Whales and Dolphins in the U.K

John Dineley said:
There never was a touring dolphin strip show. People often confuse the London Dolphinarium with the Royalty Folies show in London that was staged by the 'strip king' the late Paul Raymond.
. This confusion arises due to two of the dolphins that that arrived at the London Dolphinarium "Bonnie" and "Clyde" who had been trained to work in a review show at the Beirut Casino. These two animals were later moved to Woburn Wild Animal Park's dolphinarium which was operated by Entam the leisure division of Trust House Forte.

The 'Royalty Folies' was staged for three-months at the then Royalty Theatre - now the Peacock Theatre in Holborn, London. Some pictures of the dolphins are HERE.

And a Getty Image HERE

Apparently there is a myth that a dolphin died at the theatre and it's ghost has been heard crying. :eek:

It's a nice story but it is actually rubbish because no dolphins died at the theatre. At the close of the show the two animals were moved to a dolphinarium in the Far East. Interestingly, there was some problem during their transport and the spent some time being held at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo's dolphin exhibit before continuing their journey.
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ha looked like the dolphin was stripping her!
hmm interesting story. unless there was a mysterious third dolphin. Have any other places had "dolphin ghosts"?
Did the follies pool even go below ground level? surely they had another pool as that one is tiny!:eek:

we need someone to win the lottery and build a new london dolphinarium!
 
sealion said:
ha looked like the dolphin was stripping her!
hmm interesting story. unless there was a mysterious third dolphin. Have any other places had "dolphin ghosts"?
Did the follies pool even go below ground level? surely they had another pool as that one is tiny!:eek:
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The ones at the Royalty Theatre did do the strip show - London Dolphinarium didn't. There was no third dolphin :D

Actually, there was a UK television drama whose name escapes me many years ago about a closed small side-show dolphinarium which had haunted by one of the dead performing dolphins.
 
There was once a touring dolphin show in the UK in the early 1970s because my parents took me to see it. We didn't do foreign holidays so it must have been in the UK.
I don't remember much about it because I was only around 5 but I do remember the seating was high up on a frame/scaffolding arrangement, and you could see through to an enormous blue (presumably) plastic liner and I remember it was very patched.
There were 2 dolphins and at least 1 sealion and at one point a few children were invited down to touch the dolphins as they lay out on the side of the pool.
I can't for the life of me remember where we saw it but most likely it was Southsea. I will ask my folks if they remember anything much about it or have any photos left from back then.
That was only one of 2 times I ever saw dolphins-the other being at Windsor when I was in my 20s-not long before the orca left.
BTW, the TV show about the haunted dolphinarium was an episode of "Beasts" by Nigel Kneale (creator of Quatermass). All the stories were animal/monster related and scared me silly.
They are available on a 2 DVD release from Network and I bought them a couple of years ago-and they still put the frighteners on me!
Superior writing, not gory fx makes a good horror-shame too few people remember that!
 
John Dineley said:
The ones at the Royalty Theatre did do the strip show - London Dolphinarium didn't. There was no third dolphin :D

Actually, there was a UK television drama whose name escapes me many years ago about a closed small side-show dolphinarium which had haunted by one of the dead performing dolphins.
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Yes I saw some of the episode/program on youtube, but there wasn't much dolphin/aquarium action in the bit I saw.

Slightly off-topic but do you know where there are any photos or videos of the brighton dolphins? I've searched and searched for things to put on my webpage about them, and for just general interest and I've only seen a maximum of 1 or 2 bad quality photos. Is the "into the blue" documentary worth getting?
 
Gary said:
There was once a touring dolphin show in the UK in the early 1970s because my parents took me to see it.......
BTW, the TV show about the haunted dolphinarium was an episode of "Beasts" by Nigel Kneale (creator of Quatermass)....
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I am slowly working my way through all the places I knew that had dolphinaria. Southsea does ring a bell.

I remember that Jim Tiebor - whose father was a famous American sea-lion trainer - had a touring dolphin show and it went to Southend - not Southend Dolphinarium which was a satellite of Margate Dolphinarium who I worked for but in the Kersal Amusement Hall.

Conny Gassor had a touring show that went to Manchester - Belle Vue early 1970s.

And the dolphins at the dolphinarium at the old Coventry Zoo were from a show that did a season at Weymouth.

Thanks for placing the TV drama from Nigel Kneale. Yes he is an excellent writer.
 
sealion said:
Slightly off-topic but do you know where there are any photos or videos of the brighton dolphins? I've searched and searched for things to put on my webpage about them, and for just general interest and I've only seen a maximum of 1 or 2 bad quality photos. Is the "into the blue" documentary worth getting?
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There are quite a few on my web site:

Brighton Aquarium & Dolphinarium

The Into The Blue documentary is interesting:rolleyes:

Here's what the Broadcasting Complaints Commission had to say about it:

Adjudication on the Wildlife Showcase broadcast on BBC2 on 9 July 1992 entitled Into the Blue
 
John Dineley said:
There are quite a few on my web site:

Brighton Aquarium & Dolphinarium

The Into The Blue documentary is interesting:rolleyes:

Here's what the Broadcasting Complaints Commission had to say about it:

Adjudication on the Wildlife Showcase broadcast on BBC2 on 9 July 1992 entitled Into the Blue
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Thanks for the link to the photos! I'm a local to brighton so it's all the more interesting for me. I never got to see the dolphins there as I'm too young :( but my mum went to see them when she was younger and i've visited the sealife centre quite a few times.

