Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Seils-Sterling Circus #4


This "Lucy' could be a pretty tough customer, you may notice she has a "club foot". The lady at right is Verna Lindeman.
Smokey Jones knew her well from the Dailey Show and commented that "Lucy" was the most clever elephant he was ever around, someone had taught her a lot of mundane things like folding up baling wire, taking off a persons hat and gently replacing it, etc. He said Art Eldridge once saw him demonstrating this feat and said "Hell I go back 20 years with that elephant" where upon he threw down his Panama hat and said "Pick it up!" "Lucy picked it up and ate it.
She could be very treacherous, they knew that if you got too rough with her in the act she would simply back up to the back of the ring and square off, you had no choice but to quickly go to the next trick and she would be all right. The same when working her in harness in a team, she was always the off-lead and if you attempted to pull more then she cared to pull she would reach up and knock you off the lead elephant.

LUCY

1918-19 Hall's Farm
1920-23 Campbell Bros. 2 Car Show
1924 J.H. Berry Independent Act
1925-30 Kay Bros. Circus (Wm. Ketrow)
1931-38 Seils-Sterling Circus
1939-41 Lincoln Park Zoo Los Angeles
1942 Jack Joyce Independent Act
1943-44 Clyde Beatty-Russell Brtos. Circus
1945-50 Dailey Bros. Circus
1951-56 Cappell Bros. Circus
1957-58 Gran Circo Union (Mexico)
(Died in Jan. of 1958)

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

She did not stay with one show for very long did she? She sure was chubby. Very pretty head.

Anonymous said...

I read a note from an animal rights person that No elephants with their trunk up will be accepted for auction on ebay. What is THAT problem. They should be grateful for anything they get. Beggers can't be choosers.

Buckles said...

Are you talking about live elephants?
I have always heard that statues or carved elephants, trunked up are good luck.

Anonymous said...

Statues. I could not figure this reasoning. I have a collection of elephants and most of them are trunk up. I have so many I had to start collecting just a mother and calf elephant. Now that I think of it I don't remember having one with trunk down.

Anonymous said...

It just dawned on me that the elephants could be with the same show as the shows changed names and owners. They all look so healthy and happy so it must not have done any harm. I have never seen a skinny or crippled animal on any circus. Candy the zebra that was in my cage act had to have stitches on his forhead as he tried to get frisky with the female zebra in a tight place. At the time I thought it was a bad idea to have him in the same stall with the female. It made he ornery to work with in the show. I did not know at the time DR was trying to make a baby zebra.

Anonymous said...

How did her foot get that way?
Did she break it running along
the railway tracks?
Also there was another
female elephant named "Lucy",
around that time.
She was with
the Elmer Jones 2-car show.
They sold her to the Bedford zoo
in Manchester New Hampshire in
Fall of 1930.
She attacked her keeper there and almost killed him ,so they shot her in 1932.
Four marksmen with high powered rifles with one volley.Lucy was approx.35 years old.

Anonymous said...

You are born with a club foot. Why did the zoo wait two years before killing the elephant? Must be another reason they shot her. She could have been suffering and they put her out of her misery. They probably didn't have tennis shoes in those days like a sanctuary is putting on elephants. Hope they don't shoot Delhi. I guess they oxidise them now.

Buckles said...

Rebecca is right "Lucy" was born with a club foot.
I have a picture of the "Lucy" you mantion after having been shot at the Bedford Zoo with a bunch of Zoo people standing around the carcass.

Anonymous said...

The Lucy of this photograph,is the one that George"Slim"Lewis,mentions in his book ELEPHANT TRAMP.
It was killed in January 1958,when the truck it was in went over a cliff in Guadalajara, Mexico.
He says it wasnt uncommon for really dangerous circus elephants to be sold to Mexican circusus.
R.L

Anonymous said...

What type of circus acts did Lucy do with her foot that way anyway?

Anonymous said...

We did not tell the elephants they were not perfect. She did not know she was crippled. She would do everything like the other elephants. Loved every minute of it or she would not have done the act.

Anonymous said...

Well,from what I understand(back in the old days)Circus' prefered not to have a elephant in the line-up that had some obvious defect,due to the fact thats what the public would rember about the herd ,20 near perfect elephants,they rember the one that
wasnt near perfect.
Also is it known for sure if Lucy was born with a club foot?
Maybe her foot was crushed when she was younger and it doubled its size due to bone spurs(anklyosis)
Seems to me a elephant born that way,would not last very long in the wild.

Anonymous said...

Also,I might add,in George"Slim"Lewis's 1955 book ELEPHANT TRAMP,he has a whole chapter about lucy(chapter 5,Learning lessons from Lucy)
He makes no mention of Lucy's foot.
He does however rember and mentions that the Gustavian Familys elephant,"Rubber"had one eye,and that Honest Bill Newton's elephant"Tex" had long tusks.

Anonymous said...

In a May 20, 1929 newspaper article fom the New Castle (Pa.) News, William Peters (Ketrow) said he had Lucy so well trained that she was really a pet and followed him around without a chain or leash.