Monday, October 09, 2017

#5 Elephant Acts!

Sandra and Burt Pettus with the Hubert Castle Elephants "Zetta", "Peggy" and "Dorothy".

Posted by Buckles at 10/09/2017 06:00:00 AM

1 comments:

Roger Smith said...

This is the Castle Winterquarters, beyond the end of the barn. When I joined out, in the winter of '71, we set a ring curb out there and a photographer showed up for the publicity shots the Castles would use for the next season. I had 5 rolls of film shot of my act, but the Castles only gave me 5 photos, and never would tell me the name or address of the cameraman. Evidently, this was a hurry-up day, with no curb.

Castle's home was on Peavey Road, up in Dallas, but the many showfolks 22 miles to the Southeast, in Seagoville, advised him of the lesser tax base in adjacent Kaufman County, and he bought land beyond the railroad tracks, on Old Durham Road. He had one long stran-steel building there, divided into 4 spacious sections. The Cat Barn was first, with space of 40' x 60'. Once we rolled the road cages in, the arena sections were jammed up against the walls, creating a death trap. Then came the Bunkhouse-Prop Barn combined, boasting the property's one toilet. Next was Bert's Elephant Barn, and the last one housed the camels and llamas and our hay and grain storage. The land had limited use, as behind the barn, the earth fell off into a sharp slant downward, so that only 1/3 of the place was usable.

09 October, 2017 18:14

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