Monday, March 07, 2011

From Dominic Yodice #2


Set%20up%20in%201972, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 3/07/2011 05:58:00 AM

2 comments:

Richard Reynolds said...

I got out my notes about the giraffes and their wagons and will try to rationalize the information. I think the big giraffe in these photos was Ingrid

She was a reticulated giraffe (like the one shown) and gave birth to a calf at Sarasota quarters on Feb 23, 1958. Ingrid and the baby (both riding in no. 83) were sent north for the 1958 Garden date- -the last time RBBB’s Warren flats were so used.

After the Garden, Ingrid and baby were sent with other RBBB menagerie animals, e.g. hippo Chester and black rhino Bill, on loan to the city of Pawtucket for a fledgling zoo in its Slater Park. The rhino died in Pawtucket in December 1958.

For the 1959 Garden date, Ingrid in no.83, was sent to the Garden leaving her calf behind in Pawtucket. After the ’59 Garden date, Ingrid went to Dietch, riding in no.83.

The other giraffe (presumably the calf) was sent from Pawtucket to Rider’s Zoorama, New Market , VA in September 1959 while Ingrid spent that summer at Dietch’s place. To move the giraffe from Pawtucket, Rider sent his truck to Pawtucket.

For the 1960 Garden date Ingrid was sent over from Dietch’s in no. 83. After that date she too went down to Zoorama but no. 83 stayed behind, seemingly going to back to Dietch.

For the 1961 Garden date, both giraffes were brought up from Zoorama and after the engagement went to Ditech’s where Bill Elbirn photographed them, along with no 83. To get both to Dietch, they must have shuttled no. 83 back and forth because the calf was then too big to ride with Ingrid.

Bob Dietch told me on May 1, 1967 that he still had a big RBBB giraffe at his Fairlawn, NJ park. What happened to the other one, her calf?

As far as I can tell, Ingrid and no. 83 went from Dietch’s to the Garden and back again every year through 1972.

After these photos were taken in the Nassau Coliseum, Ingrid was loaded in a specially built vehicle and trucked down to the Venice quarters. Bill Hall wrote about that in the N-D 1972 White Tops. However, he gave the name as Suzy (wrong!) and said she had been born in Sarasota 22 years earlier. Ingrid did indeed arrive in Sarasota 22 years before (1950) but she was purchased from a dealer.

Meanwhile Dietch’s place seems to have closed so, after Nassau, no. 83 was loaded on a lowboy and sent to Dorney Park in Allentown, PA where other wagons had been moved from Dietch’s.

The late Jim Caldwell told me that in 1973 Judge Roy Hofheinz visited Dorney Park and had 8 wagons, including no.83, loaded on three low boy trailers and shipped to Houston for a planned theme park. That never materialized and no. 83 wound up in Venice quarters where the late Bob MacDougall photographed it around 1975. It went from there to Circus World.

What happened to Ingrid. I do not have the answer, but she was getting up there when she got to Venice.

07 March, 2011 17:33
Anonymous said...

Richard: I have lived no more than two miles from Dietch's Zoo for 60 years. As a youngster, 8 in 1950, I wondered for years how there could be a place so close to home that had big cats elephants, etc. Years later I found out.
I don't recall what year it closed, but I believe it was around 1967, possibly earlier, a sad day for me. It's long been a nursing home complex. Diane and I checked it out in the late '90's as a possible place for her mother.After taking a tour we decided on another home.

Paul Gutheil

09 March, 2011 10:53

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