Thursday, May 22, 2008

Hugo Schmitt #5


Scan000011252, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 5/22/2008 06:05:00 AM

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Doc Higgins, RBBB vet, told me about making the trip to get this and three other zebras. It was just after the 1955 show closed in Sarasota. Doc and an RBBB truck driver named “Coast to Coast Whitey” went for the animals.

They first drove to New York City where they picked up two Grevy zebras for RBBB that were imported by Ruhe. These wound up being tough customers as is usually the case with Grevys.

They then went to the Catskill Game Farm where they got two more zebras, one for Hugo Schmitt and the other for Jack Joyce. These were common plains or Grant’s zebras. At Catskill they also picked up the Asian elephant Targa for Schmitt.

Doc recalled that the weather was terribly cold on the trip. He remembered stopping at a restaurant or service station and seeing RBBB’s Christmas special on TV. It was televised directly from the big top at Sarasota WQ on Friday December 16th. The top had been left up following the final performance there on Dec. 4, 1955.

I recall watching this special as well and I thought it the best of the TV shows done by RBBB during its days under canvas. They brought out some of the old parade wagons and pulled them around the tent in the spec.

After the Christmas special, the show sent many of its features to Cuba for the annual engagement in Havana, a date that had been on the show’s calendar every year since the first one in Dec 49-Jan 50. But, this one (Dec55-Jan 56) would be the last.

While Art Concello was getting RBBB back on its feet in 1957-58, Fidel Castro was rapidly gaining momentum with his Cuban revolution making it virtually impossible for RBBB to try another winter date in Havana. Instead Concello sent the show to Mexico for December dates in those years.

24 May, 2008 12:59

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