BILLY SMART JUNIORBilly Smart Jr, the circus performer and owner best known for his elephant acts, died aged 70 on 23 May, 2005. He had been suffering from lung cancer.He was a member of the famous circus family and while being born Stanley, was known as Billy Smart Jr throughout his life and colourful performing career.Starting off as a horse trainer, he later specialised in elephants and brought many of the animals over from the Far East to train for performances that thrilled generations.Some of his acts used up to 20 elephants but it was the changing attitudes of the paying public which brought the world famous circus to a close, although it had reopened under a slightly different umbrella of acts in 1993 without the input of Billy who had gone into property.Billy Smart Jr was born on 15 October, 1934, and was the youngest of 10 children in a large travelling circus family.He made his debut in the ring aged 14 and with brothers Ronald and David – famed for their own Asiatic elephant act - he took on the circus when their father died in 1966, and ran the largest circus in Europe, with more than 200 animals.The touring show made its last trip in 1971 but audiences were still wowed by appearances of its acts on television variety shows until 1983.A sideline during this time was the running of Guernsey Zoo, which they bought from its founder, Michael de Havilland-Geraghty, and sold on in 1972, and Windsor Safari Park , which was theirs until 1977 but eventually closed and is now the home of Legoland.His social life was a popular punt for the gossip columnists of the time, because he was a particularly eligible and well-known bachelor.His reputation as a fast-living clubber with an eye for the ladies often preceded him, and reports in the 1950s and 1960s linked him with famous women of the time.He eventually married airline stewardess Hanna, in 1973, when she was 28, and they had two children together, a son and a daughter.Animal training had to end in 1978 for Billy Smart Jr, when he lost sight in one eye during cosmetic surgery.One endearing tale from the Smart family came from the night when his elephant was coaxed into stepping over Jayne Mansfield at a charity event, holding its foot over her as she lay on the ground. Billy Smart Sr remarked how his son had been so distracted by the actress that he forgot to keep an eye on the performing elephant!
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