"Safari" #3

Eddie Allen. "I might add that Mr. Allen later became Gene Autry's Business Manager and eventually a powerful figure in the Movie Unions. When we first met Parley Baer in 1965, who handled the Publicity for the Polack Show, he and Ernestine invited us to their home in Tarzana. Imagine my surprise when one of the other guests turned out to be Eddie Allen, the only time I ever met him. I thought I might get some info on the Cole Show elephants but his memory overall was quite vague. He did however mention that "Safari" was never a minutes trouble but as the season progressed became slower and slower on the march to and from the train, to a point that sometimes he had to drop behind drive him ahead with his horse. Eddie said he was in the elephant men's bunk room when they heard "Safari" drop dead in the barn, he said an autopsy revealed his lungs were half gone from TB. