Ringling-Barnum 1953/ Herd on the way to the lot

Arky Scott riding Walter McLain's former horse "Harold". Benny White riding "Topsy" in front. The seven punks are "Tex", "Padmuh", "Tara", "Yamina", "Rani", Sita" and "Rajee" all named by Louie Reed. Immediately behind them is the young African "Emily". These seven punks were trained the previous summer by Louie Reed and assisted by Smoney Jones in Sarasota while the show was on the road. During this process the little elephants will invariably begin to rely on their trainer for security and any immediate change can cause problems. I think that even the mighty Ken & Nicole Show has finally arrived at that conclusion. When the show arrived in Sarasota, Arky, for some reason immediately excluded Mr. Reed and Smokey and the die was cast. By the time the picture above was taken the act "the 7 wonders" was pretty much in shambles. As the show traveled West that season they showed LaCrosse, WI on Aug 6 and by chance we were appearing with our family elephant act in front of the grandstand at the local Fair. I never got a chance to see their performance because our show times conflicted but I did watch the herd unload and march to the lot. I hung around long enough to catch the Side Show before I left. When I got back to the Fairgrounds I was surprised to see my dad talking with Noylles Burkhardt, Arky and his assistant Henry Demuth. I later learned that Mr. Concello had authorized them to make my dad an offer to come on the show and his only job would be to straighten out the little elephants for Arky. My dad then explained that he was part owner in our elephant act, this being made possible by D.R. Miller and the deal was etched in stone however to thank Mr. Concello for the offer. I personally thought that a dreadful error had been made, since at 18, I thought a closer examination of those show girls might well be in order. The picture below shows my father visiting Arky the next year in Chicago but by then Hugo Schmitt had been offered the same job and had accepted, after 4 years with the Mills Show he was back in the fold.