James Brothers Circus (Sid Kellner), United States .
I had forgotten that we had some open time with James Bros. Circus in 1969 because here we are laying off in Baraoo and making the parade thru the grounds. Here is Ben at age 16 in front with "Anna May" followed by my Helper Jim with "Ellie", then Frankie and John with the Deppe elephants while I am obscured in the background with the Kellner punks "Lovie", "Sue" and "Jackie".
Tom Upton took this picture, also in 1969, showing the Kellner elephants "Ellie", "Lovie" and "Sue", at work putting up the former Mills Bros. Cirus tent in California. When Kenny Feld bought these two punks in 1977, I changed their names to "Louie" and "Sid" and as far as I know they are still under Feld Inc. ownership. In fact, "Sid" has had a number of calves up at the Stud Farm.
Jimmy Cole just sent this, which is a follow up to a previous 1969 picture taken in Baraboo. A combination of the CWM and James Bros. elephants. "Anna May", "Ellie", "Eva", "Topsy", "Toby", "Lovie", "Sue" and "Jackie". I notice Jim and Frankie holding their sticks outward in a fashion that would get an ass chewing from my dad. He pointed out to me that elephants will start to come down when the stick is lowered rather than when they are told to. I might add that I changed the three Kellner punks names to "Louie", "Sid" and "Juno" when they were puchased by the Ringling Show eight years later.
Barbara with the James Bros. Circus elephants in 1969. This publicity picture taken in Sid\'s driveway at his Estate in Martinez, CA. They already had names, which I didn't care for, but I thought this would just be a tempoary job but as it turned out I would be around these elephants off and on for the next 12 years.
This is a picture of the same elephants from my own collection. The fat little elephant on this end is"Juno" and the larger one "Ellie" standing next to "Anna May" was later accidently electrocuted while working in harness with Roller Bros. Circus in about 1973.
Regarding the 1949 Dailey Bros. Circus picture. Buckles, Wouldn't this have been a hard pull for two young elephants, or was it done for publicity photos? "I pulled the peaks on this 120' top with James Bros. Circus using a single elephant "Ellie" and a small team "Juno" and "Sid" and then took them inside and went up with the quarter poles. The two little guys when combined, weighed over 2,000 pounds and could comfortably handle a pretty good load but more importantly it gave them exposure to the noise, excitement and the flapping canvas. A rolling wagon on a hard lot wouldn't be much different from this but of course a truck buried in the mud is another story." Buckles
