ELEPHANTS IN THE CIRCUS

Elephants in the Circus

When I first heard that the Feld Organization was going to stop having elephants in their Ringling Circus, I thought, yeah, that’ll be the day. Same thought when I heard they were also doing way with big cats and tamers. After all that circus existed for years only because of their famous tamer, Gunther-Gebel-Williams,a man respected in the trade and one of the Ringling employees not involved in the animal abuse scandal that ended with Feld buying the circus. But I was wrong.

Prior to the nation wide elimination of animals in circuses, it was often done city by city. Many cities ruled no animal act in any circus in our jurisdiction. Circuses found out that the elimination of elephants and other exotic animals, not only did not hurt ticket sales, it also eliminated many headaches, such as picketing by PETA.

Here are a few

of my experiences

with

Elephants at the Circuses

Each year the Shrine Organization rented circus, labeled it as the Shrine Circus and raised money for their Childrens Hospital. Some years they played at the hockey arena. I was usually running house lights for the shows. For several years the circus came with three elephants. I always came early and sat in a chair next to where the elephants were leg-cuffed over night. The poor animals would be standing up, shifting their weight from side to side, giving off, not a semblance of a roar but rather a moan. The straw that was scattered for their beds showed no sign of being used over night. Nor did the hay left for feed. Only when their handler took off the cuffs, did they quit moaning and shifting and they devoured their food and water. They often closed their eyes and seemed to be asleep.

Once he took off the lead halter of one of them and slapped the animal in the face with it. That time I hollered at him. I use to raise the roof if I ever saw anyone take the bridle off a horse and slap it in the horse’s face to make it back quickly out of the stall.

The trainer gave me glare but I didn’t care.

(One asset of the elephants was their dung. I would bring a pail and fill it with dung. Then put the dung in the barrel for my rose bush feed. Take the water once a week and pour it around the bushes. Boy, did they respond to that stimulant.)

The houselights were handled at the top of the ramp where the acts had to go down to the floor. There was an old roustabout that liked to stand next to me and fill my ears with jabber. They called him Doc because like Doc of the seven dwarfs, he wore glasses. The same pair year after year, always held together with gaffing tape.

An elephant was used at intermission to give rides to kids. This particular day, a big fat truck driver started down the ramp.

‘Oh! Oh!,’Doc muttered. ‘He better stay clear of that elephant. She hates…’

Too late. When he got got within reach of her trunk, she pulled him to her and bite down on his thigh. He screamed. She roared. The kids on the ride started crying.

Damn fool!’ Doc shouted as the fatso was led past us on a gurney to the waiting ambulance.

The next day, Doc asked if I had seen the report on the news that circus employee was injured when an elephant stumbled and bumped into the man’.

‘Circus PR spun that story. Didn’t want the truth to come out.

‘That lumpy SOB wants to be an elephant handler. He’s always fooling around with that elephant trying to make her do tricks. Her handler warned him to leave her alone or she might get him. He didn’t. She did. She got him good and bet he gets his ass fired from the circus.’ (He did.)

Sometime we had a circus in the Convention Hall. I was always running a spot from the catwalk. Good and unusual view of ever thing, acts and audience. Loved it when the audience had lots of kids. They would get so excited and wave the string attached to their helium filled balloons. Many of the balloons got away and floated up in the catwalks.

Mickey E was running the light board on the floor right by the walk-around path that surrounded the three rings. It was a school matinee show that day. As a ‘sick’ elephant shuffled by, it relieved it’s diarrhea, spraying both the light board and Mickey E. The kids let out a roar of laughter. Mickey let out a string of words unfit for children to hear. A host of helium balloons floated up to the catwalk. Much to the delight of Dick M, another spot operator.

Dick would always hustle as many of the balloons he could grab in a hurry. Then he would run outside the main entrance door and sell them to the kids that probably lost them in the first place. Once they were sold, Dick would hustle down the street to the Viking Bar and have his usual liquid diet.

The next show he asked me if I could think of anything that would give an elephant diarrhea.

In some venues we had to collect our money from the promoter rather than the house doing it for us and then paying us on the house payroll. Before Feld owned Ringling we go a paycheck directly from Ringling.

It was the coolest payroll check I ever received. It had cute little elephants doing various circus tricks all over it. We were told that because the check was so delightful, a goodly amount were never cashed, just kept to show family and friends. We didn’t consider the option of keeping the check uncashed. We had a passel of hungry kids to feed.

There is a saying that an elephant never forgets

and also that an elephants has great patience

as regards vengeance

This is a story from my friend Terry T

who at the age of 13

turned pro and played stand-up bass

in a circus orchestra

The orchestra was set up on the floor right where the elephants had to stand for the grand finale. There was a wise punk on trumpet a few feet from them. He got a big kick out of blowing the horn right into the ear of one of the animals. Their trainer warned him to stop but…he would blow the trumpet and laugh.

