Saturday, May 26, 2012

Saddle Up, Radar--Who Was Cleopatra, Who Trained Her, and What Became Of Her?





13 comments:

Bob Cline said...

Radar, Ask Mike Rice. He had a baby named Cleo in 1972.
Bob

Wade G. Burck said...

Bobby,
Dammit, don't help him!!!!!

Wade

Ryan Easley said...

Wade,
C'mon, you don't want me eating my fingers and dashing my head on the wall, do you??

The North American Regional Studbook for the Asian Elephant states:
Popsicle / Cleopatra / Champagne / Dottie, SB 22
~1964 - Birth, India
~06/1965 - Chateau Theatrical Animals (New York World's Fair)
~1969 - Beardsley Zoo, Connecticut
05/24/1977 - Jurgen Schulz
05/19/1978 - Chehaw Wild Animal Park, Georgia
05/03/1985 - Buckles Woodcock
??? - Death

Mike told me he was partners with a guy for Cleopatra, maybe 1968? He said she came from Charles Chase of Miami, Florida. She worked fast and did tricks like a front leg walk (seen here).

Referencing Bob's records, Pepper / Dutch was acquired by the Buckles Woodcock act in 1985 from the Chehaw Zoo in Albany, Georgia. She was euthanized in summer 1989 at Catskill Game Farm.

Pepper is one of the four elephants listed with Buckles in the 1987 Circus Report Elephant Census, along with Anna May, Peggy and Toto. Buckles states Dutch, Peggy and Toto performed at Catskill in 1989.

The following can be found from the Elephant Sanctuary's website:
"Upon their arrival, Tange and Zula were housed with the zoo’s sole elephant Dottie, aka Champagne, a female Asian elephant that that the park had acquired one month earlier. Dottie was born wild in India in 1964. She was purchased by the Chateau Theatrical Animals for the New York World's Fair in 1965. In 1969 she was sent to the Beardsley Zoological Gardens in Bridgeport, Connecticut. In 1977, after killing someone at the Beardsley zoo, she was purchased by Jurgen Schulz and sold to the Chehaw Wild Animal Park in May of 1978. Tange, Zula and Dottie shared living quarters at Chehaw Wild Animal Park until Dottie was sold in 1985 to circus elephant trainer and presenter “Buckles” Woodcock. Five years later Dottie died at the relatively young age of 26."

Wade G. Burck said...

Radar,
Very good, but I wish Bobby hadn't "tipped" you that there was a source in you back yard. I wanted you to take note of how many owners the elephant had, and her eventually killing someone, and "dying" at a young age of 26.

Wade

Ryan Easley said...

If the TES story is correct, then this is more than one elephant. Mike did tell me he worked her at the Hall of Fame for a year or two and that she was a fresh import from Charles Chase of Miami. TES says Dottie went to the Connecticut zoo in 1969, killed a guy in 1977 and Schulz sent her to Georgia. The Hall of Fame dates are in the early 1970s. The Buckles elephant would have already been six years old by the time Mike was working her - the pictures and his statements debunk that.

HENCEFORTH... someone help me out here, please.

Bob Cline said...

I would think that the Studbook is probably OK on this one. I helped straighten out several of the listings over the years.

The fact that it ignores the Mike Rice connection shows incorrect information or a different elephant.

So looking at the photos of Mike in 1972, there is no way that the baby is 8 years old in those photos. Quite simply, you are talking about two different elephants.

Buckles elephant was euthanized in 1989 at the Catskill Game Farm which would only make it 25 years old, so TES isn't completely correct either.
Bob

Wade G. Burck said...

Radar,
Henceforth, I never understood what the name/names Pepper/Dutch had to do with the original question, who was Cleopatra.

Bobby,
TES say's 26 dod and you say 25, and you are going to drop the hammer on their statement? Damn, compared to the bowl of guacamole that posed as elephant/animal records in the circus past, don't you think you could cut them a bit of slack? :)

Wade

Bob Cline said...

Wade,
I'm sitting here chuckling at your good point. A great deal of these elephant records are recorded as heresay and thus the written word gets taken for gospel when many times it wasn't necessarily so.

Unfortunately, that same scenario has dragged me down doing research on circus history as well because if you can't believe what was written in 1912 and I wasn't there then, what else is there to believe.

I'm actually finding out more about an elephant than we knew existed from another source right now that just messes up what was recorded all these years. Based on their newspaper articles and the fact that nothing else exists including receipts, bills of sale of otherwise, from 1912, I'll have to take the newspaper articles as being probably right. Based on these newspaper tidbits, a whole new set of questions comes in view about this elephant now.

Geez!
Bob

Ryan Easley said...

The TES story is rather detailed. For what reason? It is not an animal they acquired nor tried to. My guess is TES was given the animal's history from Chehaw or Carol gained it during her time there. Let us not forget she was their "consultant" in (I believe) the 1980s. I read a lot about it in their Management Protocol. It most likely was included in the biographies to "tug at the heart strings" to soliciting more donations.

Speaking of ages, they criticize the Dutch/Pepper elephant's death at 25/26. Zula was 34 when she "collapsed after entering the barn for the evening" and died. It is said that the Catskill elephant was euthanized. A better fate than [Bunny] dying under a tent for a week while treated with homeopathic remedies, no?

Wade G. Burck said...

Radar,
That would depend totally on "why" the elephant was euthanized. I have stayed away from and won't consider deaths at TES, PAWS etc having any relevance as to age, unless we also consider and list any issue's they may have had before they went to either place.

Speaking of place's, any word yet how Col. was listed as dead two day's after the fact, and why newspaper accounts say he died at the Krone Bau, and the data base places him at Sonny's place?

Wade

Ryan Easley said...

A note about Dutch / Pepper:

Circus Report 03/17/1986:
Notes & Corrections [to the 86 published census]
Bones Craig has the Woodcock elephant Pepper.

Were Dutch and Pepper the same animal? Is this confirmed and which name was used where?

Wade G. Burck said...

Radar,
I have honestly never heard of Dutch or Pepper.

Wade

Anonymous said...

I'm hopeful that this discussion still has followers. I'm interested in learning more about the life of the elephant known as Champagne.

My brother knew Champagne back in the late 1960's when she was at the Chateau Theatrical Stables. He tells me that she was owned by a wealthy man who would come to see her at times and walk her up and down the West Side of Manhattan in NYC. Champagne used to look forward to these walks and could tell when the wealthy man was arriving and would become excited for the walks.

My brother at that time was in college and to support himself he used to drive the handsome cabs that are a fixture in NYC. They are the Horse and buggies that you see around Midtown Manhattan and in pictures. He worked the night shift and when his shift was over he used to walk over to Champagne who trusted him. He would point to her and say "down". Champagne would lay down and my brother used to lay down with his back to her belly and go to sleep for the night. In the morning when the sun came up Champagne would reach around and tap him with her trunk awakening my brother. Like a "Honey, it's time to get up!" :-) My brother would then get up, pat her and then head off to classes at school.

I'm wondering what she died of. I see that she was euthanized but it doesn't say why? I'm also interested in how she was performing and what kinds of things she did in her performance if she continued to perform?

My brother is sick and he's wondered about her. I'm trying to fill in some of the gaps from his younger days. Any help would be appreciated.

-John