Sunday, December 11, 2005

Baseball elephants #2


This is "Lena" winding up for the pitch. My dad said it was essential that the catcher be able to chatter so that after the first pitch she would approach the mound and talk it over with the pitcher. Not all elephants can do that while others might yak it up with the slightest provocation, it's all in their individual make up and personality.

Posted by Buckles at 12/11/2005 06:31:00 AM

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whatever became of "Lena"?
was she killed on the Yankee Robinson show?

13 December, 2005 18:11
Buckles said...

LENA
1900 Imported by Walter L. Main
1901-04 Walter L. Main Circus
1905-25 Powers Independent Act
1926-37 Bertram Mills Circus (England)
1938-43 Jeanette Powers Act
1944-49 Polack Bros. Circus
1950-55 Mills Bros. Circus
(Died in 1955)

13 December, 2005 19:26
Anonymous said...

Wasnt there a "Lena" with the Barnum&London show
back in 1882,when Jumbo was still with the show?
I wonder if this would be the same
Lena that Don Marcks lists
as being with the Kit Carson Buffalo show in 1912 and shot and killed on the Gillespie Bros.show in 1914?

17 December, 2005 17:04
Buckles said...

I don't have a "Lena" listed with Barnum & London but the elephant you discribe was imported to Ringling Bros. before the turn of the century and remained with that show thru 1909 and then was transferred to their #2 Unit 4-Paw-Sells in 1910-11 then sold to Wm, P. Hall in 1912.
Hall leased "Lena" to Kit Carson in 1912 and 13 then Gillisoie Bros. in 1914. I wasn't aware she had been shot but I'm not surprised since she was a chronic runaway.

17 December, 2005 17:59
Anonymous said...

hi,

I got this info from the Brooklyn eagle newspaper archives over at the Brooklyn public library web page.
article dated May.23.1882
"Jumbo-The English Elephant in Brooklyn.
It discribes the acts of the Barnum show,one act was the Hippodrome ,"Elephant Races',in which Lena and Nan made their way around the track at
"an almost incredible speed"(Nan won by a length).

17 December, 2005 19:34
Buckles said...

The Barnum office manager was a man named Bowser who entered the names and weights of the 13 elephants carried with the Barnum & London Show in 1881 and no "Lena" is listed or "Nan" for that matter.
In the morning you will see a picture of Gee Gee Engesser, Roman riding two horses at the Cole Show Winte Quarters in 1945. The Louisville newspaper called them "Tarzan" and "Silver" and in a telephone conversation this afternoon with Gee Gee she said those names were purely ficticious.

18 December, 2005 00:03

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