Until the show the elephant turned her rear to him as he went to blow. She let out a gush of piss that knocked him down. She sprayed a little on some of the other musicians but the main force his the wise guy. When he managed to get his breath back and to stand, he took his trumpet and ran off stage. He was never heard from by the circus again. He never even came back to collect the salary he had coming.

And this wraps up

my elephant tales

PS: Unless I run across some more I forgot about.

ELEPHANT FOR HIRE

Missy

Elephant for Hire

We first met Missy, the elephant, when she came to the Orpheum with the great magician, Harry Blackstone, Jr.. Such a gentle, easy to like animal. And it was apparent she felt the same way toward us. Her handler, Rusty, explained since she had little contact with other elephants, she showed her affection toward human beings.

Rusty had come through once before as the handler of a tiger used in David Copperfield’s magic act. Rusty gained no friends among us because of his attitude; but then again, any one around Copperfield and friends gains an attitude. Just the opposite with Blackstone. He was one of the nicest person in the business and those working with him immolated Blackstone’s attitude. Rusty became a very well liked roadie to us after the Backstone week.

Missy, and Rusty, came out of a animal rental ranch in California. She was often rented to go on tours like Blackstone’s because an act certainly couldn’t afford to buy an elephant for the tour. Blackstone turned Missy into a beautiful woman in the same vein as Copperfield had turned the beautiful woman into a tiger’

Missy was also a favorite rental for TV and movies, because of her attitude. If she was just used as ‘wallpaper’ in a scene, she always behaved as ‘wallpaper’. If she actually had something to do, she was a quick learner and never acted up if there was take after take.

When it was learned there was to be an elephant on stage, a city inspector had to approve the stage was capable. Dave M, house carpenter, said there was many times over the years elephants was on the stage. The engineer pointed out that the stage was a lot older and brittle than years ago. The outcome of was the okay, the stage was fit to hold Missy. Actually, he pointed out. A small woman wearing stiletto heels was a greater risk to the stage than an elephant with it’s broad feet.

All the hands took to Missy but we learned to avoid stand directly in front or behind her. A belch or a fart from her directly could really curl one’s hair.

When Dave M asked Rusty if his son and daughter could come and pet Missy, Rusty said sure and he’d even give them a ride on her. Over the course of the week, the kids got quite a few rides on Missy. Several years later when we learned Missy had killed a man, Dave M lost it, screaming how could Rusty allow kids to ride on a murderous beast. Then he lost it again by declaring that he knew Missy could never kill anybody. And he really lost it when he was told they had to execute Missy for killing the guy.

We found all this out when we were working Janice Jackson at the hockey arena. Rusty came as the handler to the black panther in her act. Naturally, first chance we had to talk to him,we asked about Missy. That’s when he told us she killed a man and had to be executed.

What??? Come on, not Missy!!!

The nightmare started when one of the two brothers that owned the hiring-ranch married the secretary and they went on a three month safari in Africa. Chuck, the brother who stayed home, hired Karl, who had been lion tamer in several circuses, to help out on the ranch. A couple times he found out that Karl had abused one of the animals. Chuck said one more strike and Karl was through. Karl was through alright. Chuck found him dead, his chest caved in and evidence that Missy had been severely abused. She was leg-cuffed with a long chain and a bullhook, an item forbidden on the ranch, was next to his body. The sheriff didn’t give a damn if the animal was just retaliating from the abuse. He gave Chuck three days to execute Missy.

Chuck laid in bed that night, staring at the ceiling. And then, a plan came to him and he spent the rest of the night figuring how to work things out.

It centered around an animal protection documentary about ivory poachers. Sadly, there was no problem finding killing grounds filled with the remains of slaughtered elephants, robbed of their tusks and the carcasses left to rot in the bush. But what they wanted was to show the ruthless of the poachers by having an animal shot for very small tusks. Not really shot, just acting like it was shot. Chuck told them he had just the elephant for the job and told them to give him ten days and then they could fly both him and Missy to an African killing field.

It turned out, Missy didn’t need ten days. He trained her to walk along and falter at the first gun shot. Keep walking, but falter again at the second and fall dead at the third. Perfect! This learning was all done on at the ranch. Just like the spot where Chuck could say he shot and killed Missy. And he had a copy of the film he made for the producer’s okay. To add spice he had his friend, Fetterman bring over his carcass truck. It was a huge flatbed with a powerful wench and used to transport large animals like steer or a horse or even a buffalo to Fetterman’s Fox Farm. Food for the foxes.

