John Robinson Circus #9

Scan000010130, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. My dad told me quite a bit about these four young elephants. Bill Emery put this act together when he was on the Robinson Show in 1928. Oddly enough the Corp. bought two of them (Ruth and Bessie) untrained, from 101 Ranch and the other two (Judy and Tillie) from Gentry Bros. (Floyd and Howard King) in lieu of money owed. My dad knew these elephants from the Floto Show where they went in 1931 after John Ringling took the Robinson Show off the road and he often mentioned how well trained they were. Unfortunately the following winter in Peru, "Bessie" became ill and died suddenly. The remaining three went to H-W in 1933 where Cheerful changed "Tillie's" name to "Rose" since he already had a Tillie in the herd. "Ruth", "Judy" and "Rose" were eventually with RBBB by 1939 but "Rose" was lost in the 1942 menagerie fire. The other two remained with the show as long as it was under canvas. Recently we saw "Ruth" in Mr. Penndorf''s 1955 picture and as mentioned, she was retired to the New Orleans Zoo in 1967.