Friday, August 20, 2010

1948 RBBB (Set 2) #6


48 RBBB 2-6, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

According to Joseph Bradbury’s WHITE TOPS articles on the 1948 Ringling show, this would be the Nile hippo Chester

Posted by Buckles at 8/20/2010 05:55:00 AM

2 comments:

Richard Reynolds said...

Yes sir - -Joe Bradbury has that right, Chester it was.

Despite the mannish-sounding name, the animal was a female. The moniker came from the fact that she was born in Chester, PA with Hagenbeck-Wallace/4-Paw Sells in 1935.

Her dam was Alice who went back on H-W to 1915. The sire was Victor, born at National Zoo and obtained by the Mugivan group for its Howe’s Great London-Van ABmurg show, framed at the Hall Farm in the winter of 1920-21.

When H-W was shelved in 1936, Chester, Alice, and Victor were sent on loan to the Detroit zoo.

Victor was returned to H-W for its 1937 rejuvenation under lease to Howard Bary. Alice remained at the Detroit zoo until her death in 1960.

Meanwhile Chester went to RBBB in 1938. Both she and old Lotus did the 1939 RBBB. From 1940 to 1942 Chester was loaned to the Cole Show. She was back on RBBB and toured with old Lotus in 1944 (up to the Hartford fire).

Lotus was retired after the fire and the much younger Chester then became RBBB’s “road” common hippo. She in turn was replaced by a young male August in 1955.

Chester wound up at Zoorama, operated by the Rider Animal Co in New Market, VA in 1960 and she died there

20 August, 2010 13:27
Little John said...

Filthy Phil, a natural elephant man who arrived too late at the Florida Ringling Park to work for the Captain, and Circus World was probably the first place that he had ever seen an elephant up close, got a job at the Central Florida Zoo after Circus World folded. Because of his resume he was given the status of curator - a surprise to him. After he did the three cows toenails, (sorry the names escape me,) and cleaned up the barn, the small heard accepted his role as well. But when I went to the zoo to she Phil, the fun thing to do was to throw heads of cabbages in the Hippo pond.

20 August, 2010 22:21

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