Friday, April 14, 2006

Elephant folks #3


This is Jimmy Cole with "Frieda" and the two punks he imported in 1947 "Elizabeth" and "Dorothy" for his James M. Cole Circus.
After taking his show off the road following the 1951 season he retained the elephants thru 1957 as an independent act that his son worked.

Posted by Buckles at 4/14/2006 06:50:00 AM

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Buckles;
What ever became of these three?
I am going to see Freddie this afternoon, will give you an update later, on his condition.

14 April, 2006 08:11
Buckles said...

All three were sold to Howard Suesz in 1958 and were placed on his tented show Hagen Bros. Circus.
"Freida" was very old and after one season was sold to Little Bob Stevens where she died a few years later.
The other two turned out to be about as vicious a pair as you could ever hope for. After one season Suesz gave "Dorothy" to Carson & Barnes (Jack Moore)and before the show even got on the road she busted up Richard Shiply and was immediately given to the Tulsa Zoo?
"Elizabeth" remained with Hagen Bros. for a few more years but was finally shot on the lot in 1961 after an attack on someone.
Why these two turned out so mean I could only give an opinion. Mr. Cole and his son were very good people but with no background in elephant training. I had heard that they were managed with sugar cubes and without some form of authority the inmates will eventually take over the asylum.
This was probably the reason Cole got rid of them in the first place.

14 April, 2006 09:11
Anonymous said...

Have to tell a funny story I heard about Jimmy Cole, his son was a teenager and one day one of his Elephants knocked the son into tommorow!, after which Jimmy went over to the Elephant, grabbed her by the ear(with his hand) shook his finger at her, told her she was a bad girl, and that she better not ever do that again!
Bobby Fairchild

14 April, 2006 11:39
Buckles said...

In other words she got a severe talking to.

14 April, 2006 11:47
Anonymous said...

Met Jimmy Cole once, very nice older gentleman and was a wealth of circus knowledge.

14 April, 2006 17:40

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