Sunday, April 15, 2012

Ride Time #1 (From Wayne Jackson)

Ride Time.004 by bucklesw1
Ride Time.004, a photo by bucklesw1 on Flickr.

At first I thought these next photos were taken in Venice too but after looking at them for a while, I think this is Circus World.
Axel's guys look like they had never seen a ride howdah before. Maybe they hadn't.
Gary Hill, are these the same howdahs you used out front?

10 comments:

Ryan Easley said...

Buckles,
I was always under the impression that Ringling never offered animal rides of any kind. Was Circus World the exception?
Ryan
(one of your younger viewers)

Larry Louree said...

Yes we had the elephant ride at Circus World. I was the operations lead for the ride, as well as the house @ the Circus Day Theater and the Participation Circus (where the flyers allowed the guest to join them Tito Guyana (spelling?).

As I remember it, when Axel's herd came in his bulls were bigger and we had to get modified Howdah's to handle the guests.
The guest's loved the ride.

Chic Silber said...

That would be Gaona Larry

It was Victor introducing me

with the highest praise to

Trolle Rhodin that gave me

my opportunities with RBBB

Mike Naughton said...

I thought RBBB did elephant rides outside when I visited in Philadelphia. Buckles?

GaryHill said...

Those are differant howdahs as pointed out..ours were square not rounded as I recall...

GaryHill said...

This also doesnt look like Circus World. Our ride area was to the northside of the arena and looked down on the menagerie and amusement park addition..it was a small circle concrete path that I walked about a million miles on...

Buckles said...

Gary, my first thought was they were in Venice getting the herd fitted up with ride howdahs before going up to the Park.
But it dawned on me they never got to Venice since they cut the elephant cars off the train in Davenport on the way home.
The next day we loaded our herd (22 elephants) into the empty cars and bob-tailed on down to winter quarters in their stead.

Bob Momyer said...

Mike,
Hugo Schmidt gave elephant rides in Philadelphia back in the late '60s. No howdahs, the people rode directly on the elephant's back and he collected and pocketed the money. I think it was $2.00 each.
Bob Momyer

Chic Silber said...

Must have been a side deal with

either Ali Baba or Lawson

Buckles said...

Axel told me that Tuffy came to him one day and said, "You tell that Goddam Hugo to cut out that elephant ride! It looks like a Gypsy Camp and besides there's no Insurance!
Axel replied, "You tell that Goddam Hugo, not me!" and that was the last he heard of it.