Saturday, June 29, 2019

FROM WADE BURCK


5 comments:

Chic Silber said...


Wade sent these 12 images in hopes

that somebody might identify them

Chic Silber said...


It appears that her weaponry

includes a pole & a pitchfork

Roger Smith said...

Two names conflict on this ID. One is Margaret Ricardo, wife of the renowned Captain Dutch Ricardo. If this is she, the photo may be dated to 1917, although no captions have surfaced to be sure. This one is not among those in Mabel Stark's albums.

A second name is Martha Florine, and this is not her. Ms. Florine was a dear friend of Mabel's since she did not compete for tigers. Mabel had many signed photos of her, all with affectionate sentiments. As with Olga Celeste, good friends, never rivals.

A remote possibility is that this is Louis Roth's first (?) wife, the incendiary Latina, Mercedes LaMont. I know of no single true photo of her. Being married to Roth provided her standing on the lot, and when Mabel Stark knew her future depended on Roth's mentorship, Mercedes became dangerous. Roth proved their marriage a publicity stunt by Mr. Barnes, and Mercedes faded from history, firing threats over her shoulder. Mabel and Louis married in Ada, Idaho, in 1915, and after what she called "the war years", she divorced him, in 1920. I bear witness, however, that in my time with her, Mabel spoke of Roth in only the most respectful tones. So did everyone else who knew him at the Goebel Compound for his 12 years there.

BOBBY'S LITL BRO. said...

GOOD JOB ROGER !! THANKS FOR YOUR MEMORY !!!

Roger Smith said...

Thing is, CASEY, I still didn't name this lady. I went back to old BANDWAGONS for Barnes show history, and this photo isn't there. But since we don't know her for sure, the search continues.


Take a look at these wooden props. Louis Roth varied them, and we had a number of them at Jungleland. Mabel's Goldie tiger dismounted the tunnel onto one of these, on her way down to her exercise pen. The rest of them were not kept up, and stood in silent testimony to their worth in times past. When we were being closed, I could have absconded with things like this. Others actually did steal at random, even entire arenas and sets of props. But we were under Federal Court orders. The FBI was watching, and I didn't dare.