Do you know whether there is much good footage in the video?
 
Peter Dickinson said:
Flamingo Park Dolphins did winter shows in Leeds and also Kelvin Hall in Glasgow if I remember correctly. Definitely Leeds though.
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Yes. Thanks for reminding me of that Peter. I think I may have my work cut of getting all the details up on the Dolphinaria UK web site but it will be an interesting exercise and I am always grateful of information and input from other people.

It's interesting to note that when Margaret Klinowska researched "A Review of Dolphinaria" she actually over estimated the number of dolphins actually imported into the UK by the very fact that so many of them got moved around in seasonal shows. I know of some animals being counted three times instead of once in the report for this very fact.
 
Not just the moves John but the names too. 'Bonnie' and 'Clyde' rang a few bells with me and yet I was never near the places you mentioned.

Best Wishes,

Peter
 
Hi John, do you know where this is? British Pathe - DOLPHINARIUM
It looks as though it could be the london dolphinarium, as there is a sealion and some penguins in it.

And this one at flamingoland. I'm guessing this must have been an earlier pool than the one that the fruit machine shows! http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=44081 This video shows the flamingoland pools very quickly in colour: http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=2155

And also, for anyone who's interested I've made a little video showing video footage and photos of past british dolphinaria: (John I hope you don't mind me using photos from your site, i've given a link to the site and your youtube channel in the info)
 
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sealion said:
Hi John, do you know where this is? British Pathe - DOLPHINARIUM
It looks as though it could be the london dolphinarium, as there is a sealion and some penguins in it.
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Yes it is The London Dolphinarium and it was of their Christmas Show "Robinson Crusoe on Dolphin Island". The trainer in the hat is Stephen Barclay.

The Flaminoland video were of the original pilot dolphin pool which was in the reptile house prior to the building of the current pool which now houses sea lions. The trainers are Francis Rendell and Jean Haig who later became Jean Tiebor. The is also a brief shot of Reg Bloom the curator at Flamingoland.
 
John Dineley said:
Nice video. Alphaville: Forever Young. Good choice.

Where are is the video of Morecambe from?
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Thanks :D
Erm...it was someone's home video that they'd uploaded, it's on youtube. I think it's called something like "Heysham go-karts morecambe marineland" and the second part of it has the dolphins in it.
 
sealion said:
Thanks :D
Erm...it was someone's home video that they'd uploaded, it's on youtube. I think it's called something like "Heysham go-karts morecambe marineland" and the second part of it has the dolphins in it.
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Thanks. The trainer on the video is Shirley Gallagher who with her husband Stuart trained the dolphins at Morecombe for a number of years whilst it was owned by the local council. Probably it's most successful period of operation.
 
John Dineley said:
Thanks. The trainer on the video is Shirley Gallagher who with her husband Stuart trained the dolphins at Morecombe for a number of years whilst it was owned by the local council. Probably it's most successful period of operation.
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Wow that's cool that you can tell who it is from that! Even with the blurry footage! I found another video of Calypso during her stay at Cleethorpes while her tank was being sorted out in France:
British Pathe - (KILLER WHALE AT CLEETHORPES ZOO) Keeping an animal of that size in a pool that shallow and small is absolutely horrific! :eek:
 
So, how many years do you think it will be before dolphins and whales are kept in the UK again? If ever?
 
I honsetly hope we never get Cetaceans. I really don't think we'd find someone willing to spend the money on a good facility, put up with the anti-captivists AND get through all of the legal rubbish. On top of that they Orca's, Dolphins or other cetacean's would have to be from other facilities and right now, not many seem interested in sharing their animals.

Remember that the most common captive cetaceans are Bottlenosed Dolphins and Beluga's. There are only a few False Killer Whales, Orca's and other cetaceans in captivity. Animals like Striped Dolphins or Common Dolphins would have to be captured and I don't *think* that the UK can import captured animals. I'd have to check out that piece of legislation again. But I know I wouldn't visit if they captured more animals. Yes, every where had to get their animals from somewhere, but captures do NOT need to happen these days.
 
MarwellGirl09 said:
I honsetly hope we never get Cetaceans. I really don't think we'd find someone willing to spend the money on a good facility, put up with the anti-captivists AND get through all of the legal rubbish. On top of that they Orca's, Dolphins or other cetacean's would have to be from other facilities and right now, not many seem interested in sharing their animals.

Remember that the most common captive cetaceans are Bottlenosed Dolphins and Beluga's. There are only a few False Killer Whales, Orca's and other cetaceans in captivity. Animals like Striped Dolphins or Common Dolphins would have to be captured and I don't *think* that the UK can import captured animals. I'd have to check out that piece of legislation again. But I know I wouldn't visit if they captured more animals. Yes, every where had to get their animals from somewhere, but captures do NOT need to happen these days.
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I suspect that it is unlikely in the UK but the reality is that there are a growing number of facilities world-wide.

Breeding bottle-nosed dolphins, orcas and to lesser extent belugs is becoming more common place. The most recent new dolphinarium in France was stocked with five captive bred animals from Harderwijk, Holland.

Not sure about places not wanting to share their animals as Seaworld have 4 captive bred orcas now on loan to Loro Parque.

There is to my knowledge nothing to stop wild caught cetaceans being imported into the UK provided the facilities comply with the cetacean keeping standards, e.g. pool size, etc. and CITES etc.
 
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