thecircusblog | August 20, 2010
The man in this photo was one of the trainers that presented the two different Roy Rogers horse acts. They would also present ” Trigger Jr”, a real favorite with the kids. Oddly enough Roy was not even missed. The word was “he’ll be seeing you in the movies.”
thecircusblog | August 20, 2010
Last but not least… “Trigger Jr.” He was the last part of the show. They would saddle him up with a Roy Rogers saddle, walk him out and tell a little story about the cowboy hero Roy Rogers.
thecircusblog | August 20, 2010
The Blackfoot Idaho Fair. This fair was just one of many lucrative fairs that the Siebrand Bros played. We not only made money, we had fun. The whole town turned out for this once a year event. The Chief in this photo, along with many other Native American people played a very important part with their dancing and […]
thecircusblog | August 20, 2010
The opening day of the fair started with a parade and at the head of the parade was the Chief of the Blackfoot Indian people. We were in the parade as well riding on top of a flat bed semi trailer. About six of the Siebrand circus acts participated in the parade. Each flat bed […]
thecircusblog | August 17, 2010
It isn’t too often you are blessed with two fine chimpanzees….Makimba was one of them. Bongie was my first but that doesn’t mean that the other chimps were not important to the act. For years Bongie carried the act with his comedy and later Makimba took over. In 1952 we started out with one chimp named Jackie. […]
thecircusblog | August 17, 2010
In the late 1950’s Dad and I thought it might be a good idea to put together a brochure. This was a proto type for our cover. After countless hours we scrapped the idea. Dad said “lets just get some good 8 X 10’s made of the act and go from there”. As usual he […]
thecircusblog | August 17, 2010
The Bongo drums were bigger than the chimp but Toby did his best to be heard. We were on the Hubert Castle show when this photo was taken and was at the Winterland Arena on Sutter St and Polk, San Fransisco 1966. I understand that the arena is no longer there.
thecircusblog | August 17, 2010
This photo of myself and Bongie was taken on the Al Mall International Circus, Spring dates 1968.
thecircusblog | August 17, 2010
This was usually our closing trick. Bongie every now and then would balance on his head and then let go of the gimmicks. I did not want him to do this and I would shake the perch pole just a bit to stop him. This day was one of those times. It was a great trick….. balancing without holding […]
thecircusblog | August 14, 2010
Bongie was an extraordinary chimp. When he learned his head balance there was no end to the different tricks. He would balance himself exactly like a human. It was just pure luck to have a chimp with this much intelligence and dexterity. I would only think of what head balancing tricks I had seen and […]
