Saturday, October 09, 2010

George Brinton Beal #11


Scan13175, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 10/09/2010 05:43:00 AM

6 comments:

Richard Reynolds said...

This may be an alligator from Tanit Ikao’s 1940 after show. It was the last such show ever on RBBB.

The late Gordon Potter recalled that North engaged her after seeing her in an English circus. She was supposedly an animal hypnotist on the order of Blacaman, who was with Hagenbeck –Wallace on 1938. In addition to the alligators she had chickens.

There is indication that Ikao was actually Danish. She was on the Hunt show from around 1957 to 1960.

On RBBB in 1940 her animals all rode in RBBB cage wagon no. 78 spotted in the backyard. It was built in 1924 as a new rhino den (the earlier one had burned up in the 1924 Bridgeport quarters fire).

No. 78 carried a rhino through 1935after which there was no such animal with RBBB until 1945. In the meantime, the cage got pressed into service as a second hippo wagon to house Chester in 1938 and 1939. For that a smallish bathing tub was installed in the front of the wagon. It was not recessed into the floor as in most hippo dens. Then in 1940 it was turned over to Ikao’s alligators et al. Ikao was gone from RBBB after that one year. No. 78 then carried the new pygmy hippo, Betty Lou, in 1941-42. It went back into rhino service in 1947 and 1948 after which it seems to have disappeared in the wagon graveyard at Sarasota quarters.

09 October, 2010 13:39
J C Hall said...

Barely in the photo on the right is "Tanid Akio" Who was my aunt.

09 October, 2010 21:57
J C Hall said...

Barely in the photo on the right is "Tanido Akio" who was my aunt.

09 October, 2010 22:01
Richard Reynolds said...

Mr. Hall - -Can you give a summary of the circus and show career of your aunt?

I assume her real name was Tanid Akio with “Tanit Ikao” being a stage name. Was she Danish? Thanks in advance.

10 October, 2010 19:37
J C Hall said...

To R.Reynolds
During the time I was around my aunt I was not much interested in the past. I will however find out what I can when we return to the barn and let you know what I can find out. Somewhere, I believe I have a photo of a poster of her from the Cole show. She was Danish and had an aristocratic air about her and was a very soft spoken, kind person. As a kid I recall always looking forward to our family visits with her and my uncle.

12 October, 2010 13:41
Anonymous said...

Tanit Ikao is actually from Austria. Her real name was Johanna Pories (after her first marriage with circus artist Alexander Pories who died in 1946). She was my grandmother's sister but I never net her. She was born in Mürzzuschlag/Austria as Johanna Kropf in the late 19th century, I guess it was in 1897. I think she started her circus carrier in the 1920ies. She toured Europe and lived in Copenhagen during the 1930ies and emigrated to the US in 1939 with her husband, who was Jewish. She never returned to Europe. I only know her from pictures in my aunt's family album.

27 September, 2011 09:26

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