Finally I got rid of that. We spent some time in Sarasota, Florida. This was the home of Connie’s parents. Eventually I went back up to the Catskill Game Farm and asked for a job, and was given a job on the feed wagon. The feed wagon was a pretty… Read More
And did that start your interest in training?… Read More
Yes, these were untrained babies or just partially trained. They would follow the leader and follow the two bigger elephants. They didn’t yet know enough about circus life to perform, but they gave the impression of performing. Read More
No, not really, but I certainly was interested in elephants. Now we see it. We went ahead and finished the season. We went back to Vermont, back to Bennington, my hometown. I was convinced by my father that I should join him in his furniture manufacturing business. Some of this… Read More
And I was sleeping there with two candy butchers, and I preferred the elephant feeling me with your trunk than smell of the candy butchers’ feet, which would have been in my face (chuckles) if I chose different sleeping quarters. Read More
On the show, the Biller Brothers Circus had five elephants. Three were younger animals. Two were adults. My wife-to-be rode one of the big elephants doing an entrance of the performers and showing the public there the elephants that they were going to see later in the performance. I was… Read More
So is that when you started to have an interest in elephants?… Read More
Now when you were on the show, you were a drummer, but did you start to have interactions with the animals on the show and kinda get that you liked them, or how did that occur?… Read More
We’re approaching our 63rd. We’re approaching our 63rd. Yes, this August. Read More
I was interested in the animals on the show as I had been the previous year on the first circus band, which I played drums. I was interested in that show, in the trained horses. That show, before we were married, had a horse act that they brought eight horses… Read More
He slid down a 100 foot wire from a pole, turned to somersault at the end, and landed on a sponge-covered pad. This had dawned on me after being on this show for several weeks, it dawned down me that this guy, my God, I saw him when I was… Read More
Boy. (laughs) How many years, dear?… Read More
How many years?… Read More
No. At the beginning of the show, the show season, a man dressed in a white dinner jacket, very formally dressed, sat on the bandstand, and I learned gradually that he was the equestrian director. In other words, he managed the entire show as it was presented. His name was… Read More
And then you went to other shows?… Read More
I applied by telegram from this ad in “Billboard” Magazine. I got an immediate answer hiring me as the drummer for Biller Brothers Circus. Biller Brothers was a good show. It only lasted down the road for three or four years. I was with it the first year. We played… Read More
I expected to make a living by playing drums with a band. I was wrong. You cannot make a living playing drums in Sarasota, Florida, because that’s where everybody goes in the winter in show business. And I played one job at Lido Beach. I played with a band that… Read More
In my early teens, I became a drummer. Played drums in my high school band, and gradually was invited to join small groups because there were a number of smaller groups playing for dancing around my hometown. Eventually I got a job with a circus. I know now that the… Read More
And I remembered that forever. (laughs) But then ultimately you got involved with the circus?… Read More
Yes. (chuckles) Now from that, ultimately, after a period of time, you got involved with the circus, but how did you get involved with the circus?… Read More