It was with great sadness that we here at *The Institute received the news of the closure and disbanding of the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus. It brought back some fond memories of when The Institute was in its infancy and as a treat to our fledgling intern population and permanent staff, we invited the Clyde Beatty and Cole Brothers circus to perform and spend some downtime here at The Institute. This was the summer of ’67, heady times if you were alive then. The circus was still building it’s collection of world-famous animals and human attractions and at this point in its history it only had three elephants and one slightly used camel in its menagerie. Plus a clown that would spit fire at a pig dressed up like his ex-wife’s mother. What with the pig squealing and running around and him occasionally setting his nose on fire it was pretty darn funny. The crowd loved that one.

Here we see some our interns being pressed into service unloading the one camel starring in the show. It was 1967 and the hairstyles were already pretty spiffy.

This is what an unpacked camel looks like before donning all of it circus finery. At this point it is irritated and preparing to spit. It has been cooped up in that trailer since leaving Liberal, Kansas yesterday and is looking for someone to vent its displeasure at, or on, as the case may be. One always wanted a long leash to remain out of the camels field of projection. The man in the hat is not and will be regretful of this error momentarily. We just noticed Orfie, the elephant in the background, had one of the interns head in his mouth. We don’t know what that was about.

Here is a picture of the three elephants that were an integral part of the show. Their responsibilities ranged from helping set up the tents to carrying remarkably pneumatic women around on their heads. The elephants heads not the pneumatic women’s heads. Unfortunately there was an extreme shortage of pneumatic women at the time so they used these plaster mannequins acquired from the Mission down in town instead. We don’t why the mission had them but they came in handy. They didn’t work that well and were kind of lame actually, but one had to make do. You can get a sense of the strength of these animals by looking at the collars they wore. Big, heavy collars with log chains attached. They are made of the same stuff that coated the first space shuttle and it is like really strong. If ever one of these animals had to undergo reentry they would be totally safe wearing one of these collars. Plus you could make them pull a fully loaded beer truck out of the mud and they wouldn’t even break.

Unfortunately there were the beginnings of dissent amongst some of the animals even back then. If you look closely at Cleo’s collar you with see the words “Help Me” written with a non-permanent marker which quickly wore off as the elephant sweated through its long job of work. As she was a kidder anyway no one took this message too seriously though, until she used that intern to pound in three or four of those tent stakes. That got some attention. She was given a day off and some old Turkey which she liked and was fine the next day.

An unusual circumstance took place towards the end of their stay here at The Institute. With the circus management unable to pay the rather exorbitant fees that were charged for their use of our facilities here at The Institute, and the more than daunting task of having to clean up behind three well-fed elephants and not to mention being faced with either payment or incarceration they took off in the middle of the night leaving Cleo, Edmund and Orfie the elephants behind, as well as Mr. Expectorum the camel, tied to the back of our Chef’s 1967 Ford Ranchero.

We tried to make the best of these circumstances by renting out the elephants to various ranchers occasionally for ranch chores, but as they couldn’t be separated without them having some kind of elephant breakdown where they would run amok and tear down silos and such. We had to rent them as a trio which was overkill for the average rancher. We had little call for a spitting camel, and had to simply write off its expenses and call that one a loss. We were able to use it for clearing the road after a snowstorm as its big flat feet were great for tamping down the snow, so that was a small plus. We kept the elephants in a one car garage for the winter out near the edge of the compound as that garage got a little ripe what with three grown elephants in it, and Mr. Expectorum slept in the back of an old Ryder truck we used to store non-camel related stuff in, but it wasn’t the best of accommodations for a delicate camel, and we caught a lot of phlegm over that deal.

Sadly one day we lost the elephants. We came out one morning to find the garage door all busted up with big fat feet prints all over it that led down to the meadow, then out into the trackless wastes that border The Institute. We sent out some of our trackers but they lost the trail up in the cliffs of the high country. Every so often we get word of some big grey things silently moving through the forest up in the Never Summer mountains but so far no confirmed sightings. After finally having enough of Mr. Expectorum and his nasty habits we sold him to some folks for breeding purposes at their Alpaca ranch up near Red Feather and that completed the saga of how the circus came and went from The Institute. Big memories, although kind of fuzzy ones from that year, in fact from almost all of the 60’s come to think of it. But we know we had a incredible time.

Apparently everything has to come to an end, even the Big Top of the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus. We for one will miss it.

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