barbara" that pulled floats around in "Spec" carrying kids from the audience. They didn't have brakes either so we used the same method but it was concealed beneath their spec blankets.

Posted by Buckles at 12/04/2005 07:23:00 AM

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm impressed. She must have been the hardest working bull in show business. I wonder if the show successfully used this system with other bulls before Alice?

04 December, 2005 10:30
Buckles said...

I couldn't say.
Other Wirth pictures from Covington taken in the 1960's show 11 elephants on the lot and also loaded in elephant cars with no roof.

04 December, 2005 10:50
Anonymous said...

Don Covington said...

These0.... photos are from an excellent book by the Australian circus historian Jim Fogarty. His book, "The Wonder of Wirths" discusses the history of the show from 1880 to 1963.

According to the book, Wirth's first elephant was named Gunna Sah and arrrived from Java in 1900 with a handler who had worked with her when she was involved in logging operations. Gunnah Sah was described as remarkably intelligent and gentle and was quickly trained by the mahout to load and unload wagons from the train using the same commands and skills that she was familiar with in the logging industry.

A second elephant, Princess Alice, was purchased in 1902 from the same source. Already a mature elephant at that time, she was known to be extremely intelligent and a hard worker. Gunnah Sah's mahout quickly taught her the business of unloading the train and spotting wagons. The skills came in handy, as Gunna Sah died the following year and Princess Alice (now known as "Alice") took over, not only as the circus' work elephant, but as the matriarch of a growing herd of performing bulls.

It was said that Alice remembered the location of the water tanks in every town that the circus visited and would lead the herd to water as soon as they were unloaded. If there was a tap, she would know how to work it, turn it on when she arrived and turn it back off when she had drunk her fill.

During the war, Wirth's train was taken over for military use. So, in 1940, Alice and six other elephants walked the 600 miles from Melbourne to Sydney. The trip took 32 days as the show played cities and towns along the way. Overflow crowds filled the tents each day.

Alice passed away in 1956 on the last day of the Easter season engagement. She was estimated to be well over 60 years old at the time. Her death was mentioned in every newspaper in Australia and thousands of letters and telegrams of sympathy were received by the circus.

Copies of Jim Fogarty's book are available from the author:
Jim Fogarty
Box 774
Penrith NSW
2751 Australia

Don Covington

05 December, 2005 01:34

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