Brooklyn Today for Jan. 7, 2013
Good morning. Today is the seventh day of the year. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Jan. 7, 1896, carried an advertisement for “Sam Lockhart’s performing elephants. Displaying almost human intelligence. Animals who do almost everything but talk.” Lockhart was a famous British elephant trainer who worked for Ringling Brothers Circus in the U.S. from 1896 to 1901. His father was a stilt-walking clown, and his mother came from a famous circus family. Among Lockhart’s elephants were Trilby and Haddie, Romeo and Charley, and Jock and Jenny.
The act appeared at Hyde and Behman’s Variety Theater at Adams and Fulton streets, which burned down several years later.
Well-known people who were born today include actor David Caruso (“NYPD Blue,” “CSI: Miami”), TV journalist Katie Couric, actress Erin Gray, singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins (“What a Fool Believes,” “Your Mama Don’t Dance”), “Rolling Stone” publisher Jann Wenner, singer-pianist Paul Revere of Paul Revere and the Raiders and actor Nicholas Cage (“National Treasure,” “Leaving Las Vegas,” “Moonstruck”).