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Kam the Motoring Elephant Poster on eBay

• CATEGORIES: Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: An original post for Bertram Mills Circus featuring Kim the jeep-riding elephant is currently on eBay for $510.08.

View all the information on eBay

1950s-Kam-elephant-riding-bertram-mills-circus-20inx30in-poster

“Origional Bertram Mills Circus poster illustrated with KAM the elephant driving his Jeep, a great Jeep man cave item.
51cm x 74 cm. (20″ x 30″)”

In addition, a new search brought up this old photo from 1957:

1957-Kam-elephant-riding-bertram-mills-circus-photo

And, finally, after the jeep Kam drove e a Landcruiser. Here’s a short video of Kim at work:

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Originally posted December 18, 2012: 

1957-kam-motoring-elephant-poster

Kam the elephant starred for the Bertram Mills Circus during the 1950s and into the 1960s.  Initially, Kam drove a modified MB/GPW.  It looks like it had an updated motor.  Unfortunately, the only images I have found of Kam on the jeep are from the above poster and from page 240 of “The Jeep” book (a black and white photo which I don’t show). In the photo, as in the poster, there is a hump in the hood, which I assume is the result of the engine swap.  The jeep has the usual WWII attributes: tool indents, rear floating hubs and other details. Unlike the poster, the photo shows the fenders were left stock and flat, rather than rounded as shown in the poster.

Eventually, according to the site Silodrome, the circus bought a 1959 Series 1 Land Rover and modified it with a “central steering wheel and a huge, padded seat over the rear axle”.  The picture below is also from Silodrome. Here is a very short video of him driving it.  Kam’s customized Land Rover has been found and is being rebuilt.

kam-an-elephant-from-Bertram-Mills-circus-“drives”-a-Land-Rover-November-1959

 
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Baraboo Circus Jeep Train Postcard on eBay

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images • TAGS: , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: There’s another Baraboo Postcard on eBay.

(08/04/2014) This CJ-5 used to ferry visitors around Baraboo. I visited Barboo about two decades ago, but never saw it. It must have already been gone.

http://www.circusworldbaraboo.org/our-treasures/history-of-circus-world/

This jeep and tram toured through Baraboo, pointing out various circus sites, including final resting spots in Walnut Hill Cemetery.

This jeep and tram toured through Baraboo, pointing out various circus sites, including final resting spots in Walnut Hill Cemetery.

 
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1951 Article w/ Jeep Helping Circus

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This May 10, 1951, article  in the Abilene Reporter-News shows a newly acquired MB/GPW hoisting a circus tent for the Gainesville Community Circus. The jeep was modified to drive stakes, pull stakes, and hoist canvas. Though the circus had been active since the 1930s, this May event was the first time the circus had travelled outside the Gainesville, Texas, area, according to the article at the bottom of the post. Three years later, in 1954, the circus was destroyed by fire.

1951-05-10-abilene-reporter-news-circus-jeep-lores

Six months earlier, this November 11, 1950, article appeared in Billboard Magazine:

1950-11-11-billboard-gainesville-community-circus

 
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1951 Photo of a Horse Jumpin’ a Jeep

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This photo comes from the New Canaan News Online and shows how the New Canaan troops used to jump a jeep with their horse. Click here to read the article about the New Canaan Mounted Troops.

1951-troop-circus-jump

Shirley Self Brotherhood jumps a jeep at a New Canaan Mounted Troop circus in 1951.