Is this Walter Jenner with the sea lions? Would those have been Klauser's bear cubs in the background?
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Ringling Bros. 1954
Is this Walter Jenner with the sea lions? Would those have been Klauser's bear cubs in the background?
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OK, for me this is the most interesting image of the group. Here's what's going on here. In 1954 when the show played the New York and Boston indoor dates they presented three cage acts in Display 1: Trevor Bale with tigers in the center ring, Paul Fritz with lions in one end ring, and Albert Rix with mixed bears (including polar bears) in the other end ring. After Boston the end rings acts were sent back to Sarasota. This would have left space on one of the flats along with the fact that the rhino had blown the show the previous season thus freeing up just about an entire flat. With a little adjustment the flat could be replaced with the JOMAR. Art Concello had insisted that the JOMAR be left in Sarasota to keep the show at 70 cars. With Concello (he quit after the '53 season) the rhino, and the end ring cage acts gone, the JOMAR was put back on the third section.
To replace the end ring acts, De Jonghe's chimps took one and Rix and Fritz presented several small uncaged bears. The ammo cage on the right would have been the bear cage that was kept in the backyard. The seals were part of a later display that included Tiebor's seals, Victor Julian's dogs, and Vivi Schmidt's seals. The seal acts were carried in two separate cage wagons also parked in the back yard. Not sure if the gentleman with the seals is Roland Tiebor.
Rick Faber
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