Thursday, January 03, 2019

RAIL #3


Posted by Chic Silber at 1/03/2019 01:38:00 AM

3 comments:

Chic Silber said...


This might be Smokey Jones on horseback

03 January, 2019 02:11
Roger Smith said...

It is. Smokey wore a multi-colored baseball cap, or a narrow-brimmed hat with the front turned up, as we see here. He's aboard the long-time Elephant Dept. escort horse, Harold.

The camera guy atop 101 Car has the right idea.

03 January, 2019 04:24
Richard Reynolds said...

This is 1955. That year the show carried 52 elephants for the early part of the season. [They had another 3 down in Sarasota quarters - - 55 total.] In the second half they put two of the small ones in a truck that ran the route several days ahead of the show itself. I saw this show in Atlanta on Friday Nov. 11, 1955. The two advance punks were here the night before and appeared on the local 11PM TV news.

The next day, I made a careful count in the menagerie and there were an even 50 bulls - - - 48 Asians and two Africans. So 52 elephants came to Atlanta - -2 in advance and 50 with the show itself.

The Africans were the Forest elephant Abele which the bull men called Emily - -also the young male bush elephant named Louie (after Louis Reed). The punk would later become known as Diamond. In 1963 the show gave him to the Knoxville zoo where he grew to huge size. I saw him there in 1979 - -the largest elephant I've ever seen. It is noteworthy that while in Knoxville he sired the first two viable African calves ever born in USA.

04 January, 2019 19:36

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