Another day in Blogger World!

My computer returned to it's senses late yesterday and I finally got Mr. Gutheil's pictures completed. I bounded from bed this morning convinced that all's well with the world and present Jerry Digney's latest pictures when things began to go awry. I remained cool.....I remained calm.....I ran the dogs.....I fed the cats.....I went down to the front gate to pick up he paper.....I shall now proceed to open the liquor cabinet and determine what football games to watch this afternoon.

From Jim Cole

Anybody know anything about this movie? htt://sophie-themovie/sophie.html From the previews, it looks like another bad rap for circus elephants, Water for Elephants #2. Who's elephant (African) is this?

Gutheil Film Festival #1 (From Buckles)

Paul stamped most of his photos and in this instance, added comments: "March 1993 NY Museum of History. Jumbo with (L to R) Frank Robie, Karen Swope (RBBB-NY), Al House, Diane Gutheil and Herb Clement."

Gutheil Film Festival #2

"RBBB Blue- Long Island, NY March 2004."

Gutheil Film Festival #3

"RBBB Red- Bello & Bo the NY/NJ run."

Gutheil Film Festival #4

"Axel Gautier "Holds Up" the act, 1980's"

Gutheil Film Festival #5

"Too much Purina Elephant Chow?"

Gutheil Film Festival #6

"RBBB- Blue Bridgeport, Ct. 10/07"

Gutheil Film Festival #7

"Long Island (NY) Game Farm about 1988"

Gutheil Film Festival #8

"Great Moscow Circus Madison Square Garden, Dec. 1994."

From Jim Zajicek #1

Buckles I had this Flea Circus made in England a few years ago, It was made by Sven Svenson...It is Housed in a old Cedar Box the size of a small/medium Mossman tuck Box (app. 20x13x11)...I have not taken it on the road yet, However I hope to break a few Fleas this winter..Hopefully it will help me to scratch out a livin. Best, Jim Zajicek Curator of the Unusual Flea Wrangler

From Jim Zajicek #2

Elephant Transfer!

The Toronto Zoo’s elephant keepers are up in arms over a late-night city council vote to send the animals to a sanctuary rather than an accredited facility. “No offence to any city (councillors) that made the decision, but they’re quite honestly not qualified to make a decision on what’s best for these elephants,’’ an angry Vernon Presley, one of seven elephant keepers at the zoo, told the Star last night. Council voted 31-4 late Tuesday to send the zoo’s three remaining elephants — Toka, Thika and Iringa — to the sprawling Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) sanctuary in San Andreas, Calif., rather than a zoo accredited with the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The zoo’s board of management voted in the spring to close the elephant exhibit for cost reasons, and the board’s first choice was an AZA facility. In the meantime, animal rights advocates, led by former Price is Right host Bob Barker, launched an aggressive campaign to have the trio packed off to PAWS. Barker has offered to put up some of his own money toward the $100,000 to $300,000 cost to move them south. Behind the scenes, zoo officials, staff and animal rights interests have been debating the merits of the sanctuary. Proponents say PAWS and others like it provide warmer climates and huge swaths for elephants to roam. But critics say sanctuaries have lower standards of care and don’t operate transparently. Last week, a zoo official said talks were going well with an AZA facility in the U.S., a destination favoured by the elephant keepers. That’s now been scuttled by council’s decision. Presley, who hasn’t been to the PAWS sanctuary, said AZA standards require regular routines with elephants, including drawing blood, trunk inspections and daily exercise such as strength and flexibility training, elephant “yoga’’ and cardio work. "WOW!....A quarter of a million dollars to move an elephant......I've got an old Sid Kellner elephant trailer out back....I'll move them for $96,733.18 plus tractor rental and fuel!" Buckles

Google is having a "Bad Hair Day"

Shannon here...... Google is having issues. We use the Picasa program to catalog the picures. It also has a nice feature that sends to pictures right to the Blog. That particular feature is "Having a Bad Hair Day". It took me(Shannon) almost 30min to get just those Flea Circus pictures posted. Trying again tomorrow.

Heckler's Trained Flea Circus #1 (From Eric Beheim)

In 1936, LIFE MAGAZINE did a photo feature on Heckler’s Trained Flea Circus. (The same show that Bill Ballantine wrote about in WILD TIGERS AND TAME FLEAS.) I don’t believe that Buckles’ Blog has ever run any photos showing a flea circus, so . . . This first photo shows the white flannel “Flea Hotel” where the fleas were kept, hitched to their equipment, between performances.

Heckler's Trained Flea Circus #2

Here, “Professor” Roy Heckler is shown fitting a flea with a copper wire collar. According to the LIFE article, Heckler’s fleas came from Mediterranean countries via ships’ stewards, who were paid 10 cents apiece for them. (I wonder where he got his fleas during World War II, when the Mediterranean was a combat zone.)

Heckler's Trained Flea Circus #3

This extreme close-up shows a flea fitted with its copper wire collar.

Heckler's Trained Flea Circus #4

To break the fleas from their habit of jumping, they were put inside of a glass tube. Those that still insisted on jumping were wired to this miniature gibbet for some “advanced conditioning.”

Heckler's Trained Flea Circus #5

According to the article, fleas are as strong as ants, and can pull a cannon of this relative size. In 1936, Heckler’s fleas did an average of 20 shows a day.

Heckler's Trained Flea Circus #6

The grand finale of Heckler’s Trained Flea Circus was a race between two chariots and a cannon. (According to the article, a Heckler flea would typically last about 6 months, so there must have been several understudies on hand as well.)