Wednesday, September 13, 2017

#10 More Elephants

Hugo Schmitt.

Posted by Buckles at 9/13/2017 06:13:00 AM

1 comments:

DanKoehl said...

I cant help think about the history related to Ringling, their elephants, Hugo Schmitt and the history of elephants in America.

During the same year The Association of Zoos and Aquariums granted The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee AZA-certification, Ringling closed down their circus this year 2017.

Something I would have regarded as impossible only 5 years ago.

Only 10 years since the circus sued the animal rights groups under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, accusing the groups of conspiracy to harm its business and other illegal acts, in 2007.

40 years since Hugo Schmitt died 1977

50 years after Feld bought the Circus from Ringling North in 1967,

60 years after Ringling quit with the bigtop and Schmitt returned to Ringling from Leonard Bros in 1957.

70 years since Hugo Schmitt arrived in USA with the Hagenbeck elephants and North resumed the presidency of the circus in 1947,

80 years after John Ringling North began to manage the circus 1937, and Schmitt was among the first circus elephants trainers to show African elephants in the ring?

90 years after John Ringling took over the circus and moved its headquarters to Sarasota 1927.

110 years after Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth was sold to Ringling family, by James Baileys widow for $400,000 (about $10.45 million in 2017 dollars) 1907.

120 years after Barnum and Bailey started the European tour in 1897.

170 years after James Anthony Bailey (James Anthony McGinnis), discovered and "adopted" by Frederic Harrison Bailey (a nephew of circus pioneer Hachaliah Bailey), was born.

210 years after Hachaliah Bailey started to tour America with his elephant "Old Bet",

220 years after the first first living elephant set foot on American soil

and 250 years after Philip Astley opened the first circus in England.

Sadly, a fact we must accept and a decision by the owners we have to respect.

What will be the future for other circuses, who are still exhibiting elephants? We dont know.

But what noone can stop us from, is to keep the memories from the circus alive, to honor our collegues from the past, to write and read about famous elephants from the past, and enjoy all the pictures where they seemingly are brought back to life.

As long as we can share our memories, the culture itself is not extinct.

Dear Buckles,

Thanks a lot for operating this blog for 12 years now,

12 years where you almost daily gave us those memories from the past, that warm our hearts in a world which is getting colder day by day, when extremists take power over us, change our world, and remove forever things that brightened our life and made working joyful.

20 September, 2017 22:51

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