Buckles Blog

Saturday, September 08, 2012

Friday, September 07, 2012

From Chic Silber #1

HOLD YER CAMELS!

So Gentlemen (& I use that term very loosely)

Here is a slightly improved smoke ring illusion

I somehow feel like I just did the "One And Only"

a great injustice but hopefully no 1 will take offense

From Chic Silber #2

Here is a recent photo of the same part of 44th Street

that is shown in your "More Cole Show #1" today

from the opposite direction showing newer structures

From Chic Silber #3

Just found these 2 old Hippodrome Souvenir Book covers

Interesting that they both feature elephants

No idea what year they are from.

From Chic Silber #5

The Hippodrome was built by Frederick Thompson and Elmer Dundy, creators of the Luna Park amusement park at Coney Island.

The theater was located on Sixth Avenue, now named Avenue of the Americas, between Forty-third and Forty-fourth streets.

Its auditorium seated 5,300 people and it was equipped with what was then the state of the art in theatrical technology.

The theater was acquired by The Shubert Organization in 1909. The Hippodrome first opened in 1905 and is still considered as one of the true wonders of theater architecture.

Its stage was 12 times larger than any Broadway "legit" house and capable of holding as many as 1,000 performers at a time,

or a full-sized circus with elephants and horses.

From Chic Silber #6

During its heyday, on the brightly-lit stage of the Hippodrome, Houdini made a 10,000-pound elephant disappear.

He created a sensation. When Houdini fired a pistol, Jennie vanished from view.

The building was torn down in 1939.

The White Studio photo is of Houdini & Jennie

Vaudeville Elephants #1 (From Buckles)

Adele Nelson's Dancing Elephants.
"Myrtle", "Tillie" and "Jenny".
Years later "Myrtle" trouped for years with Hoxie Bros.
Circus and no doubt rode many a mile in the purple elephant truck.

Adele Nelson Elephants.
"Hold On To Your Hat!"
The elephant walks past the fulcrum then takes one step backward thrusting Miss Nelson to a landing on it's back.
Note the clown elephant that did her trick just opposite of the others.
My dad told me that the ruffle had a piano wire inserted into the outer edge.

Vaudeville Elephants #3

Singers Midgets
"Fritzi", Mitzi" and "Ziggy" (Named after Flo Ziegfeld).

Thursday, September 06, 2012

IGNORE THIS PICTURE!

They finally brought the shell for Shannon's driveway and while they were spreading it, I got my trusty wheel barrow and shovel and covered some areas at our place. Got a pretty good workout.
Due to that plus the Giants/Cowboys football game caused me to oversleep this morning and in my haste neglected to include this picture which should have been the final one.
I also neglected to exclude one of the Clyde Beatty pictures as instructed.

From Dave Price #1

Chic: Here it is and good luck with the smoke rings. I had already sent the other to Buckles so by a copy of this

I will ask him not to post the one I sent but wait to see yours with the improvements.

Buckles- Ya get that? By the way- I will be off line from noon Sept 4 until my computer gets out of the shop.

Dave

From Dave Price #2

From Jim Cole

40 years ago....Hoxie Bros. Circus played some dates in New Jersey in September. I got in the old dodge camper and drove down there from Rhode Island. Herriotts were on the show that year.

From Chic Silber

From Kari Johnson

Back To School!

Frank Murray Elephants

"Annette" a talented circus elephant playfully paints a Work Of Art while circus clown Louis "Lucho" Carballo looks on with amazement at the Picadilly Circus.

More Cole Show #1

To those of you who read the text, the man at right is Blackie Allen of whom I elaborated yesterday.
I lifted this 1937 Cole Show picture from Bev Kelley's "Fun By The Ton".

More Cole Show #2

This is Helen Scott, Arky's wife when we joined the Show in 1944.

More Cole Show #3

Center ring Elephant Empress Marion Knowlton.
Chic might know her husband Winn Partello who was a well known Stage Manager.
They later lived up near Bob Commerford's place and were good friends of his.

More Cole Bros. #4

This is the lady that worked in my father's act Bobbie Donovan.
She was the wife of the man seen cutting the hole in the roof of the elephant car after the train wreck.
He was later killed while unloading the train with a caterpillar. After reaching the bottom of the ramp he cut too sharp and the weight of the pole wagon rolled the cat over the top of him.

