Friday, June 30, 2006

To Old Texan/ Hunt Bros. Circus 1953


The three elephants at left are "Dolly", "Blanche" and "Jewel" all purchased from the Ringling Show at various times over the years, starting with "Dolly" in 1927.
In 1949 they purchased five punks that Louie Reed named "Chandre", "Sita", "Rani", "Muna" and "Dinnu", only four are included in this picture for some reason.
So they would have had the same eight elephants at the Palisades date you mentioned.

Posted by Buckles at 6/30/2006 10:53:00 AM

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like "BLANCHE" forgot her tolterodine tartrate the night before this photo was taken!!!

30 June, 2006 17:09
Anonymous said...

why do some ringling elephants have stars branded on them? my 6 year old would like to know?

30 June, 2006 19:13
Buckles said...

In 1981 the Ringling Show imported six young elephants, four went to the Blue Unit and two to the Red.
Most, if not all, arrived with small stars branded into their flanks. As they grew larger the stars became more and more obvious.
No idea what the purpose was and I had never seen it done before or since.

30 June, 2006 20:46
Anonymous said...

I've never entirely understood why Charles Hunt waited so many years to add elephants to his show. I know it was strictly a wagon show for the first twenty or so seasons, but he transitioned to "gas" long before the elephant bug bit him. My Dad used to say that as a kid in the 30's Hunt was one of his favorite circuses. Other shows came and went, but season after season after season Hunt was there.

A Thai friend of mine one told me that the star brand on an elephant meant that it orginated with a herd nominally "owned" by the King. I was never sure how accurate that was, since I'm pretty sure I once saw an elephant in Sri Lanka with the brand.

The other day I was on National Rifle Association radio talking about PETA, since I'm generally pretty liberal I had to laugh at the strange bedfellows one runs with in the politics of animal rights. Anyway, tonight a dozen protestors showed up in Wisconsin and one of the protestors screamed at me as I was directing three clowns to way traffic onto the lot "Your generations is too right-wing to understand the suffering of animals." I couldn't help but think that my generation was the one that "tuned in, turned on, and dropped out," so what the Hell was this kid talking about? Charles Hunt managed his show for more than 60 years. I'll bet he was baffled at least a few times by the idiocy of youth.

30 June, 2006 23:31
Buckles said...

Yes Chandre was later was owned by Tommy Hanneford.

01 July, 2006 00:19
Anonymous said...

They always spelled it Chandra.

01 July, 2006 09:01
Ryan Easley said...

Buckles,
I have found a note from a Bandwagon issue that states Hunt Brothers Circus added an elephant in June 1954, bringing the herd size to seven. This doesn't match with any news articles from the time regarding the show's herd of 8 throughout the 1950s. Any ideas?

24 June, 2012 11:32
Tom Mac Dermott said...

The Bandwagon note was in error. I was on the show in 54 and we had eight elephanta, Dolly, Blanche and Jewel ans five "babies".

Tom Mac Dermott
Kingston, NH

18 April, 2020 21:39

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