| My dad always said that Walter McLain was the best all around elephant boss the Ringling Show ever had. When it came to handling a big herd of elephants (in 1941 the Ringling Show carried 47), managing a department of over 30 men, loading and unloading the train with teams of elephants plus setting up and taking down the show, not to mention putting the acts together, he was unequaled. |
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Walter McLain #1
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2 comments:
Walter McLain was also the first and only black to serve as RBBB elephant boss.
That was told me by late Chang Reynolds. Chang, who lived for years in the Los Angles area, was one of our foremost elephant historians and certainly knew McLain from his days with Barnes in California. I think it likely that McLain was only partially black and “passed” to use the phraseology of that very segregated time.
There are many photos of McLain dressed in coat and tie while supervising the unloading of his charges and seeing to their work along the flat cars. Some of them are shown in this series.
Sydney Rink, another Barnes elephant boss, was also black.
Then there was Eph Thompson the black elephant trainer of the old Forepaugh show of the 1880s. It is said that it was Thompson who trained the elephants for presentation by Adam Forepaugh Jr. who got all the credit. A case could be made that Thompson was the greatest elephant trainer of all time. However, because he was black, he never got the press he deserved. He wound up going to Europe where he felt more appreciated and garnered much fame.
Mr. Reynolds, thanks for answering the question I was about to ask. In his Bandwagon interview, Junior Ruffin gave Mr. McClain credit for breaking the "color line" on Ringling, but I could never be sure from all the photos I have seen.
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