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

From Casey Gibbs

Hi Buckles, I still do not know how to post direct too the blog so if you could please post the following on the blog. & nbsp; Sept 4 2012 Rosa Gibbs wife of Bobby had her trailer totality destroyed by fire in Seagoville Tx. She was out of the trailer and was not injured but lost her dog and pups and all her paperwork ,passport, and everything she had. Thanks to Shane Johnson for calling the fire dept and helping Rosa until my sister could get there from Ft Worth. She is at my sisters now and has a lot to do to get things back to gather. If any one would like more info feel free to call me on my cel 702 630-9731. Casey Gibbs

From Richard Reynolds #1

Howard Y. Bary and an okapi - - photograph taken in early 1947 at Camp Putnam. Bary, circus impresario and seeker of the exotic, was in the Ituri forest, located in the eastern part of what was then the Belgian Congo. The Camp, founded by Patrick Putnam, a wealthy American anthropologist, was later to be known as the Epulu okapi station. All okapis that have come to the West were from there or Buta, some 250 miles to the west. A Catholic missionary station in Buta was where the first captive okapis were taken and thereafter shipped to the West. Its Brother Joseph Hutsebaut became quite skilled in the care and raising of captured okapis.

In 1947 Bary was there on an expedition for RBBB trying to get a pair of these beautiful, gentle animals for the Big Show. He was also supposed to get a pair of baby gorillas for Gargantua and Toto to adopt.

Additionally, he tried for some giant-horned Inyambo, a Tutsi strain of the well known Ankole cattle. Bary ran into them in neighboring Rwanda-Burundi. But, the importing of domesticated African cattle (straight from Africa) was absolutely prohibited by the Agriculture Dept. because of the threat of contagious diseases that could harm domestic cattle production.

Bary also explored the possibility of bringing back a group of big-lipped women, the so-called Ubangis, people of the Sara-Kaba tribe in French Equatorial Africa (the part that is now Chad). They had been huge hits on RBBB in 1930 and again in 1932. But the French Colonial Gov. was steadfastly opposed to Bary's proposal. Besides, by 1947 we were entering a new era of sensitivity opposing such human exploitation.

All Bary managed to bring back from his 1947 trip was the fine young female forest elephant Abele which the RBBB elephant men later called Emily.

But on to the okapis - -

From Richard Reynolds #2

Another (or the same) okapi seen by Bary at Epulu (nee Camp Putnam) in 1947. It has been the center of okapi collection and conservation since the end of WWII.

In 1960 the Belgians withdrew and thereafter the independent Congo has gone through one bloody upheaval after another, involving several name changes for the country, e.g. Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Zaire, and back to DRC.

The fighting in the area around Epulu and the okapi's haunt has been terrible. Over time it has waxed and waned. In the 1960s murderous marauders killed 25 okapis at Epulu.

By the late 1990s the place was again on the upswing, aided by huge investments from around the world. One of the largest was (is) the Gilman Investment Co (Howard Gilman - Gilman Paper Co) and its White Oak Conservation Center in Yulee, FL.

Now unfortunately, rampaging killers have struck again.

On Sunday June 24, 2012 murderous Mai Mai Rebels attacked the Epulu Station. The Mai Mai include AK-47 toting children, some as young as 9 [This is remindful of the horror shown in the movie "Blood Diamond."]. When they were done 6 people lay dead, including conservation rangers and the wife of one of them. The guns were turned on the okapis and 14 of them were slaughtered. All the okapi conservation buildings were damaged or burned and everything of possible value (computers, satellite phones etc.) were stolen or destroyed.

The attack was thought to be revenge by Morgan Sadala, a rebel leader whose gang has been poaching in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve. He objected to a crackdown on his operations which he saw as inspired by the conservationists.

From Richard Reynolds #3

The beautiful and docile okapi. This is my wife Delia with a male at the White Oak Conservation Center on the FL-GA border north of Yulee, FL. The date was October 8, 1997. At the time White Oak had no less than 14 okapis.

From Richard Reynolds #4

The okapi was first made known to science in 1901. For years there had been rumors of a large quadruped in the rain forests of northeastern Congo. The discovery was made by Sir Harry Johnston, a British colonial officer from nearby Uganda. He made this drawing in 1901.

