I have always wondered if the octagon ring barn in the photo above and the long, low buildings in the photo below, were the same ones dismantled and moved to Venice, or were they left in Sarasota, and new, identical structures built in Venice?
The cage act at Monte Carlo in 2008(the year Albert "gifted" an animal rights group with his poor, captive zoo leopards) actually had an old arena with the pointed hooks on the top, which was a common form of "containment" for feline/ursine . I would think it would be time for some people to get new equipment and move into the "modern era" of the circus, with due respect to "traditional!!!!"
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Ringling Bros. Winter quarters--Sarasota, Florida--1953
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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3 comments:
I made my first trip to these quarters in March 1953 close to the time these pics were taken.
There are four giraffes in these pens. They were Boston (born in that city in 1946), Edith his mother (imported in 1936), Gloria 1951 offsprng of Edith x Boston (a puny animal - little wonder given the in-breeding), and Ingrid, imported in 1950.
Ingrid was a reticuated and is shown in the first photo - note the difference in spot pattern. All the others were Nubians.
Another comment - -The bars on that bear cage were said to have been fashioned from truss rods taken from the old wooden flat cars when they were replaced by new Warren steel cars in 1928 and 1929.
Let's not be too judgmental about animal cages of 50 to 70+ years ago - -either on circuses or in zoos. Those were the norms back then.
Clyde Beatty, Terrell Jacobs, or Dick Clemens would be arrested today for their fighting acts shooting blanks at the big cats, etc. But they are true life heroes in circus lore.
True we may be more enlightened nowadays about animal matters but have grevious problems of other sorts.
Re norms of yesteryear, remember that circus workers of 60+ years ago slept in their cloths in rail cars two to the bunk , three high , with no air-conditoining and heat only from an occasional stove at the end of a car. For bathing, a worker had to do with such ablutions as he could take from a bucket of water while ducking behind a wagon while towners milled all around. In shoirt - -little better off than circus varmints.
Richard,
I wasn't being judgmental about cages 50-70 years ago. Every thing has a history, and I love and value the history of animal husbandry as you do. I was being judgmental about the arena with the hooks used at Monte Carlo in 2008, 50-70 years later.
What you describe about living conditions is pretty accurate to 5 years ago. Most of the rag bags have folded since then. It they hadn't, I bet it would still be close to what you describe. With the exception of two to a bunk. With the exception of the 8 X 8 "suites" with the dining table/bed combination on the Ringling Show.
Wade
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