Who is a hard core circus historian????

Anybody can figure out where this incident took place by the address that it occurred at. I'll let you "Illinois" folks tell us.

Wade's Circus--Tom Smith Cracker/Red Rose Tea Company

The photo above is from Henry Penndorf, and the photo's below are from the internet. What I understand about the Wade Circus figurines,(or at least what I want to believe) is that they were offered as "inserts" in England in boxes of crackers in 1978 to honor America's greatest new wild animal trainer of that era. They were later reissued in England in boxes of Red Rose Tea in an effort to suck up to me, as they didn't want any trouble with the current(at the time) tea taxes. I understand there were 15 figures in the complete set, and they are priceless today, if you can find them. Most of them were collected and presented to foreign dignitaries as government gifts, and a few are in museums, notably the Louve and the Metropolitan. The Imperial Collections of the Hapsburg's at the Kunsthistorisches Museum is reported to have a set, which they are said to have traded Montezuma's Quetzal feather war bonnet for.

Ari

This is Ari jumping through the hoop in this picture from Henry Penndorf above, and Ari below on Ringling Bros. Circus. The hoop didn't get smaller, Ari just got bigger. The tiger I am leaning against is his brother Ika. Eventually I wa able to sit on him as Ari jumped, but at this time he wasn't big enough to hold the weight of my fat ass. When Ika was retired to the Colombus Zoo due to an permanant leg injury, I trained the gold tiger Khan to sit on while Ari jumped.

Vintage "paper". Who ever thought one day you would be "vintage???"

From Henry Penndorf, because I sure don't remember, LOL

The ad for the Shrine Circus is from our local newspaper at
the time, The Standard Star.  The descriptions of your
 acts comes from the Mecca Temple's Shrine Circus Souvenir
Program & Coloring Book.  In 1979 it sold for
fifty cents.

The first time I had my lunch handed to me, and I was "downed and browned" by a tiger.

As mentioned in the last thread, Circus Fan's of America are the greatest folk's in the world and most of what has been kept or documented has been through their efforts. These old picture's were sent to me last week on my 56th birthday, from Henry Penndorg along with this excerpt from his kind letter. It sure makes my past efforts seem worthwhile:

The first time that I saw you perform was at the
Westchester County Center in
White Plains, New York, with with the Hamid-Morton
Brothers Shrine Circus.  At the time, as I remember,
you were presenting three acts , the Hawthorn tigers,
elephants, and a "natural enemies" act.  You were also
doing your best Gunther imitation, complete with blond hair.
Each time that you would perform one of your acts,
my oldest son, who was two and a half at the time would call
out and point, "Daddy, Gunther". We did enjoy your performance.
I am not 100% positive, but I think Hamid-Morton Brothers
only appeared in White Plains in 1979 and 1980.  During those
years we had two circuses  appearing  at the Westchester
County Center, the Royal Hanneford Circus in February, and the
Hamid-Morton Circus in May.  I didn't miss either one. 
The Hamid-Morton Circus was sponsored by the Mecca Temple.
The next time I saw you was when you joined Ringling
Brothers in the mid 80's, and then again in the 90's
when you presented Gunther's tigers.

These pictures were used in either The Star or The National Enquirer newpaper's(grocery store rags) to do a feature on me after I was sloughed by Sultan, whom I mention below. The top picture is the next day after I had been to the hospital for stitches. The second picture is in the house trailer a week later, with Adam and his mother, Margaret assessing the damage. A few day's ago an anonymous commenter asked if folks got off on the danger of what it is I do. The best response is "like a Roman watching a gladiator in the coliseum." I don't think anyone wishes bad for anyone who has a dangerous occupation, but then again, if it does go down, it makes for an extra exciting show.

Anybody who want's to make a snide comment about my blond hair, don't waste your time as it will be censored. LOL

Courtesy of Henry Penndorf

Jungle Larry's African Safari

A while back Thomas asked for pictures of the animals I had worked with at Jungle Larry's African Safari. This is not what he wanted, as I am sure he wanted cat act pictures, but it is about all I have. The elephant in this picture is either Wama, Duvu, or Roho I am not sure anymore. Back in the day we had the opportunity to work with so many animals that we weren't as concerned with taking picture or video's as the trainers do today. Maybe we just didn't have the "tecnology" that there is today. Most pictures that are available were taken over the years, by great Circus Fan's of America, like Jim Cole or Paul Guteil, amoung others. God Bless them, because often it is the only documentation left.
Type Jungle Larry in the search deal for more "JL"(he hated when we called him "JL") pictures.

The black, blue, and white boots that Pat Anthony had made for me in Mexico City

Black Boots, which I spray painted silver, to match the costume, with silver spray paint(called Mexican chrome in the circus.) Pretty stupid, as the paint dried the leather out, and there was no way to oil them. They eventually cracked up and tore, and were thrown away.

White Boots, which I gave to my brother Michael when he left for Europe with the White Tiger act in 1988 when it went on Circus Knie. He gave them to a fan in Switzerland, and I understand he still has them in his collection. This is the Clyde Bros. tiger act, my first tiger act, and this was my first "tiger publicity photo." Note the horrendous cages in the back ground that the animals were kept in, which was standard for the time. They had solid wood backsides, and they were loaded in the truck 4 on one side, and 3 on the other side, back to back with the mesh side facing the open doors on the trailer. That way the animals, which lived alone and did not get along, could not see each other and fight during trips.


Blue Boots, which were gashed up when I was "downed and browned" by a tiger named Sultan. That's him, third from the left, sitting up on the pyramid. I gave the boots to a fan in Niagara Falls, New York. This was my first "Hawthorn tiger publicity photo." Note the address, as it was a year before the Richmond facilties were built.

If you go to the search bar above and type in Pat Anthony in the search bar, there are some additional nice pictures of Pat with his cats.