Elephants on Michigan Avenue?

[ordinary]

I had some friends who had a "loft" on Michigan near 24th. They said the circus would unload their elephants from some train yard and walk them down Michigan Avenue to wherever they were having the circus. Were they bullshitting me? I have lost touch with them and don't know how to contact them.

[Kathleen]

When my boys were young, about 20 years ago, we took them down to see the circus "walk" from the train yard to Joe Louis Arena. We sat on Rosa Parks just below Fort Street and watched the elephants and horses go by as well as the other circus animals, most in cages, I beliieve. No idea if other routes were used in other years. And no idea how long this was practiced.

Anyone else attend these "circus walks"?

[gazhekwe]

I saw a line of elephants hustling down Fort Street. They each held the tail of the one in front with their trunk. We were having lunch at the Ambassador, the lamented bar just under the Ambassador Bridge on Fort Street. I guess this was in the 80s.

[DetroitPlanner]

I once saw Jesus riding a dinosaur down Trumbull. That was the night I drank a big bottle of MD 20/20.

[Planner3357]

I do know the circus train comes down the Michigan Line through our yard in River Rouge. It then makes its way up to our Livernois yard and then up to our yard in Hamtramck/Detroit. From there a CSX pilot takes it further north. Pretty sure.

[BRAZZMAN]

This was shot by former Free Press photographer George Waldman. Do not know where or when.

[HazenPingree]

Emily Gail has told me stories about how she used to have visiting circuses bring their elephants downtown during lunch hour. She would supply barrels of peanuts and downtown workers would come out to feed treats tothe elephants.

[animatedmartian]

Well...

Here's some elephants being unloaded from a train. Second Picture. Third Picture.

Some Downtown.

This picture has this caption : Last circus parade in downtown Detroit

June 16, 1910

Description: Crowd watches elephants from the Ringling Brothers Circus parade on Woodward Avenue near the Detroit Opera House in Detroit, Michigan.

From what I've skimmed on a website, basically travelling circuses were very popular around the 19th and early 20th century in major US cities. Once television and radio came on the scene, travelling circuses slowly fell out of the spotlight. That explains why it's probably a fuzzy memory for a lot of people or something that their parents/older friends told them about.

It made a comeback but it seems like it was only revived in Milwaukee. It'd be interesting to see if someone tried to revive it in Detroit again.

[Malcove Magnesia]

Ringling Brothers indeed uses still uses a train to get both performers and animals from place to place. When they're performing near San Francisco, they park their train on a side track near the Cow Palace [[which is a performance facility about 5 or so miles south of the city borders).

Next year the schedule shows them performing a tour in Auburn Hills in November. I wonder where they'll be parking their train?

[ordinary]

Thanks for the responses. I swear I watched them walk down Michigan one summer evening but I didn't want to say so because I didn't want people to think I was crazy. I also used to smoke pot back then.

"I once saw Jesus riding a dinosaur down Trumbull. That was the night I drank a big bottle of MD 20/20."

MD 20/20 is a powerful hallucinogen. My brother was a big fan. We used to tell him that if you peeled the label off, it said "Shoe Polish" underneath.