This was at a time when it was widely believed that all significant mammals in the world had become known to science. After all Barnum had already written tomes on the subject and was long dead when the okapi was discovered. When a new mammal approaching the size of a horse was discovered, it shocked the scientific world.

Johnston found out that the animal was well known to the pygmies and even to the few white people who were living there. It was just that no one had called headquarters as it were.

From Richard Reynolds #5

Sir Harry Johnston's discovery of the okapi did not go unnoticed by Walter L. Main who was eager to capitalize. This ad was for his stand in Atlanta in 1902, the very next year after the animal was officially discovered. He copied Sir Harry's drawing exactly. Main did not claim that he had the animal but the implication was clear to anyone who had followed the excitement of the discovery. Of course the Main show had no such animal.

From Richard Reynolds #6

This ad is from Clinton, MO in 1905. After the 1904 season, Walter L Main sold his equipment to Wm P Hall who used it to frame his 1905 show. Main must have sold the okapi cut as well. Hall left nothing to guess, flat out claiming that he had the animal. There was no okapi on his circus.

In fact it was not until 1919 that the first one was sent out of the Congo - -destination: the Antwerp Zoo.

In 1920 and again in 1923, Al G. Barnes, advertised "The Only Okapi In Captivity," with a cut showing one. It was another case of false advertising. His "okapi" was a hybrid between a donkey and a zebra. That was verified to the late Chang Reynolds by an ex-Barnes employee.

In the mid-1920s Christy Bros had a small cage wagon, the sideboards of which were labeled "? BABY OKAPI." We do not know what was inside, except that it was not an okapi.

No okapi came to America until 1937 when the Bronx zoo got the first one.

From Richard Reynolds #7

Finally an okapi for circus. This is the male Aribi, acquired by RBBB as a headliner for its 1955 tour. He is shown here in the Dept of Agriculture's quarantine station in Clifton, New Jersey in the summer of 1955.

Alas, he could not be shown with RBBB. Aribi was a wild born cloven hoofed ruminant capable of transmitting hoof and mouth disease or rinderpest to farm animals. Regulations only allowed permanent zoos(meeting rigid qualifications) to import and exhibit such animals. Traveling circuses could not qualify. However such animals could travel around with circuses if they were born in USA.

So, the show made a deal with the Brookfield zoo to take Aribi on loan with the understanding that, should he sire a calf, the circus could have the youngster.

And that happened.

I should add that Aribi was obtained by RBBB agent McCormick Steele from the Epulu station during a trip to Africa in 1954 to obtain new features for the show. One could write a book about his adventures.

Like Howard Bary back in 1947 Steele also wanted to try for Ubangi women and pygmies from the Ituri forest but colonial authorities rejected both proposals.

This was the last time any American circus sent an agent abroad to bring back exotic people.

From Richard Reynolds #8

The only okapi ever shown by a circus. This is Mister G photographed by Dom Yodice in the menagerie of RBBB at Madison Square Garden in 1961.

MR G was born at Brookfield Zoo on September 17, 1959, His sire was the Ringling owned Aribi which had been on loan by the circus to Brookfield since 1955. The understanding was that the show could have the first born calf - -the animal above. Mr G was exhibited in the Garden in 1960 and again in 1961. In 1962 he was sent to the Garden but suffered a stress attack because of an unloading delay and died.

In between Garden dates he was kept at Zoorama, New Market, VA and at Bob Dietch's Kiddie Zoo across the river from the Garden in New Jersey.

Meanwhile, in 1966, the sire, Aribi, was sent from Brookfield Zoo to Busch Gardens, Tampa, and lived there until his death in August 1978.

From Buckles #1

From Buckles #2

From Buckles #3

From Buckles #4

From Buckles #5

The ten performing elephants were:
Ring 1
1. Little Babe
2. Big Jenny
3. Tessie

Center Ring
1. Big Babe
2. Carrie
3. Louie
4. Jean

Ring 3
1. Nellie
2. Little Jenny
3. Wilma

These last three were the ones I took to Garden Bros. in Canada for Paul Kelly 11 years later.
I thought I was a rising star in the circus firmament until my dad mentioned to me one day that these were the worst elephant acts he was ever involved with.