Cole Brothers-Clyde Beatty Circus in United States

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Cole Brothers-Clyde Beatty Circus
Typecircus
Founded1934
First elephant arrived1934
Opened for public1935
Last elephant left1949
Closed down1949
Country United States
Related persons
Owner 1935-1948: Zack Terrell
1948-1949: Arthur Wirtz
Performers & Artists
-1939: Hubert Castle
1946-1948: Pete Cristiani
Zoological department
Directors 1937-1940: Arky Scott
(menagerie superintendent)
Elephant department
Elephant Superintendent 1942-1949: Arky Scott
1934-1938: Eddie Allen
-: Alonzo Dever
Elephant Trainer 1935-1936?: Walter Powell
1934-1938: Jean Allen
1934-1935: Allen King
-1943: Ted White
Assistant Elephant Trainer 1934-1935: W. K. Bernardi
Record history
History of updates2025-04-29: source: handbook 2025-04-29: 2025-04-29: 2025-04-29:
Latest document update2025-04-29 16:43:14
Description

Cole Brothers-Clyde Beatty Circus , United States , was founded in 1934, opened for public in 1935 and the first elephant arrived in 1934. The last elephant left in 1949.. Cole Brothers-Clyde Beatty Circus closed down in 1949.

Casualties

3 casualties
  1. 1936-01-18: elephant trainer Walter Powell attacked by Major. Walter Powell, aged 22, St. Louis, an elephant trainer with the Cole Brothers Circus, was badly injured at 7 o'clock Saturday morning when he was attacked and then trampled by Major the largest elephant in the circus herd of thirty pachyderms. The attack occurred while Powell was cleaning up the elephant quarters. He was rescued by other workers who beat off the elephant. Walter Powell Survived. Mr. Powell works a number of elephants in a circus act. Major was the lead elephant. Powell is a veteran circus man. He was born while his parents were employed by a circus. Powell traveled with the Hagenbeck-Wallace circus for a number of years and has been with the Cole Brothers Circus since its organization.
  2. 1936-02-06: elephant trainer J. E. Smith attacked by Major. Major became resentful toward Smith, though in the past he has always shown a marked liking for the veteran trainer. He was being led around the training rings for exercise by other handlers, when Smith came up. Suddenly the heavy trunk was raised, the bull trumpeted. Smith stepped forward in an effort to soothe him, but the trunk descended quickly, accurately, and the trainer was thrown headlong to the ground. J. E. Smith Survived. Smith was given first aid, but it became obvious that he could no longer handle the bug bull. On Friday, other handlers found Major in a bad frame of mind. The verdict was that the big fellow, one of the most valuable of his kind in the country, must go. The huge bull was dropped by a single shot, a 30-30 steel bullet being used.
  3. 1943-10-29: elephant trainer Ted White fatal attack by Joe. Ted White who was Arky Scotts assistant on elephants and was unfortunately killed in the car during the '43 season by one of the Ranch elephants "Joe" while while attempting to unchain "Joe" during unloading in Prescott, Arizona. † Ted White Died 1943-10-29

Comments / pictures1934: Organized by Zack Terrell and Jess Adkins.

Records about Cole Brothers-Clyde Beatty Circus from the Circus Historical Society
1934: Coming from the Chicago Fair\'s Standard Oil Circus that Terrell had managed in 1934 were three elephants, Tony, Big Katie, and June, the first to arrive. The three elephants had been purchased by Terrell from the Hall Farm in January 1934. Adkins, incidentally, had accompanied Terrell to Lancaster to buy them and helped him pick them out.
In November all of the animals of the Birmingham, Ala. Zoo were purchased for $750.00, a real bargain. Animals included bears, leopards, tiger, and an elephant named "Bamma"
In December 1934: Animals included 6 elephants, 5 camels, a Group of high school horses, zebras, and a sacred cow. The train arrived in Rochester about December 20. The late Bill Woodcock was in Lancaster at the time and photographed the train as it was being loaded for Rochester on a cold day with snow on the ground.

Later in the season more elephants and other equipment would be purchased from the Hall family. Arnold Maley says he doesn't recall just how much was paid for the Hall equipment but does recall some of the elephants were priced at $1,000.00 each.

The show acquired a major menagerie attraction by the purchase of a huge African elephant from the Detroit Zoo. The elephant\'s name was Safari but was quickly changed to Jumbo II for publicity purposes.

