The show brought in Louie Reed to train these young elephants the summer of 1952. He was about my age at the time (nuf ced) so he brought in Smokey to do the physical stuff.
After Arky took them out on the road in '53 Louie was told to stick around since 20 more babies were on the way.
In those pre-Disney days the Winter Quarters was open to the public year round and they asked Smokey if he could put an act together with the four old elephants Arky had retired, "Ringling Jenny", "Wallace Jewel", "Topsy" and " Mudu" (who had come over from Germany with Hugo Schmitt)
He later told me that one day Buddy North came up to him and said, "This act is better than the one we got on the road!".
The punks had fallen into disarray . The rest is History. |
2 comments:
I remember when my dad received this picture from Smokey and him showing it to D.R. and Freddy.
I have since seen it published in Bandwagon but it must have been contributed by my dad, I doubt that Smokey had access to a copying machine.
Buckles,
I guess Smokey gave you the gaff to the "oblique" which you refined so brilliantly years later. :)
Wade Burck
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