winter quarters the owner decided he would be perfect to run the pit show which
contained a 20 foot long python from the Amazon.
Gary went to work right away, flashed the front of the show with bamboo, put on a
jungle Jim outfit with a pith helmet, bought a spider monkey to sit on the front railing to
give the show a more of a Matto Grosso effect.
Once we got on the road and started working he would pull the people in with a spiel
saying,,,” it´s alive on the inside, the deadly python from the Amazon, come in and see
it for just one dollar! and now ladies and gentlemen it’s time to feed this deadly killer.”
at this point he would have his assistant, an alcoholic he had picked up on skid row,
open the glass partition and throw in a live squawking chicken.
This would usually generate enough interest to draw a few people on the platform to
watch the snake eat. However sometimes the snake didn´t want to eat. Pythons will eat
in general about 4 to 5 days every 3 or 4 months, and then they will go into an eating
frenzy and eat 40 or 50 chickens. after which they calm down and won´t do much of
anything.
The wino threw in a chicken, Gary screamed, he´s attacking the chicken and eating it
alive! Not always the case of course, people would run up and the snake would just lay
there, lethargically, the chicken would run to a far corner with fear in its eyes.
The snake being a jungle creature had to be kept warm at all times, generally the unside
of the snake pit was around 90 to 100 degrees. This was rather disagreeable to the
chicken after a couple of days of this the chicken and the snake both looked like they
were going into a coma. the chicken, leaning against a far wall, as far as he could get
from the snake , with his tongue hanging out ,didn´t offer much excitement to the blood
thirsty general public.
Quite often I would hear someone say, “is that a real live snake?”. the snake getting
ready to moult, just lay there , not a muscle moved, not even an eye blink. one day I
heard someone say, “never mind the snake, is the chicken real?”
After awhile the chicken perked up and became unafraid of the snake who had become
an inanimate object. the chicken started scratching around looking for food. I looked in
one day and the chicken was roosting on the snake. That´s when they really should of
removed him, he advanced to the snakes head and started pecking on its eyes, looked
like seeds I guess, and kept on pecking until the snake died of brain damage.
Gary had to order another python, quite expensive, and shut down the pit show until it
arrived. it arrived lively and ready to attack anything that moved. The murderous
chicken became it´s first victim.
This snake was devouring everything. Throw in another chicken “ yelled Gary. One
after another, the pit show was packing them in…”He´s swallowing them whole”,
yelled Gary, throw in another. The wino opened the cage and flung the chicken in, but
his reflexes weren´t fast enough, the snake sprang and grabbed the winos hand in his
mouth. Gary who had been yelling “He´s got the chicken” stopped and started yelling,
“He´s got the wino, he´s got the wino”. people surged forward to see the excitement.
three or four circus personell ran up to help Gary and they managed to dislodge the
winos hand from the snakes mouth. Later on I took a look at it, interesting bite marks,
looked like a horse shoe pattern of tiny pin like teeth marks.
The wino was whining, “Oh I need a rabies shot”, someone reminded him that reptiles
don´t have rabies. “Maybe not,” he said, “but I could use a drink to calm my nerves, I
danged near got ate by a python”. Gary went out and bought him a bottle of thunderbird
wine.
Two days later the snake started frothing at the mouth and died. A veterinarian checked
it out and told Gary that the human body contains substances that are toxic to snakes.
Gary said,”Yeah, specially the wino”. Gary had to order another snake.
The owner decided it would be best to skin the snake and possibly make a belt from its
skin whenever he could find time. So Gary skinned the snake and they salted the hide.
Every night after the tent was down the concessions department would police up the lot
and place all the trash in a big pile to be burned the next day. Gary threw the snake
carcass on the trash pile and everybody went to bed. The next morning at the break of
dawn everyone was up receiving a route slip showing how to get to the next town when
a police car pulled up and two officers got out and came over.
Excuse me ,” he said , “ but by any chance have you happened to lose a snake from
this show?’ “we had one die on us yesterday “ said Gary,” but none have escaped.”
"Well”, said the policeman, “there’s a high school two blocks from here and we got a
call from the principal , it seems there’s a 20 foot skinned python hanging from their
flagpole. “ We went over to the trash pile and sure enough the carcass was gone. It
didn’t take much to figure out that some high school kids had found it and as a prank
they had run it up the schools flagpole.
Along about October we were getting near the end of the season and were only a few
weeks away from heading into winter quarters. The snake pit was attached to a semi
that had bunk beds for the concession crew in it. We made a 200 mile jump one night
from a small town in Georgia to the florida state line. We got to the next town about
four in the morning and everybody just collapsed from lack of sleep. I went to my bunk
and fell in it. I was out like a light. The next morning I could hear the sounds of the
stake driver and I woke up . I hear a noise under my bed and I peeked down and there
was the python. What we didn’t know was that during teardown the night before the
heater had gone out in the snake pit and the owner told Gary to put the snake in a box
inside the trailer where it would stay warmer until they could buy more butane. During
the trip overland, the box which had a latch had popped open after hitting a few
potholes and the snake had slipped out of its box.
I reall wasn’t in a panic as the snake was shedding its skin and was very lethargic and I
didn’t think it would attack. I calmly opened the window by my bed and called out to
the guys operating the stake driver, “Hey, wake up Gary and tell him his python is
loose.”They did and shortly Gary came over with 15 other working men. They all came
in the trailer and grasped the snake and put him back in his cage.
Circus life can certainly be exciting sometimes.
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