Monday, August 04, 2014

George Emerson #1


My father wrote on the back of this picture, "George Emerson, rhino keeper RBBB prior to 1933".

Posted by Buckles at 8/04/2014 07:05:00 AM

1 comments:

Richard Reynolds said...

I have this same photo. It was sent to me by the late Col Woodcock via Joe Bradbury.

The cage wagon is RBBB no #78, built in 1924 to replace the older one that burned up in the c Jan 1924 fire in B'port qtrs. It was last used in 1948.

The rhino is Bill,named after the Indian rhino of that same moniker, who died in 1926 in Texas. This one is a male African black rhino (two horns). He was delivered to RBBB at the Garden in 1929. He died in Knoxville, TN in 1935.

After his demise, there was no rhino with RBBB until 1945 when they got the young calf Bobby from Brookfield zoo where he had been born (2nd ever rhino born in USA).

Zoo director Bob Bean named the little rhino "Robert" after Robert Ringling in in the hope that might persuade the circus man to buy him which he did.

04 August, 2014 15:49

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