Sunday, March 30, 2014

Hippodrome #13


Posted by Buckles at 3/30/2014 05:05:00 AM

3 comments:

Richard Reynolds said...

Big Otto was actually a female. She was born in the Cincy Zoo and bought by Zack Terrell for Cole in 1943. She was on Cole throughout its days, terminating in 1950.

She then went to Paul Kelly who put her with other shows, including Kelly Morris in 1952 and 1953 and the Gem City shows in 1954. She was sold to Bob Snowden who had her on the Royal American Carnival in 1957. Toward the end of that season he put her with the Clyde Beatty show where she was a pit attraction.

Snowden sold her to the Beatty show and she went out with it in 1958. Floyd King renamed her “Big Otto.” In March 1958 she got loose from Deland WQ and was at large for a time. This made the press everywhere. I always figured old Floyd staged the “escape.”

Big Otto was with the Beatty show in 1958 and then Beatty-Cole from 1959 until her death around 1975 or 1976. She died as a result of injuries sustained when her semi rolled off the highway in northern Alabama near Muscle Shoals.

30 March, 2014 19:44
Chic Silber said...


Thanks Richard I knew she was a

female & I think she was called

Petunia at least for some years

she was on the Beatty Show

I recall she would be unloaded

from the trailer with the tank

so it could be cleaned out She

preferred to stay in the water

to help support her weight

31 March, 2014 00:10
Roger Smith said...

Time and again the story was told on the Beatty show of the hipp truck being pulled over by highway patrols for swaying across the lanes. The driver always convinced the unsuspecting officer that inside was a real hippo, who was amusing herself by frolicking in her tank. When the back doors were opened for proof, most cops demanded they be slammed shut, with the loud admonition usually being, "Get that damn thing out of my territory!"

31 March, 2014 13:21

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