Saturday, July 30, 2011

Hagenbeck-Wallace #1


REUBEN CASTANG
1904 St. Louis World's Fair (Hagenbeck Animals)
1905-06 Carl Hagenbeck Show
1907 Hagenbeck-Wallace

1909 Dode Fisk Show


1907 H-W Program: Ring 1- Reuben Castang...Ring 2- Charles Judge (Riding Tiger)... Ring 3-.Percy Phillips.




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4 comments:

johnny said...

So what George Emerson told me appears to be quite true and he must have been a young fellow in this photo because I met him somr 50 years later. Well I guess we can relate back in our careers ojohnnyver 50 yrs. ago. How about that?

Jim A. said...

I just perused a biography of Reuben Castang. It appeared that Castang was about 23 or 24 when he was at the 1904World's Fair in St. Louis. The book claimed he was Hagenbeck's animal supervisor for the unit and could step in to work any act. The elephant trainer had to leave and Castang took over the elephants, including the big elephant slide.

I too must have been a young guy when I first met an almost as young Buckles Woodcock at the Detriot Shrine Circus in 1963.

johnny said...

Friend Jim;What is a perused bio and how can I get one? I have always been enthused by Gruber since I saw him at our County Fair and have always been intrigues by combination species of animal acts having don alot elephant ponydog routines, plus big and little, mules and exotics. To Dick Flint; Thanks for the bio on Gruber. He was quite a guy to be sure. I recall as a youth Bud Anderson purchasing the act. Lots of great history at our fingertips thanks to Buckles and CHS.

Dick Flint said...

In reviewing the H-W show of 1907, the Billboard describes the fourth display as a “A herd of elephants, introduced by Mr. Reuben Castang [ring 1], and a second herd [ring 3] under the direction of Mr. Percy Phillips, worked to perfection, and the Bengal tiger riding an Asiatic elephant, as introduced by Mr. Charles Judge [ring 2], made people sit up and marvel.” For the seventh display, the review mentions that in the steel arena “Attention was centered upon the equestrian feats of an African lion and tiger, presented by Messrs. Charles Judge and Reuben Castang.”
Dick Flint
Baltimore