Circus animal trainer to join 'Ring of Fame'
By John Davis
Published: Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.
Prince Bogino, once billed as "America's foremost trainer of savage jungle beasts," will return to the spotlight today not as a performer with a trumped up name and fake foreign persona, but a black American shattering one more color barrier.
Manuel "Junior" Ruffin, 71, has spent recent decades living a quiet life in North Port, where he retired after a work accident nearly severed his foot. The old-school lion tamer ended his circus career as a mechanic for the Ringling Bros. in Sarasota.
Ruffin, who was born in Mississippi and grew up in Los Angeles, began his apprenticeship in lion training and all things circus as a teenager.
As a featured performer under the big top, he took on the name Prince Bogino and donned a turban. The circus presented him as an exotic foreigner, covering up the fact that he was an African-American wowing crowds with an act that featured Ruffin inside a cage with up to 15 lions and tigers.
Even white crowds in the segregated deep South cheered him.
"It wasn't the color of the skin that they applauded," he said. "It was the costume that I was in."
When the turban came off, Ruffin was not welcome in many restaurants; his knowledge of the circus and ability to help run the show was often disregarded by outsiders.
Friends would not invite him to parties, telling him that as the only black person in a gathering of all whites he would be uncomfortable. But Ruffin persevered.
"I said I could go to a party if it was all rattlesnakes," he quipped recently in his North Port living room, where he lives surrounded by memorabilia from his circus past.
Ruffin will add to that history today when he is inducted into the St. Armands circus "Ring of Fame," a circus hall of fame established in 1988.
He will be the first black person inducted into the Ring, which has 106 members.
New inductees, individuals and acts, are voted in by current members or their families. Ruffin is one of six performers who will be inducted today. The others are Tino Wallenda Zupe, a highwire artist; Rudi and Sue Lenz, a popular chimpanzee act; Tony Steele, a trapeze artist; and the Dime Wilson family, which performed for almost a century as clowns and in aerial and animal acts.
Floyd Kruger, president of the Ring of Fame foundation, says the induction is special because of the acknowledgment by circus peers of inductees' contributions.
"It's a big deal," Kruger said. "I think it's highly regarded."
Ruffin and the other inductees will receive medals and bronze plaques permanently on display on St. Armands Circle.
Ruffin has accepted the honor with a circus performer's panache, calling local newspapers and magazines. He is selling Prince Bogino Ring of Fame patches to mark the occasion.
He remembers fondly his days under the big top, despite bites and scratches, the racism he faced and the job that almost cost him a foot.
"If I had to do it over again, I would do it," Ruffin said. "I would do it in a heartbeat."
Copyright © 2010 HeraldTribune.com
By John Davis
Published: Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.
Prince Bogino, once billed as "America's foremost trainer of savage jungle beasts," will return to the spotlight today not as a performer with a trumped up name and fake foreign persona, but a black American shattering one more color barrier.
Manuel "Junior" Ruffin, 71, has spent recent decades living a quiet life in North Port, where he retired after a work accident nearly severed his foot. The old-school lion tamer ended his circus career as a mechanic for the Ringling Bros. in Sarasota.
Ruffin, who was born in Mississippi and grew up in Los Angeles, began his apprenticeship in lion training and all things circus as a teenager.
As a featured performer under the big top, he took on the name Prince Bogino and donned a turban. The circus presented him as an exotic foreigner, covering up the fact that he was an African-American wowing crowds with an act that featured Ruffin inside a cage with up to 15 lions and tigers.
Even white crowds in the segregated deep South cheered him.
"It wasn't the color of the skin that they applauded," he said. "It was the costume that I was in."
When the turban came off, Ruffin was not welcome in many restaurants; his knowledge of the circus and ability to help run the show was often disregarded by outsiders.
Friends would not invite him to parties, telling him that as the only black person in a gathering of all whites he would be uncomfortable. But Ruffin persevered.
"I said I could go to a party if it was all rattlesnakes," he quipped recently in his North Port living room, where he lives surrounded by memorabilia from his circus past.
Ruffin will add to that history today when he is inducted into the St. Armands circus "Ring of Fame," a circus hall of fame established in 1988.
He will be the first black person inducted into the Ring, which has 106 members.
New inductees, individuals and acts, are voted in by current members or their families. Ruffin is one of six performers who will be inducted today. The others are Tino Wallenda Zupe, a highwire artist; Rudi and Sue Lenz, a popular chimpanzee act; Tony Steele, a trapeze artist; and the Dime Wilson family, which performed for almost a century as clowns and in aerial and animal acts.
Floyd Kruger, president of the Ring of Fame foundation, says the induction is special because of the acknowledgment by circus peers of inductees' contributions.
"It's a big deal," Kruger said. "I think it's highly regarded."
Ruffin and the other inductees will receive medals and bronze plaques permanently on display on St. Armands Circle.
Ruffin has accepted the honor with a circus performer's panache, calling local newspapers and magazines. He is selling Prince Bogino Ring of Fame patches to mark the occasion.
He remembers fondly his days under the big top, despite bites and scratches, the racism he faced and the job that almost cost him a foot.
"If I had to do it over again, I would do it," Ruffin said. "I would do it in a heartbeat."
Copyright © 2010 HeraldTribune.com
may you rest in peace JR. I never got a chance to work with you, as my love for the bigs cats wavered on. You will always be remembered proudly. Always, Carol Boggs, Lady of the Big Cats
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