1935: In January the show purchased the 5 elephants commonly known as the 101 Ranch Elephants from the trustees of the Ranch. This Group of 5 included females Big Babe, Carrie, Louie, and Jean, and one male, Joe. After the 101 Ranch Show closed in 1931 the elephants were rented or leased out to various shows. In 1934 they had been on Ray Rogers' Barnett Bros. Circus and were quartered with that show in York, S.C. when Eddie Allen, who had been engaged as Cole\'s supt. of elephants went to get them.

Another elephant named Moton was purchased from Black\'s Trained Animal Show and its name was changed to Barney.

On April 20, 1935 a brand new major railroad circus opened in the Chicago Coliseum. The organization and building of this 35 car show by the late Jess Adkins and Zack Terrell from the ground up in a period of a few months was a miracle of management genius never surpassed in the annals of circus history. These two showmen took an idea and transformed it into reality in only six months. With their new Cole Bros. Circus they broke the monopoly the Ringling interests had held on railroad circuses and became the first show on rails to tour since 1931 that wasn't under the Ringling banner.

By opening day Cole had a total of 17 elephants in the Herd, 16 Indians and 1 African. The names of the first 6 elephants purchased from Hall with the Robbins equipment are not known; however, before the year was over, a total of 17 elephants would be purchased from Hall.



Records about Cole Brothers-Clyde Beatty Circus from the Circus Historical Society
Cole Brothers-Clyde Beatty Circus <a href='location2.php?location_id=4' title=''></a> in United States United+States
Chang Reynolds and Bob Bernard, noted elephant historians, have clarified by name, number, and time of arrival the elephants coming to the Cole show by way of the Hall Farm. Of course the 3 elephants coming to the new show by way of the Standard Oil Live Power show at the Chicago Worlds Fair were originally from the Hall Farm and were named Tony, Big Katie, and Juno, however, we are concerned here with the 18 purchased from the Hall Estate after the show was organized. The initial 6, which came with the purchase of the Robbins Bros. equipment in December, 1934, were Blanche, Little Babe, Big Jenny, Tommy, Ding, and Boo. The first three named were part of the Robbins Bros. property held by Hall and the latter 3 were owned and sold by Halls widow. After the 1935 season opened nine more were purchased and added to the show at Detroit. These were Mary, Sidney, Wilma, Little Katie, George, Nellie, Little Jenny, Anna May, and Tessie. The final 3 elephants purchased from Hall late in 1935 were Major, Trilby, and Alice.
A History of the Cole Bros. Circus 1935-40, by Joseph T. Bradbury. Bandwagon, Vol. 9, No. 5 (Sep-Oct), 1965, pp. 4-8.



1935: (The Cole show) . ..arranged to rent Allen King and his animal act, 3 elephants, George, Katie, and Barney [...] Allen King left Rice Bros. at end of the season but never returned to the Cole show. Later in 1942 he had his own motorized show, King Bros. Circus, on the road for that season.
A History of the Cole Bros. Circus 1935-40 by Joseph T. Bradbury. Bandwagon, Vol. 9, No. 5 (Sep-Oct), 1965, pp. 4-8.
1939: the Cole Bros. Circus, was the very last show to abandon the tradition of the circus street parade.
1940: February 20, the winter quarters suffered one of the worst circus fires in history.
1941: The Herd consisted of 14 elephants, led by Elephant Supt. Alonzo Dever. The first five originated from 101 Ranch: Big Babe, Louie, Carrie, Jean and Joe (male). The remainder came from Halls Farm: Blanche, Tony, George (male), Little Babe, Big Jenny, Tess, Nellie, Little Jenny and Wilma. //Buckles Web Log, Cole Bros. Circus 1941 #15
1941: the companys permanent address was listed as Louisville, KY. Zack Terrell toured Cole Bros. Circus through 1948.
1944: "This unusual picture of the complete Herd taken in McCook, Nebr. 7-29-44. 1. Blanche 2. Jean 3. Big Babe 4. Big Jenny 5. Louie 6. Little Babe 7. Tony 8. Katie 9. Nellie 10. Wilma 11. Tessie 12. Little Jenny 13. Carrie 14. Trilby. For those of you astonished viewers who think I can identify these elephants from the rear, I must confess, my father wrote their names on the back of the picture." //Buckles Web Log, Cole Bros. Circus 1944 #20



1948: Zack Terrell sold it to Arthur Wirtz and associates.
1949: The circus closed on July 22, 1949.

References for records about Cole Brothers-Clyde Beatty Circus

Recommended Citation

Koehl, Dan (2026). Cole Brothers-Clyde Beatty Circus , Elephant Encyclopedia. Available online at https://www.elephant.se/location2.php?location_id=3486. (archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources used for this article is among others:



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