40 Years Ago! #1 (From Buckles)

1972 was quite a year. It began with me receiving $10,000 cash from D.R. Miller to purchase the MGM elephants from the Strates Shows which is a story in itself. During our conversation I mentioned that John Cuneo was flying me up to Boston to look at an elephant at Southwick's and he said if they had any more for sale let him know. Before long a cattle trailer arrived with four young elephants two females and two males. The female was Cuneo's and already named "Popsicle" which I quickly changed to "Billie" for my sister in law who lived across the road. She was the largest and somewhat trained but John said he wanted me to add a hind leg walk and one foot stand which I did. D.R. then called to ask if I would put a 3 act together with his three but I explained the female (Tina) was very small and still on a bottle but I did what I could with the two males "Kelly" and "Ted" (Ted Bowman). I had mentioned to Mr. Cuneo that we had "Anna May" booked with Miller-Johnson that year and to my surprise he called back saying he had just talked to Charlie Germaine and "Billie" had been added to my contract. So to make a long story longer, with the extra stipend for both parties, I received an unexpected bonus and John wound up with a free elephant. These pictures were taken on the Carson & Barnes lot on our way to California.