Jungleland
Posted By thecircusblog on November 30, 2012
This is an old lion cage tow bar wagon. I believe this wagon was restored by Ray Chandler. Ray was also one fine circus wagon painter. I have a photo of Ray and this wagon after it’s completion. It is said that Otto Barosini bought this wagon at the Jungleland auction in 1969. I am told the wagon was for his tigers.
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thecircusblog
My name is Ivan M. Henry and I am the 4th generation of a circus/show business dynasty. I hope you enjoy the blog.Comments
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This is not the best picture of our back fence, but if you look closely, there is history to see. These were bibles from Hagenbeck-Wallace, which folded out here in 1938, on its last time out for Howard Y. Bary. The bibles were stood on end, and connected by pole and rail, all along the North side of the Compound. There were enough to fence the entire length of the property at that end. Behind the fence was a beer joint, which in my era was called the Golden Spur. In Frank Phillips’s day, he contrived a secret way out through the bibles, which the bosses could never discover. Frank would leak out for a few quick ones, and leak back in, and no one knew how he did it. By careful tapping and tugging, I found the gimmick to release the secret panel, and I, too, could take a moment off for a cold one and sneak back in undetected, a tradition I proudly shared with the late Frank Phillips.