Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Frank Buck #1


Frank (Bring 'em back alive) Buck was very famous as a result of the Travelogue Movies that featured him as trapper and importer of wild animals while on safari in Africa.
John Ringling North hired him in 1938 and featured him in a Spec with a jungle theme where he simply entered riding a double-howdah bourne by two elephants. The illusion was that he had just freshly returned from Safari with all these animals (a hippo and a giraffe had been trained to walk in this pageant) but all the animals were long time Ringling menagerie stock.

I had a glossy portrait like the one shown above autographed to my dad from Mr. Buck but I have misplaced it. More frustrating to me however is trying to figure out when their paths might have crossed.I don't recall him ever mentioning the incident.

Posted by Buckles at 3/29/2006 06:50:00 AM

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

If I'm not mistaken the same writer who assisted Mr Beatty with The Big Cage, and many years later Facing The Big Cats also ghosted Frank Buck's Bring'em Back Alive! The Buck books were certainly favorites of mine as a kid, as were the Beatty books, the books by Roy Chapman Andrews of the American Museum (the real Indiana Jones) and the books of Raymond Ditmars, Curator at the Bronx Zoo for thirty years. Later I learned that the closest Buck ever got to the Malay jungle was probably the bar of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, but that didn't really matter. Several generations of future scientists, bonehunters, conservationists, zookeepers, and animal trainers were influenced by those "adventure books" written by men who may have never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Books like that don't really exist today, and my own kids are poorer for it.

Ben Trumble

29 March, 2006 14:00
Bob Cline said...

Karen,
I've made a few inquiries already and hope to have an answer soon.
Bob

29 March, 2006 14:43
Bob Cline said...

Karen and all other Carolina area fans,
Cole Bros. Circus will be in Murrells Inlet April 3,4, and 5. They then go to Havelock, NC April 10 & 11. Their two elephants, Tina and Jewell are back on the show for the time being anyway. More show dates as I get them.
Bob

29 March, 2006 15:22
Anonymous said...

Karen. FLORA is at that sanctuary in TENN. Avery lonely elephant. They got her under false pretences from Mr Balwin who owned her and The Circus FLORA. He lives near here even closer to another circus nut. Flora was and is a very spoiled elephant. She can not get along with the other two elephants at the sanctuary so is alone most of the time. She was a very beautiful elephant and would have made a wonder breeder.I know a few of the people who worked with FLORA and have some stories to tell. I think Buckles even had something to do with her or was present at her training. He can probably tell you more about her.

29 March, 2006 16:32
Anonymous said...

Frank Buck, as told to me by a former employee, Tony Gentry, was known for remaining at base camp, drinking gin rickeys and playing with the native girls, while the real jungle boys went out and caught the animals. Tony said Buck was scared to death of wild stock. Once, in the Garden, a lion of Buck's got loose and everyone turned to look at Frank.
He said, "Damn, look at the time. Tony, go catch that lion. I gotta go do this radio show." And out the door he went. Whether or not there was a radio show for him, he returned when he heard the lion was safely back home.

It was Edward Anthony who wrote Buck's BRING 'EM BACK ALIVE and WILD CARGO. He also wrote THE BIG CAGE and FACING THE BIG CATS with Clyde Beatty. I met him when he and Mr. Beatty were finishing this last book, writing the captions for the pictures, in 1964, in the weeks just before Mr. Beatty began to notice symptoms that proved to be his cancer.

29 March, 2006 17:51
Anonymous said...

Karen Glenn ---

One of the very best books is Bill Ballantine's "Wild Tigers and Tame Fleas." Sections on Trevor Bale, Clyde Beatty, Pat Anthony. And ---the big Ringling herd of 50 elephants, watched over by Smokey Jones and Hugo Schmidt. Bill Ballantine makes everything so enjoyable, so entertaining. The book was written in the 50s. But it's still fresh and wonderful.
--- ToddP.

29 March, 2006 22:47
Buckles said...

I have several hundred circus books and my favorite is "Gus the Great" by Thomas W. Duncan and published by Lippincott.
I first read it out of curiosity since the main character Gus Burgoyne, was patterned after William P. Hall the owner of "Hall's cellar" where my father worked as elephant man for many years and where I was born in 1935.
Aside from that the story is engrossing.
Ivan Pawpacker closely resembles another well known circus owner of the day, Fred Buchanan. My father was on his show as well, Robbins Bros. Circus.

29 March, 2006 23:36
Anonymous said...

Ben, I just printed your piece on CFA. 11 pages. I read it and found it so interesting I had to have a copy. It is a wonderful artical. I never knew so many smart men were out there until this blog. I think you missed your true calling. I thought men just drank beer and belched while watching football on TV. All of you males on this blog are keepers and a credit to the human race.

30 March, 2006 03:03
Buckles said...

This is exactly what I have been explaining to my wife for 47 years but she blatantly refuses to listen.

30 March, 2006 06:35
Anonymous said...

OK Buckles, I sucked up. Now will you print my COOCH picture for Gary?

30 March, 2006 12:07
GaryHill said...

Dutchess, oh how I love you! Comeon Buckles we're all ready for more of Rebecca!

31 March, 2006 00:07
Anonymous said...

Alas Gary, That picture got lost. It wasn't that much. just a fun thing.

31 March, 2006 04:40
GaryHill said...

Oh now YOU are a tease!

31 March, 2006 09:02
Anonymous said...

Gary, I NEVER TEASE. Poop just happens. I would have been em[bare assed] anyway. I just love commenting with you. Wasn't the circus GRAND / Was Barbara on the show this season. I knew her when she was 14 years old. Never has changed. It always amazes me that when you meet old friends, your conversation picks up where it left off 30 years ago.

31 March, 2006 11:19
GaryHill said...

I thought that, that was what a "Cooch" Show was??? LOL!!!

31 March, 2006 17:52

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