Saturday, March 29, 2014

To Ryan Easley #2


9 comments:

Ryan Easley said...

Thank you ! One answer always leads to more questions - can you tell me more about this Babe from Tony Gentry ?

Buckles said...

I have no record of this Babe in 1977.
Probably came from a zoo.

Ryan Easley said...

Thank you sir. I wonder if she was the Babe that Rex supposedly acquired along with an African in the mid 1970s from Jungle Larry. Pete Cristiani also supposedly had a "Babe" in 1977. I don't know what became of her or if she's the same animal he acquired in 1967 from Dietch per your records.

Buckles said...

I always try to compile these lists in order of seniority.

Chic Silber said...


So the 1st 17 must have been

Axel's herd in 77 on Blue or

were there any others

Anonymous said...

I was in Operations at Circus World when she showed (early 1978) up and was the lead for the Elephant Ride as well as the house for the Circus Day Theater. When Babe showed up at the park she was accompanied by a gentlemen with a British accent. We were told that she had been owned by a family in California and the gentleman that traveled with her was her care taker. He hung around for a couple of weeks (in the traditional British game warden attire). I remember hearing from Axel's folks that she wasn't very socialized with other elephants in his herd which accounted for some family discord in the herd. She was much smaller than the rest of the herd (more like Charlie's size when he left the park) and they had to make a special howda and modify the elephant ride stand to use her on the ride.

Ryan Easley said...

Thank you, Larry. Buckles, while discussing this time frame, I just came across a female African supposedly loaned to Ringling between 1980 to 1982 from the Knoxville Zoo named Hillery. Was she to be a ride elephant, or what were the circumstances here ?

Buckles said...

This is news to me.
Maybe Larry could add something.

GaryHill said...

I really wish that Great Adventure was so secretive about what they did to unload some of my elephants after they started growing up...I have hear some horror stories about things that happened after I left and came back to Circus World.. I am sure they had to have sold some females and I often wonder if I bumped into any of them over the years?