Travelling Show – thanks to Dell Winders

“Russ Dotson from Sea World produced the first see thru performing show tank allowing shows to travel across the US and Canada.”

CORRECTION: Sea World did not exist at that time. Russ Dotson, was an aquatic clown from Stranahan, Florida, and a regular performer, along with the Diving horse at Atlantic City’s Steel Pier in the summer, and performed at Sport shows during the winter. His wife had a Sea lion act.

Russ lost his Dolphins and was unable to fulfill his contracts in DC, and Canada. He contacted Aquarama, who agreed to take over his contracts to protect him from lawsuits.

A friend who had the Diving Bell attraction at Coney Island had two Dolphins in the tank for underwater viewing from the Diving bell. When he closed down for the winter he called Dell Winders and asked if he should release the Dolphins, or if Dell would take them. Dell took the Dolphins.

Those were the two dolphins used in the shows. They were acclimatised to difficult conditions but untrained. Dell made up the show with untrained animals as he travelled.

Howard Kodra,  wet and running across the tan bark race way, would fake a fall and get up covered with Tan Bark, making an audience of 20,000 people laugh as an integral part of the show.