Thursday, February 09, 2006

"Mike" #1


This is the Adam Forepaugh & Sells Bros. United Shows elephant herd at the turn of the Century.
This story concerns the big male African elephant at right "Mike". In this picture he is only sporting a martingale but as time went on he required more hardware, yet dispite this difficulty he remained a feature.
The Ringlings bought this show in 1906 and Barnum & Bailey the following year. In 1908 a decision was made to close out 4-Paw-Sells and these elephants were absorbed into either the Barnum Show herd or the Ringling herd.
"Mike" was among the elephants sent to Barnum & Bailey where he was to be featured dispite an offer of $12,000 from the owners of the Sells-Floto Circus.
Unfortunately upon arrival in Bridgeport 12/19/07 "Mike" died as the result of a flash fire in the elephant car, the other elephants escaped injury.

Posted by Buckles at 2/09/2006 07:01:00 AM

12 comments:

GaryHill said...

Was Mike that big or were the asian's just short and stocky? That one handler next to him looks pretty tall himself compared to all the others. Gary

09 February, 2006 09:04
Buckles said...

In the 1905 invantory he was listed at 8'7" but two years later was advertised as 10'4".
Must have grown a lot in 2 years.

09 February, 2006 09:12
Anonymous said...

Anyone know what became of Mike's hide and skeleton after he died?
Presumably he was dissected at Bridgeport like a lot of other elephants.

09 February, 2006 16:54
Anonymous said...

I heard a elephant can grow 4 or 5 inches a year in its teens then it slows up after their early 20's,just like people.

09 February, 2006 16:55
Anonymous said...

could this be one of THOSE pictures? [doctored]

11 February, 2006 11:28
Anonymous said...

Is the elephant"Old Dick" in this photo?He was one of the original dancing Forepaugh elephants.
They had to kill him in Madsion Square Garden around 1901 I believe.

11 February, 2006 17:21
Anonymous said...

would you have the names,age and gender of all the elephants here
in the Forepaugh-Sells show?

11 February, 2006 18:12
Buckles said...

I'm not sure what year this picture was taken. The menagerie shot was 1900 and the herd that year was:

4-Paw- Sells (Bill Emery Supt.)
1. Sid (male)
2. Queen
3. Babe
4. Dutch
5. Mike (African male)
6. Topsy (African female)

7. Babe
8. Topsy
9. Rubber
10. Betts
11. Romeo
12. Columbia
13. John (male)
14. Boston (Imported in April)

When the two herds were merged the first 6 came from Sells Bros and the next 7 came from 4-Paw.

"Sid" killed boss elephant man Patsy Meagher while the show was in the Garden and Bill Badger (a black man) handled things until Emery Arrived.

11 February, 2006 18:37
Anonymous said...

What ever became of"Big Sid" anyway?
I had read conflicting accounts.
1)He was killed in Buffalo New York a few years later around 1904.
2)He was donated to the Cleveland Zoo.(who dont appear to have any record of him,however that may have been an older zoo in Cleveland before the present one was buildt,but I can find no record of another zoo.

11 February, 2006 18:46
Anonymous said...

I read where Big Sid killed Patsy Meager in the winter quarters in Columbus Ohio in December 1899.
They sawed his tusks off short and the tusks were on exhibit in the Sells mansion in Columbus Ohio(Im not sure if they still are).

11 February, 2006 18:48
Anonymous said...

Is that the "Boston" that ended up with the Lucky Bill Newton show in the 1920's?

11 February, 2006 18:51
Buckles said...

I have read in a NY newspaper about the death of Meagher by "Sid" Bill Badger was in charge at the time and while being interviewed kept repeating "Whatcha kill Patsy fer?
Badger went way back with Sid on the Sells Show to the days when they had an all black menagerie crew.

11 February, 2006 18:58

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