Al G. Barnes Circus
Posted By thecircusblog on June 13, 2012
“HEY YOU KIDS GET OUT OF THERE!”
I don’t know how many times I have yelled these words. I bet some of you have done so as well. The above sentence is most likely used more often then any other in the circus vocabulary… Seen here are kids peeking and trying to pull back the safety doors for a better look.
The photo above reminded me of the following “Jackpot.”
In 1974 I was touring Mexico with the Suarez Bros Circus. We were playing a small town by the name of Zacaicas. The lot was typical of many we had played, dusty and of course the weather was hot. That morning I opened the back doors on the chimp truck allowing a slight breeze to enter. For safety reasons and security I ran a fence line around our equipment. I even went as far as having signs in Spanish saying, “Danger Keep Out.” This was effective till later in the afternoon when a man did not heed fence nor the warning signs. More than one time I had to run him out of our area, warning him in Spanish. I thought got my point across to him and went into the trailer for a cup of coffee.
So far so good, I thought. I looked though the trailer window and he was nowhere in sight. About 30 minutes later I went out to the chimp truck as it was watering time. I noticed while giving water to Boy, one of my larger chimps, was wearing a ring on his finger. Not just any ring but a gorgeous gold ring with a beautiful gem in the center. I tried to look closer at it, but Boy was reluctant to show me. He went back deeper into his compartment and turned his back to me. As I was trying to figure out where he got this ring, I heard voices behind me. I closed the door to Boy’s cage and looked over my shoulder and here was the same man that I had run off numerous times. This time, the man had with him what looked like the entire Mexican police force. The man was shouting to the police that he had been robbed of his ring and was pointing in my direction. One of the officers came forward and spoke to me asking if I had taken this man’s ring. I chuckled a little to myself and said, no but I know who did. I asked the police to quiet the man down and I opened the back doors to the chimp truck. As I opened the doors I could see Boy’s face and both of his hands against the cage bars, sure enough the ring was on one of his fingers. The man started shouting “there it is…. see he took my ring’ and with that the police started to laugh and while they were laughing at him they gave him a few unpleasant looks.
It took about 6 or 7 bananas to bribe Boy to give me the ring. Boy was a little reluctant at first to give the ring up. Funny how a little banana bribery works. I asked the man how did the chimp get your ring. He had to tell the truth in front of the police. He said he went inside and sat on the floor near Boy’s cage door. He said he was scratching the monkeys back. The monkey turned around and he was looking at my hands. He liked my ring, so I took it off to show him… He would not give it back! He didn’t know what to do, so he got the police.
The man was lucky he got his ring back. The police could have arrested him for lying to them but did not, as I asked them not to. Here is the kicker: one day before this event big bad Jackie, one of the toughest chimps was in that very same cage that Boy was in. I do not know to this day why I changed the two chimps over from cage to cage… It was fortunate that I did.
Most animal men have had “Jackpots” similar to this.
Thanks Cappi for your comment, You are the best! Again I thank you for all those years of your loyal help with Henry Bros Circus and Legend City.
A (MUST) read comment made by Wade Burck.
About the author
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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I was a groom for Ivan’s stock in the mid 70’s, 30 yrs later I still have the annual nightmare that Jackie is out of her house and I’m in there… Cold sweets…
Still a great experience in my life.
Ivan, In 1975 when Jose Barrada was severely injured at winter quarters by one of his bears, and had to be hospitalized, I was assigned the task of looking after their chimps until his son’s George and Chino returned two day’s later from a date with the lions. I was assigned the task because earlier in the year when Andrew Kirby’s chimps went after a clown, breaking free after amputating Andrew’s finger when a leash wrapped around it, I not knowing any better, only being in the circus for a year, ran into the seat’s and caught the young male who was trying to get into the girders.
The Barrada’s chimps were in cages in a heated outbuilding at Edmond quarters, three cages with no slush openings or anyway to clean them, except as I had seen Jose do, let each chimp out individually. They would sit on a bench and he would give each one a milk jug with water, which they would drink from while the cages were cleaned and re-bedded and their food dish’s put inside. They would hand the water jug back to Jose, and re-enter the cages to eat. Larry Rucker was at quarters and as he had “chimp experience” said he would keep an eye on me. The morning clean out went well, everything according to plan, but the evening clean out went South. The two young male chimps came out drank their water, handed me the jug, and went back into their cage to eat. The big ass 18 year old female, her name may have been Suzie, slapped my hand away when I reached for the jug, and turned away and put the jug behind her back. I stepped closer and reached for it again, and she yelled at me with one of those God awful chimp “whooooh’s”. Larry Rucker, because he had “chimp experience” said, “leave her alone, kid. Jesus, don’t try to take it away from her!!!!” Larry said, “swap her for a banana.” She didn’t want the banana. Larry said, “swap her for an orange.” She didn’t want the orange. Larry said, “swap her for an apple.” She didn’t want the damn apple either. Larry said, “we need to go get something that she want’s.” and because Larry had “chimp experience” he decided he would go get different bait, while I waited eye ball to eyeball with Suzie until he returned. I offered her butterscotch disks, peppermint disks, HoHo’s, Twinkies, Oreo cookies, Fig Newton’s, Hershey Kisses, everything Larry could come up with. He raided the grooms crumb box’s to come up with something. Thirty minutes later when that big black monster finally handed me the jug back, in exchange for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that she wanted, I was close to tears and could hardly breath. Thirty years later Ivan, I have trained scores and scores of tigers, elephants and horses, but I haven’t gone within 50 feet of a chimpanzee since 1975. You can have the evil creatures, Ivan. Me, I don’t ever want any part of them, ever, ever again.
Wade Burck