Wednesday, December 20, 2006

"The Light Of Asia" #1


1884 was the year of the Great White Elephant Wars between P.T. Barnum and Adam Forepaugh.
Barnum had imported an authentic Albino Elephant "Toug-Toulog" and had garnered much publicity. Not to be outdone, Forepaugh white-washed one of his young elephants and named him "The Light of Asia".
This led to charges and counter charges of fraud and skull duggery, further complicated by the fact that Forepaugh's elephant was indeed white, while an Albino is only light gray. Posted by Picasa

Posted by Buckles at 12/20/2006 06:03:00 AM

11 comments:

Casey McCoy Cainan said...

Anyone know "what" the whitewash was?

20 December, 2006 07:52
Anonymous said...

I used a mixture of lime and water to white wash the walls every year in the wine cellar underground. Don't think this was the same thing used on elephants. Poor folk in the south used to white wash their houses. "TOO poor to paint, too proud to white wash was a saying I remember back after the war.

20 December, 2006 08:27
Anonymous said...

I'm not at home to access my research right now, but Peroxide was a major portion of the Whitewash.

Bob Cline

20 December, 2006 09:57
Buckles said...

I have no idea what they used.
I always read that he was "painted" but I hardly think they used house paint.
In recent times, vegetable coloring was applied.
I used the expression "white-wash" in general terms.

20 December, 2006 11:30
Casey McCoy Cainan said...

I had kinda thought it must have been a powder of sort, but always wondered how they really did it. I had no idea one was really an albino. Are there any albino elephants alive today?

20 December, 2006 12:12
Buckles said...

I'm sure there must be. Smokey once worked for a guy in Texas named Kilroy who sent him on an Asian tour (1964).
He said he saw several at the King's Palace.
My dad saw the one featured in the Ringling Menagerie in 1927. He said it was exhibited on a stage with a black curtain in the background and was accompanied with an entourage of mahouts.

20 December, 2006 12:27
Anonymous said...

I use milk of magnisia/proxide/and corn starch to bleach a pets white hair. It removes food stains and tear stains. Equal parts to make a paste. I am sure this is not used on elephants.

20 December, 2006 12:55
Casey McCoy Cainan said...

Mr. Woodcock,
Did Smokey or your father, say if the white elephants were just lacking skin pigment, or true albinos with pink eyeballs?

20 December, 2006 22:43
Buckles said...

Of the few people I know who actually saw an albino elephant, none seemed particularly impressed.
They are somewhat lighter in color, they have pink eyes and the hair is white but an older elephant doesn't have that much hair. The most notable being at the end of the tail which must be odd looking.

20 December, 2006 23:00
Anonymous said...

When the Cristianis got Emma their press dept. got alot of publicity that she was an albino elephant and even circus people remarked that she did have a lighter complexion than the other elephants. Over the years when working with Oscar the subject would come up in a humourous way. How many out there recall that?

21 December, 2006 21:06
Anonymous said...

When the show was called Cristiani & Bailey Bros, they had a window card made up of Emma calling her "ZUMBO the Albino Elephant."

22 December, 2006 00:53

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