Thursday, October 05, 2017

#14 On Stage!

The rakish Dan Darrow with "Maude", "Cutie" and "Trixie".
These elephants were later with Dailey Bros. Circus when one of them fetched my wife a Cheeky Whallop!
Maybe I can get her to comment later in the day?

Posted by Buckles at 10/05/2017 06:31:00 AM

2 comments:

BARBARA WOODCOCK said...

My family & I went on the Dailey Bros. Circus in 1947. I stayed there until 1950. Then went back on Diano Bros. Circus, in 1953, when Ben Davenport & Tony Diano went into partnership for part of a season. Louie Reid owned Myrtle, Tillie, & Jenny. They did a very good act. Then did a FANTASTIC ACT baseball playing elephants. I never missed it. The act that I ended up working was Jap, Myrtle, & Jenny. The baseball playing act belonged to Louie Reid. He sold them to Ben Davenport. To get to the part where she packed me a " CHEEKIE WALOOP. " Rex was in charge of the elephants and they always had two men that stayed in the menagerie to make sure no one messed with the bulls. George Rex's brother was one of them. Trixie was taller than Cutie, and she was very playful. Trixie was standing in a hole so Cutie was taller. I went up to Cutie and started playing with her. This was my second year working elephants. So I thought I was a pretty good hot shot at working them. I was right up under Cutie's chin. She lifted her head up and over me, I thought she was playing. She was just getting a better angle to give me a good solid WHAM. And boy did she ever? SHE HIT ME, KNOCKED ME UP INTO THE AIR, THEN HIT ME AND KNOCKED ME DOWN ON THE GROUND, SO SHE COULD KICK ME ALONG THE GROUND. That was her way of doing things. Of course as soon as she hit me I knew it was not Trixie. So I started ROLLING FAST. The two men that were supposed to be watching the bulls didn't see a thing. They were busy with some girls. I was sore all over. And skinned on both sides. Boy what a rush. And not a good one. I was very lucky. And I learned a good lesson that day. I was not such a hot bull hand. But later in the year I ended up working Cutie in a team on the lot at night. I also worked Lucie in a team at night. She killed Gabe Tucker a few years earlier. The only ones that I didn't work was Hank, and Nemo. I had a go at Charlie. But that is another story....Barbara....

05 October, 2017 23:52
Anonymous said...

With twenty twenty hind sight those of us that had a chance to work with elements can remember how clever we thought we were when we had two years of experience. Then the elephants would teach us different.

06 October, 2017 10:42

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