M’Toto - Famous Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Gorilla
c 1940. Gelatin silver print, 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (241 x 190 mm) from the Roland Butler Collection, Press Agent, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (1930s-1960s) Roland Butler Collection hand stamp on verso.
Animals have always played a big role in the circus; elephants, tigers, lions. But decades ago the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus wowed their crowds with gorillas. One of those gorillas was known as M’Toto. She quickly became a household name in Sarasota, and her legacy lives on today. . . .
“She was nice to have around. Just to know that you had a friend who was a gorilla and a lot of people enjoyed that,” says former clown Toby Ballentine. M'Toto —Swahili for little child— was brought to the Suncoast in the 1940's by A. Maria Hoyt. The arrival happened in a time many in the U.S. knew very little about gorillas, says Pamela Rosaire, a long-time circus primate trainer. “In those days, you didn’t see gorillas...even in zoos. They hardly had any in this country or anywhere else for that matter.”
The Ringling Circus quickly put M’Toto to work, pairing her with another well-known gorilla at the time: Gargantua. The two were supposed to mate, but it never happened. “They wanted her to be his bride in the circus. They dressed it all up like they were going to get married in the circus. They didn’t get along at all.”
When M'Toto wasnt performing in the circus, she spent her time here at a home on Virginia Drive in Sarasota; a very unique, very long structure. Why a house like that? “On the circus train, she liked the train car, which was 80ft long. So in 1944, they built this house, and it’s 79 feet long,” says Ballentine.
He says M'Toto was practically human. “She was adopted as a human baby, and she wanted to wear pearls, and she brushed her teeth every day with a toothbrush and toothpaste in a sink.”
Max Wintiz, "Circus Confidential: M'Toto the gorilla's Sarasota legacy," May 5, 2014 [http://dick-dykes.blogspot.com/2014/05/circus-confidential-mtoto-gorillas.html].
Condition: Very good +.
Item number: 227
Price: $400.00
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