I've had elephants on my mind for the last week. I check the Refdesk.com website daily because
it has a few features I like that often inspire posts for my blog. Last week “This Day in History” featured a
story about electrocuting an elephant. This
gruesome act was perpetrated in 1903 by none other than Thomas Edison, who not
only used the highly publicized execution for his own personal gain he filmed
the horrific stunt as well.
Topsy the Elephant, who spent the last few of her 28 years
at Luna Park on Coney Island, had a bad rep as a man killer. This pugilistic pachyderm killed three men in
three years. One of her victims was a
trainer who “had a nasty reputation as a cruel dude” and tried to feed her a
lit cigarette. Sounds like a clear case
of justifiable homicide to me, but apparently her owners didn’t think so. There was talk of a public hanging but the
ASPCA got into the fray on the grounds that it was inhumane and besides who
wanted to lead three tons of
temperamental female up to a gallows?
Mr. Edison was only too happy to try and discredit the new form of
electricity called alternating current that was competition for his direct
current by stepping up to put Topsy in the hot seat. The story is too horrible to recount but if
you need to know you can read all about it and even see Edison’s short film of
it here.
Reading about poor Topsy’s fate reminded me that one of my
colleagues had handed me a postcard before Christmas and said it might inspire
a blog post. The title of the card was Gainesville Community Circus, Gainesville,
Texas and it showed an elephant ridden by a little girl and a man and a
woman who were dressed as circus performers.
I googled Gainesville Community Circus and was delighted by the story of
the Texas townspeople who came together to show their civic pride by joining
the circus.
In 1930 the Gainesville Little Theatre was facing financial
problems. A burlesque circus was chosen
as a fundraising event and was such a hit with the audience that a third
performance was added. Not only did the town’s residents like to attend the
circus that also wanted to be in the circus.
By the following year performances were being held at the Cooke County
Fairgrounds and the word was spreading so that the next year the circus
traveled to the Denton County Fairgrounds.
A traveling community circus tradition was born and for the next 24
years 1,500 citizens gave 359 performances in 57 cities for over 500,000
spectators. A whole generation of Gainesville
citizens didn’t have to run away to join the circus, they had one in their own
back yard.
The most remarkable thing about the Gainesville Community
Circus is that it was comprised entirely of amateur performers. Occasionally professional circus performers
would travel to the Texas town to give classes and instruction on the art of
circus performing, but the stars of the circus were soda jerks, bankers,
telegraph operators, cotton merchants, ranchers and anyone of good character
who wanted to join. They made their own
costumes, improvised their equipment because professional riggings, etc., were
too expensive and by necessity often invented their own.
A. Morton Smith, who was the Director of the Gainesville
Little Theatre and Editor of the Gainesville
Register helped to organize the first performance of the Gainesville
Community Circus in 1930 and wrote an article titled “World’s Strangest CircusProduced by Amateurs” for the November 1934 issue of Modern Mechanix magazine. The article is all about the circus and
the performers and is not only a wonderful story but a great read. This circus
rose during the Depression when people came together for fun, support and
fellowship in hard times. It’s sad to
think that a community project like this would never happen today in our
litigious and law encumbered society.
The elephant pictured on the Gainesville Circus postcard was
one of the many exotic animals that performed in the show. I’ve included the original photo from the job
file because it’s such an interesting image.
Fortunately we don’t have a postcard of Topsy’s execution, though I
would love to see a postcard of her before her demise if one exists. I’ve included a few other elephant postcards
from the Curt Teich Postcard Archives because they are fun and make me smile
every time I see them. I couldn’t
showcase postcards of elephants without including one of Lucy the Margate
Elephant, one of the ten places I want to visit in the US before I die. The two
illustrated images are from a book of elephant postcards I bought to send to my
granddaughters. Like dolphins and dogs
elephants always seem to be smiling back at us.
I hope these images of elephants put a smile on your face.
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