Thursday, June 28, 2007

King Bros.-Cristiani 1952 #7


SAVE3039, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

These must be Floyd King's three elephants "Alice", Mona" and Margie".
Something wrong here, where are the nine Cristiani elephants?
Elephant man at left looks like Capt. John "Rags" Pugh.

8 comments:

Bob Cline said...

Would that be the same John Pugh we know now as the proud owner of Cole Bros. Circus ?
Bob

Buckles said...

Not quite.
Damn, my portrait has vanished!

Anonymous said...

I assume “Alice” and “Mona” are the ones that wound up in the zoo in Virginia. I was told that “Mona” was also know as “Mona Lisa” and did not have the best temperament. These are all rumors, as she died a year or so before I arrived there.
Don Bloomer

Anonymous said...

These do not look like Alice, Mona and Marjorie. Alice and Mona were larger than the first two and Marjorie was not full grown. It could be they were three of the Pete and Norma five that were on KC. They would have been about that size in those days. I don't believe Rex was with them and know he and Smokey were with Tony Diano at that time. Again Alice and Mona were fully matured adult elephants and Marjorie was not full grown by any means. In 54 we put her with the newly acquired Mary and Judy from Rogers Bros. and they were a perfect fit of three young elephants. Later Bert would add Tessie and Little Jenny for a five act.

Anonymous said...

Mona was not tough at all. Alice was blind in one eye and would react to anyone walking up on her blind side unannounced. She had killed someone. Neither performed in the ring. I UNDERSTOOD aLICE WAS IMPORTED AS A WORK ELEPHANT FROM HER NATIVE LAND. Both were good work elephants. Margorie was a very well trained elephant trained by Matt Laurish.

Buckles said...

Johnny, whoever you guys left behind to work "Alice" and "Mona" in 1954 (I forget his name) quickly farmed the job out to Logan's helper, a black kid named Shorty Sherack.
Shorty had a very high pitched voice and you could hear him well into the night pulling up big top stakes with "Mona".

Ryan Easley said...

Buckles,
A January 1947 Billboard states three elephants arrived from India - two went to King Bros. quarters in Jackson, Mississippi, and the third to Weidmann Amusement Co. in California. Margie was the one of the new King elephants, who was the second ? She obviously was gone by 1951/52.

Buckles said...

I have the King Show 1947 herd listed as "Alice", "Mary Ann", "Mona" and "Margie".