I have always loved the Milwaukee Circus Parade and I remember a
giraffe named Too Tall from years ago. I found these blog entries
online:
http://bucklesw.blogspot.com/2009/07/parades-of-past-6_23.html
July, 2009 15:25 xxxxx said... This photo was taken in 1986. We
know that because there is no “shade” awning over the
giraffe and ’86 was the only year it paraded without the
awning. The giraffe was named Too Tall. He came from Dave Hale.
After the parade my son Tim and I helped Bobby Gibbs load Too Tall
into his truck.
Alas, Too Tall died on the Milwaukee lot just before the 1987
parade. The death was controversial. There were objections that a
giraffe would get too stressed by the sun if it did have
protection.
Because of Too Tall’s death, the 1987 parade had no
giraffe.
For 1988 Hale provided a young female giraffe named Annie,
which, for publicity purposes, was called Tall-Tu.
For her parade appearance the shade awning was placed on the
wagon. It has been there for all subsequent parades offering a
giraffe, including the one earlier this month.
24 July, 2009 12:32 xxxx said... When I did the broadcast of the
1987 parade with the news anchors from the Milwaukee Fox station,
they hesitated to tell me that they had knocked around the idea of
headlining the death of Too Tall on the local news as follows: "Too
Tall Too Dead To Parade To-day." Good taste prevailed and they
didn't do it. They were afraid I'd be offended, which I wasn't, but
it was very sad. I remember Hale and Gibbs in tears and the wagon
going down the street empty. The powers that be had a lot of
discussion about whether or not to include the wagon in the parade,
whether to put black crape around the wagon, and so on. Hard to
believe that was 22 years ago. 27 July, 2009 19:10