Ringling-Barnum Circus 1941 #16

Ringling-Barnum Circus 1941 # 17

Ringling-Barnum Circus 1941 #18

Ringling-Barnum Circus 1941 #19

Ringling-Barnum Circus 1941 #20

Ringling-Barnum Circus 1941 #21

Ringling-Barnum Circus 1941 #22

Bertram Mills' Circus #1 (Photos and comments by Sue Lenz)

"Thought the attachments might be of interest. The one of Bertram Mills' Circus in the UK must have been taken in the mid 1930's as they are still using the two pole tent".

Bertram Mills' Circus Equestrians #2

"Dickie, Pat and Billy Baker with my dad Freddy and his two brothers Claude and Tony Yelding."

Bertram Mills' Circus Equestrians #3

"This is my dad with his brother Claude and the two other people are Jim and Betty Fossett, the parents of Jimmy Fossett of the swaypoles".

Bertram Mills' Circus Equestrians #4

"The Cumberlands Riding Act with Wensel Kossmayer, the Bakers including Maisy and the Yelding brothers with their one sister Dolly".

Bertram Mills' Circus Equestrians #5

"As I know you specialize in elephant pictures, I am including one of me riding one of Roberts Bros. Circus elephants in 1958".

Vicenta Pages

Just had an interesting conversation with Jim Elliott regarding Miss Pages introduction to the Ken & Nicole Show, the crux of which he has submitted beneath yesterday's picture.

Diamond O Ranch 1954 #1

I lifted these photos from one of my wifes scap books, what she doesn't know won't hurt her. I always thought that Tony Diano fancied himself as Frank Buck, they were even quite similar in appearance. At the close of Ben Davenport's "Diano Bros. Circus" in 1953, Mr. Diano added the young tusker "Tommy" (King Tusk) to his animal collection, along with a number of former Dailey Show people including Rex and Barbara. In 1954 he framed an animal show on the back end of the World of Mirth midway which included eight elephants, a hippo, rhino, giraffe, etc. Here we see him in the ticket box doing his Frank Buck act.

Diamond O Ranch 1954 #2

Barbara, Rex and "Tommy" with the Diano Animal Show. The elephants were moved by rail since Mr. Diano had purchased the Cole Show bull car.

Diamond O Ranch 1954 #3

Located just outside Canton, Ohio, this was sure a convenient place for animal acts to break the jump and unload the stock.

Diamond O Ranch 1954 #4

Barbara said you could always tell how far along Rex was on a training project by the condition of his hat which was his weapon of choice.

Diamond O Ranch 1954 #5

Smokey and Rex examining a monkey.

Diamond O Ranch 1954 #6

Mr. Diano has stopped by his farm which was usually bad news. Smokey told me that if he was short handed at the cement plant he would round up all the hands at the farm as slave labor to finish out the days work.

Sad News!

Heard today that Jenda Smaha died while on vacation in Africa. I was talking to him at the club recently and he mentioned how much he enjoyed it over there and even invited me to accompany him. When Barbara and I showed Las Vegas and Reno with the Polack Show he always rolled out the red carpet and would take us on back stage tours of the Dunes or the Nugget. He was the absolute King of the Casino elephant trainers.