Thursday, December 22, 2005

Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus 1931


But all things pass and now the Wallace Show elephant men (including Arky Scott standing to the right of the girls) are Chinese.
The two male elephants are "Prince" and "Tommy" (one tusk).

Posted by Buckles at 12/22/2005 06:39:00 AM

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is that the Prince who went to the San Diego zoo and then died there not too long afterward?
Any you guys watch that movie
CLIVE OF INDIA?
It has in it Prince,Tommy
and Joe I believe from the AL G. Barnes herd.
TCM(Turner Classic Movies channel) shows it all the time,but I keep missing it.I dont think its on video.

28 December, 2005 14:42
Buckles said...

You are right.
The Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus carried 31 elephants in 1934 and at the close of the season 11 were shipped to the Barnes quarters in Calif. including 4 males Tommy, Prince, Charlie Ed and Joe.
This gave Walter McLain 27 elephants to make the movie you mentioned.
However the male that was added to the Barnes herd was Tommy not Joe, along with 3 females Topsy, Sparks Mary, and Wallace Modoc.
The other 7 remained in quarters and were mostly scattered around and as you say Prince wound up in the San Diego Zoo where he surprisingly drowned in the elephant swimming pool shortly after arrival.

28 December, 2005 15:35
Anonymous said...

What info do you have concerning Tommy's background before joing the Hagenbeck-Wallace show?

31 December, 2005 15:06
Anonymous said...

The big male "Vance" was reportly
the only male that was touring with the AL G. Barnes show in 1934.

31 December, 2005 15:07
Buckles said...

TOMMY

1922 Imported by the American Circus Corp. in 1922 in a herd of 12 young elephants.

1922-28 Sells-Floto Circus
1929-34 Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus
1935 Al G. Barnes Circus

Shipped to Peru from the Barnes Show along with Vance following the death of one of the elephant men by Vance.
Both elephants shot in August by order of Sam Gumpertz.

31 December, 2005 15:21
Anonymous said...

Dear Mr Woodcock,
I have a photo-copy of an article that appeared in the Peru Daily Tribune, dated 22. August.1935,
which was published just after Tommy was executed(shot several times by the Peru police chief with a 45.70 Martin high-powered rifle).
The article says that Tommy was a "5-tons and 35 years old" imported in 1913(or maybe 1918,the phot-copy type looks a little blurred,but it looks like 1913)
by Bert Bowers for the Hagenbeck-Wallace show.
There's no telling how accurate the newspaper account is though of course.

31 December, 2005 16:12
Buckles said...

My dad was on the H-W Show in 1922 working for Bert Noyes. They had 12 elephants 10 females and 2 males "Louis" and "Diamond" both came from Hall.
"Louis" in 1913 right after the flood and "Diamond" along with three females from Hall in 1916. So this might lead to some confusion in the papers.
The latter male (one tusk) is not to be confused with "Black Diamond".

31 December, 2005 16:33
Anonymous said...

Maybe the HW Tommy had a different name in 1913?
Also wasnt there a Tommy with the Atterbury show in 1919,that died from stepping on a rusty nail?
From what I rember that Tommy had been with the John Robinson show around 1907.
INMOP,is it possible that Tommy may have been Tommy Lockhart that was one of the three males with Prof. George Lockharts elephant act that appeared with the Ringling show around 1900 and disbanded around 1903?

31 December, 2005 17:00
Anonymous said...

MR. Woodcock,I'll type out the entire newspaper article about Tommy in Peru Indiana next week here if you are interested.Its a interesting article.

31 December, 2005 17:03

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