Chuck’s wife filmed the last shot. The truck, Fetterman’s Fox Farm boldly painted on the side of the hood and running along the cab, drives slowly by. There is the huge orange tarp strapped to it, covering a huge bulk, big enough to be an elephant. As it passes Chuck, looks down and kicks the dirt. And this film was Chuck’s proof to the authorities that Missy was executed for her crime. They were satisfied that Missy got what they said she deserved.

And what about Missy. They certainly can’t keep her hidden?

Well, Rusty looked around as if to check that nobody else is listening, if you ever see an episode of that Tarzan show that is filmed in Mexico, you might see a familiar figure. This elephant is in almost every one. Sometimes she’s just wallpaper to fill out the jungle background. Sometimes she has an action bit. Sometimes both.

Her name is Senorita and she docile and quick to learn, and the most popular for-hire elephant on that for-hire ranch serving Mexican TV and movies. Rumor has it, Mexico’s great comic actor, Cantinflas, is suggesting Senorita be taught El Toro charges and instead of doing his famous bull fighting comedy routine with a bull, he’ll do it with an elephant. It never came to fruition but Senorita had her moves down pat.

And thus wraps

the tale of

Missy/Senorita

A favorite elephant

for hire

Stay tuned for more

Elephants

In Show Business

ELEPHANTS IN SHOW BUSINESS

Elephants are in the working class of animals that include horses, camels, dogs etc. They are the biggest and as such, can do the heaviest work. And as they are so big they are the costliest to feed.

Their strength is their great asset. Their tusks are their great liability. Ivory! Poachers kill the animals just for their tusks and leave nature take care of the bodies.

Elephants are a means of transportation. A smoother ride and a better disposition than a camel. Over the years, elephants have become valuable in various countries in many fields of labor such as pushing train- cars in train-station yards. They are used in teak harvesting in Burma. They move through the forests without the need for a road, even in the muddiest of conditions. Unlike tractors they do not destroy the land and the trees.

Elephants are symbols of good luck and peace. History is filled with elephants given as gifts between rulers. The King of Scotland to the Anglo ruler of Britain. Louis IX of France to Henry III of England. Invaders like Alexander the Great and Hannibal received elephants as peace offering from the rulers of the lands they conquered.

Both these men used elephants in their marches to conquer their known worlds. Elephants were used in the Crusades and thus became favorites of the Popes. An albino elephant was given by the King of Portugal to Pope Leo X at the Popes ordination.

In the early 17^th century, a female elephant named Hansken toured Europe performing tricks, thus introducing elephants to show business, both as performers and workers setting up circus tents etc..

The standard of

elephants in show business was

JUMBO

Jumbo was born in Sudan. After two poachers killed his parents for the ivory, the poachers took the young calf to an Italian exotic animal dealer, who then brought it to Trieste and sold it to a German zookeeper who quickly sold it to a Paris zoo. It was the first African elephant to set foot in Europe. All the countless other elephants that Europe experienced were Indian elephants.

A big reason for this elephant being sold so quickly was the animal was growing and growing and was eating more and more.

Jumbo was it’s name. As he soon became larger than any other known elephant, the name ‘Jumbo’ was used to depict anything of extra large size like jumbo shrimp or jumbo jet.

The youngster was ill cared for in France and arraignments were made to have it treated in London by Matthew Scott, who went to the French Coast to pick it up. Scott had never encountered a sicklier beast. Sore all over. Feet rotten, on the brink of death. Scott brought Jumbo to his stable outside London. Months of 24 hour days, hard work, veterinary expertise, and whole lot of love brought Jumbo into the realm of good health. Scott had worked a miracle. And fought to have the young giant stay in London.

The head of the London Zoo, Adam Bartlett, negotiated the trade of Jumbo from the Paris Zoo for a  rhino, a jackal, two eagles, a pair of dingoes, a possum and a kangaroo”.

Jumbo was enclosed in a circular cement enclosure. He hated it! He actually wore down his tusks rubbing them against the wall. Scott suggested finding a sweetheart for Jumbo. One was found on the west coast of Africa and brought to London. Barely four years old, Jumbo fell in love at first sight with ‘Alice’ and the two became life long companions.

They also became the Zoo’s most popular attractions. Children of all ages flocked to see the pair for the almost 17 years the two lived at the London Zoo under the watchful eye of Matthew Scott. While Alice was the size of most female elephants, she could almost walk under Jumbo’s stomach.

(When Jumbo died his shoulder height was 10 ft 7in.

His weight was almost 7 tons.)

Both Jumbo and Alice loved the water and Matthew Scott go the Zoo to build a concrete pool big enough for the two could cavort to the delight of the zoo attendees.

