 This candid photo was taken near the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. exhibit at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Part of this exhibit featured a recreated section of African jungle that was used to show how rubber was gathered on Firestone’s Liberian plantations. The elephant was, apparently, part of that African display. Does anyone know what elephant this is and/or who its handler is? In 1939, the total number of African elephants in U.S. couldn’t have been all that large, and from that number, the ones that were reliable enough to use for elephant rides would narrow the field of likely candidates down even more. The Firestones were on good terms with the North brothers and even gave them a little hippo that had been captured on one of the Liberian plantations. Could this been a Ringling elephant, borrowed for the Fair? Hmmmm.  |
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
From Eric Beheim
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2 comments:
For Richard Reynolds,
Would that hippo mentioned be the pygmy hippo, Betty Lou (?), that would be used in specs? I think Firestone also gave some pygmy hippos to the National Zoo. Cute animals but the males can be tough in breeding season.
It is quite true that African elephants were rare as hen’s teeth in 1939. There were only two on circuses, both with RBBB.
Very few zoos had them at the time - -per my hurried count, Bronx had (1), Philadelphia (1), National zoo (1), Cincinnati (1), and Brookfield (4). I cannot imagine one of these zoos loaning an African to Firestone at the World’s Fair. Besides some of the zoo Africans were old and hardly tractable.
The World’s Fair opened on April 30, 1939. So, where could this young, tame African have come from?
My bet is that she was RBBB’s Sudan. Here’s my reasoning.
First off Harvey Firestone was a friend of the Norths so that would have set the stage.
RBBB concluded its Garden date on April 29, 1939. It would have been an easy matter to send Sudan over to Flushing Meadows for the Fair which opened the next day. RBBB then went to Boston for May 1-6. It came back to Queens for a date at Long Island City on May 8-13, quite close to the Fair site. Sudan could have been returned to RBBB at that time after having put in a special appearance at Firestone’s exhibit.
The show also played nearby Newark, NJ on May 29-30, and she could have been returned to the show there as well.
Sudan was accustomed to being handled so she would ideal for this task. This animal is young and looks like Sudan to me. She was actually a bush elephant and not a “pygmy” or forest elephant as was her long time companion Puqua. The ear, as shown in this photo, is clearly that of a bush elephant.
If it were Sudan, then I would expect that the handler was an RBBB man. Buckles - -do you recognize him?
As far as I can recall, this is the first instance of an African giving rides in America since the mighty Jumbo did it with Barnum & London.
For Jim Alexander - -Yes indeed. Firestone did give a pygmy hippo to RBBB, “Betty Lou.” That was in 1941. She was fixture of the RBBB menagerie for as long as it was carried. She even did a walk round in the 1948 spec.
Without looking at my notes to verify the date, I will say that she was sold to the Memphis zoo in 1958. I saw her there over the Christmas holidays that year while en route back to Ft Chaffee, Ark to resume my Army duty.
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