| This is "Betty" for sure with the great trainer Christian Zeitz around 1920. |
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
John Robinson Circus #4
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3 comments:
There is a pantheon of trainers we hear about (Cheerful Gardner, et. al.) but you’ve used the appellation of great for Chris Zeitz, a trainer that I have heard little about. I know he was with Ringling in 1903-04, Robinson from 1915-21, and with Floto from 1905-09 and again in his last season on the road that I have record--1923. Between his first tenure on Floto and his start on John Robinson, I can only account for a year each on Norris & Rowe (1910), Danny Robinson (1911), and Howes (1913). Can you add to this? What sort of acts did he assemble and what were the herds like that he oversaw (difficult)? Did your father get to see him work? It would be nice to know more about some of these “other” trainers from this time period that, at least to me, are lesser known.
Dick Flint
Baltimore
Guess they had to put up with "elephant banners" back in those days as well. Wonder if the banner man tipped the captain.?
Joey Kelly states that in the book, "Clown" by his grandfather Emmett Kelly, Emmett describes "Cheerful" Gardner as a great elephant man who got his nickname because of his dour, Scottish disposition, was in charge of our "ponderous pachyderms." He had one old girl who was trained to lie down in traffic and refuse to get up until "Cheerful" gave her the signal. Meanwhile, cars jammed for blocks, cops were driven half crazy and newspaper photographers had pictures, which was the idea.
Emmett made these remarks in discussing Jess Adkins' renewing the ever popular street parade in 1933 with Hagenbeck-Wallace to test its success in St Louis, Cleveland or a small town in New Jersey.
In 1959 in Peru, Indiana, I remember running to the Farmer's Market often to get Cheerful his whatever because he was bed ridden due to his obesity and age. I did this because my grandmother Eva Kelly Lewis, married to cop clown Joe Lewis lived two trailers away from him. He was gruff, but a good tipper!
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