Buckles Blog

Friday, February 07, 2014

The truck stop was directly across Hwy. 27 from the park and I thought it was a good idea to do this because as my Dad used to say, "It's important for young elephants to learn that there's something else out in the world besides themselves!"

Weigh-in! #6

Weigh-in! #7

Under the direction of Ringmaster Kieth Truesdale, the ceremony proceeds flawlessly.

Obviously being placed in a saluting position provides a more accurate weight.

This must have been taken in 1975, when I got "Charlie" the year before his ivory was barely showing.

Weigh-in! #8

Weigh-in! #9

Headin' home!

Weigh-in! #10

Somewhere amongst my stuff exists a manila envelope containing all these weight slips that one day future Historians will try to make sense of.

Crappin' out the herd!

Pretty exciting times!

Didn't take too long for my mother to show up via the Hugo Express.

I'd get a phone call that she was at the Bus Depot and there she would be with her little dog inside a handbag.

Sometime later in Madison Sq. Garden I was notified a lady was inquiring about me at the back door, there she was bag in hand.

The wonderful things she must have had to tell the folks in Hugo and the relatives in Ortonville.

.........25 years earlier!

Babe and "Anna May" with "America's 2nd Largest Circus" in 1951.

The astute circus fan will glimpse Tiger Bill Snyder on the bandstand at right and and behind him in the back yard, my old nemesis Ira Watts.

Thursday, February 06, 2014

40 Years Ago! (For Gary Hill)

I hadn't realized that 40 years had elapsed (Feb. 3, 1974) since we moved the Circus World elephant herd from Venice up to the Park until Gary Hill reminded me.

Since then he has been to searching back on the Blog for pictures of that event with little luck so I'll rehash this set.

Gary, do you remember the morning we were scheduled to leave? Chappie showed up with a film crew to promote the Park's opening.

The Red Show was in rehearsal for their 2nd year tour so he rounded up Lou Jacobs, the Ringmaster, a few show girls, some lead stock, some local citizenry and about a half dozen of our elephants, that's Shannon sitting up front on Anna May.

Was glad to get it wrapped up so we could get off the lot, I had been there since mid November.

Some time later I asked Chappie how the tape had turned out and he said the Park people were dissatisfied and threw it away.

40 Years Ago! #2

.....having gotten that out of the way we were anxious to press onward, at right is Scott Riddle who had come from California to be my assistant

40 Years Ago! #3

.....going over this bridge was my main concern, it was the seven baby elephants first venture outside winter quarters since being delivered from Europe two years earlier

40 Years Ago! #4

...now safely on the other side we press on accompanied by Piccolo (serving in an advisory capacity) and a show girl who took some of these pictures

40 Years Ago #5

.....they had spotted in a couple of old retired elephant cars to fetch us up to the park

40 Years Ago! #6

40 Years Ago! #7

.....the last one up the ramp to the delight of Lloyd Morgan in the foreground, the quarters would now be free of a third elephant herd cluttering up the place

40 Years Ago! #8

....a sigh of relief and a cold beer while Dave Mullaney looks on in amusement.

Ralph Schappacher, Gary Jacobson, Gary Hill, Donnie Bale, myself, (Ben's dog "Clarence") Bucky Steele, Johnny Walker, Scott Riddle and Miguel Vargas who had come up with Ben from Mexico.

Some of these people had come to give me a hand, others just for the experience but the elephant crew destined for Circus World was me, Ben, the two Garys, Donnie, Scott and Miguel.

40 Years Ago! #9

.....later that evening we were on our way

40 Years Ago! #10

.....and then next morning, a five or six mile march up Hwy. 27 from Davenport to the site

40 Years Ago! #11

....down dusty back roads and endless orange groves

40 Years Ago! #12

.....finally the back entrance to the park still under construction

40 years ago! #13

.....so on a cold, windy February morning, this was the scene until I raised Hell and they hung sheets and more sheets of plastic wrapping around the front shed and hauled in a couple of space heaters.

Not an auspicious beginning.

Two Months Later!

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Wonder Wheel #1 (From Chic Silber)

Coney Island's "Wonder Wheel" built in 1920 is the oldest of the areas attractions

Built by the "Eccentric Ferris Wheel Company" it stands 150 feet tall which

dwarfs the 85 foot tall "Cyclone" roller coaster (from 1927) about a block away

It has 24 fully enclosed passenger cars (8 fixed at the perimeter & 16 sliders)

The wheel has had a lifetime perfect safety record

Both of these great rides are landmarked & cannot be undone or moved.

Wonder Wheel #2

Parachute Jump #1

There have been at least 3 major engineering studies done

that I've heard about & they all concluded the basic structure

was not sound enough for restoration to be dynamic

I believe some reinforcement has been done to allow it

to remain intact in its present decorative landmarked state

Built in 39 for the World's Fair & moved to Coney Island

in 41 it stands 250 feet tall & was in operation until 1964

I rode all 3 of those attractions as a youth & the other 2

much more recently (but still years ago)

Parachute Jump #2

From Paul Gutheil

For Chic

Hall & Christ's World of Wonders Meadowlands Fair , NJ

Death Car #1 (From Eric Beheim)

As a follow-up to the recent posting of a photo showing Bonnie & Clyde’s bullet-riddled V-8 Ford, the original car is now on display at Whiskey Pete’s Resort and Casino in Primm, Nevada (about 40 miles south of Las Vegas.) Along with the car is a sizable collection of letters and other items vouching for its authenticity. (In addition to the car used in the 1967 movie, at least 6 fake Bonnie & Clyde getaway cars are known to exist.)

Death Car #2

Beginning almost immediately after Bonnie & Clyde met their demise in this car (which occurred on May 23, 1934), it has been exhibited at carnivals, amusement parks, flea markets, and state fairs. In the 1970s it turned up at a Nevada racetrack, where people could sit in it for a dollar. In the 1980s it was in a Las Vegas car museum. A decade after that, it was in a casino near the California/Nevada state line, later touring casinos in Iowa, Missouri, and northern Nevada. It is estimated that, during its long career in show business, the Bonnie and Clyde “Death Car” has earned somewhere between $5 and $10 million dollars!

Death Car #3

This photo of my wife Pat and myself impersonating Bonnie & Clyde was taken a few years ago when we were considering joint careers as brigands. (Instead, I ended up working for the U.S. Government, which, some might argue, is the ultimate form of brigandism.)

The following morning while they were cleaning out the barn, he would arrive, stand in the doorway a while and finally say, "Slight Indian uprising last night!"

Buckles