Cole Brothers Circus in United States

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Cole Brothers Circus

Type	circus
Founded	1906
Place	Peru, Indiana
Country	United States
Related persons
Owner


Manager	-: Milt Herriot


Key People
Zoological department
Animal trainers
1950-1950: John Herriot 1935-1938: Clyde Beatty -: Viola Herriot

Elephant department
Head keepers of elephants
1915-1917: Cheerful Gardner (elephant trainer)

Record history
History of updates	2025-03-24: 2025-03-24:

Latest document update	2025-03-24 16:11:45

Description

Cole Brothers Circus, in Peru, Indiana, United States , was founded in 1906.

Comments / picturesThe Cole Bros. Circus (originally of Rochester, Indiana) was founded by Martin J. Downs in 1906. Downs named the circus for W.W. "Chilly Billy" Cole, the first man to make $1 million in the circus business.

Cole Brothers Circus in United States United+States

Cole Brothers Circus in United States United+States

Cheerful with "Myrtle", "Bonnie" and "Babe" on J. Augustus Jones' Cole Bros. Circus 1915.
Sold to Charlie Sparks at auction when the show folded in 1917.

1934, 1935: New elephants arrived from William P. Hall Animal Farm.

Records about Cole Brothers Circus from the Circus Historical Society
Chang Reynolds and Bob Bernard, noted elephant historians, have clarified by name, number, and time of arrival the elephants coming to the Cole show by way of the Hall Farm. Of course the 3 elephants coming to the new show by way of the Standard Oil Live Power show at the Chicago World\'s Fair were originally from the Hall Farm and were named Tony, Big Katie, and Juno, however. we are concerned here with the 18 purchased from the Hall Estate after the show was organized. The initial 6, which came with the purchase of the Robbins Bros. equipment in December, 1934, were Blanche, Little Babe, Big Jenny, Tommy, Ding, and Boo. The first three named were part of the Robbins Bros. property held by Hall and the latter 3 were owned and sold by Hall\'s widow. After the 1935 season opened nine more were purchased and added to the show at Detroit. These were Mary, Sidney, Wilma, Little Katie, George, Nellie, Little Jenny, Anna May, and Tessie. The final 3 elephants purchased from Hall late in 1935 were Major, Trilby, and Alice.

Elephants from Cole Brothers Circus parade through downtown Los Angeles, 1953

1954: "This ("Little Babe", "Big Jennie" and "Tessie" 1954) was the end ring act my dad worked on the Cole Show. The other end was "Nellie", "Little Jenny" and "Wilma". Arky worked the Ranch Herd in the center "Big Babe", "Louie", "Carrie" and "Jean". And for some reason "Blanche", "Trilby" and "Katie" didnt perform, only worked in harness." //Buckles Web Log, Cole Bros. Circus Elephants 1954
1957, the ACME Circus Corporation acquired the Cole Bros. name and the show became Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus.
1981: John Pugh became became President and owner of Cole Bros. Circus, Inc. in 1981.

References for records about Cole Brothers Circus

Recommended Citation

Koehl, Dan (2025). Cole Brothers Circus, Elephant Encyclopedia. Available online at https://www.elephant.se/location2.php?location_id=828. (archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources used for this article is among others:

A History of the Cole Bros. Circus 1935-40 by Joseph T. Bradbury. Bandwagon, Vol. 9, No. 5 (Sep-Oct), 1965, pp. 4-8. Online at https://web.archive.org/web/20101213221123/https://classic.circushistory.org/bandwagon/bw-1965Sep.htm
Handbook Cole bros.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150417155046/https://classic.circushistory.org/bandwagon/bw-1965Sep.htm

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