Jumbo had two great loves in the zoo, Alice and children. A conveyance was strapped to his back and children were given rides. Winston Churchill said he rode Jumbo several times. Queen Victoria never rode him but she enjoyed watching him.

During one ride,a little tyke broke free from his mother and ran to Jumbo. Jumbo stopped immediately, reached out and clasped the child in his trunk. When the screaming mother got close to Jumbo, to ‘rescue her child’, Jumbo picked the lad up with his trunk and then set it down next to the astonished mother. He loved little ones.

He also loved Matthew Scott. It was Jumbo’s first tour of the US, a tour arranged by PT Barnum. It meant separating Jumbo and Alice and both tried to break free and reunite. Both on the ocean voyage and the tour itself, Scott spent almost all the time comforting the grieving behemoth. The two got drunk together.

It was in Ottumwa, Iowa, when Scott and Jumbo heard a tremendous noise. Thirty elephants had pulled their stakes out and were stampeding towards Jumbo’s special tent.

Jumbo grabbed Scott and, went to the gate of the enclosure. The herd of mad elephants came at him. He stood firm after placing Scott between his legs. He stuck out his trunk and fought off the black mass of animals trying to get out of the enclosure.

Scott couldn’t begin to imagine how many innocent people on the ground, Jumbo saved from death. Scott knew for sure that Jumbo had saved him from certain death.

I wish Scott would have told us in his book what that many elephants were doing in Ottumwa, Iowa, but he didn’t. He just related the incident.

PT Barnum learned a lot from that tour. Jumbo would be a big hit in the US. And Jumbo had to have Alice and also, if possible, Matthew Scott.

(Barnum was a hustler all his life. At age 60, he bought a circus and revolutionized circuses for good. Move them cross country by rail. Parade it to its location. Set it up in at least 2 tents. The big tent, aka the BigTop, another one for freaks and oddities, and a special attraction like Jumbo had its own special tent. With the exception of the merchandise tent, each tent demanded a price to enter, as did the entrance gate where the tickets were sold.)

Barrett, head of the London zoo was relieved when he sold Jumbo and Alice to Barnum. He was elated to hear Scott proclaim, ‘I go where Jumbo goes’.

Jumbo was growing cranky and both the elephant and his trainer were drinking too much. Jumbo liked his booze, a habit he picked up from Scott. Barrett looked upon Jumbo as an accident about to happen. Knowing the sale would evoke an uproar, he sold Jumbo anyway.

(Barnum paid 10,000 and made it all back in the first three weeks, booking the circus in Madison Square Garden .)

The sale did cause a turmoil in England. Over 100,000 school children signed a petition to Queen Victoria to stop the sale. She tried but couldn’t. Jumbo was lost to England forever.

Barrett quickly bought two elephants that could carry children around the zoo. Winston Churchill never said if he rode one of the new elephants.

Drunk or sober, Jumbo was a big attraction in the US and Canada.

It was in the railroad classification yard in St. Thomas, Ontario where Jumbo was killed. The circus performances in that locale were over and the loading of the acts an equipment was underway. Jumbo was walking along a track with a young elephant, Tom Thumb when a train came barreling down on them. Jumbo tried to pull Tom Thumb to safety but the train hit Jumbo broadside and killed the beloved animal. Tom Thumb suffered a broken leg.

And thus ended

Jumbo

a hero in his life and in his death

and the most famous elephant in

Show Business

Elephants in all phases of their use suffer horrendous abuse. Their food is substandard. They are often cuffed on one leg, the legcuff attached to a chain attached to stake in the ground. The legcuff too often cuts into the animal’s leg and just it’s presence keeps the elephant from lying down and sleeping.

And then there is the BULLHOOK, a long metal or wooden rod with a sharp metal hook at the tip, much like a fireplace poker. This hook is poked in the animal’s skin, legs, side, head. It is used as punishment and also as a training weapon to teach an elephant how to work or how to do tricks.

If a bullhook is not handy the abuser grabs anything nearby, like say, a club or even a pitchfork that was used in the London Elephant Abuse Case, a trail that brought elephant abuse to the eyes and horror of the world.

In 2011 all elephants were banned from from circuses along with other wild animals like lions and tigers that were ‘trained’ to perform tricks unnatural to them, like sitting on a stool or standing on a ball. Country after country banned their use. In 2017, Ringling Brothers circus did away with all animals, even performing dogs and prancing horses.

Did that stop elephant abuse? Sadly it continues today in public zoos and private ‘ranches’. Take Anne the elephant in the abuse trial. She was placed in a compound where there wasn’t another elephant within miles. Elephants are family animals. They need the companionship of other elephants. Anne basically was placed in solitary confinement.

I have stories

both personal and related to me

both funny and sad

of elephants

in Show Business

which I will be posting

over time