Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Bailey Bros. Elephants #3 (From Buckles)


Scan000010716, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Shirley Stevens with "Carrie", "Christy", "Babe" and "Shirley" in 1948.

My father had just joined the show in the Pine Bluff, Ark. winter quarters in Oct. of '48 and right away took these elephants to the Arkansas Livestock Show in Little Rock. This article appeared in the Hot Springs Sentinel Record which my mother clipped out.

I might add that the following month the act worked the Tom Packs date in New Orleans on Thanksgiving week and my mother and I went down to see the show. Jack Leontini had just purchased 5 baby elephants for that show and by coincidence, the ship they arrived on docked in New Orleans that same week.

Leontini asked my father about a trainer and he immediately recommended MacDonald. Previously on the Blog I have related the lengthy story of tracking down Mac (by then he owned a wild life show) the unloading and delivery of the elephants to the building by the mahouts and finally the arrival of MacDonald.

1 comments:

Ryan Easley said...

Buckles,
I found an article from 1948 with reference from the importer (Noel Rosefelt of Catalina Wild Life Expeditions) that four were imported in a group of nine for the Tom Packs Circus. Also, a 1952 Billboard census states that Tommy arrived in 1949, while the other four arrived in 1948. Any ideas regarding this situation from your All Knowing book?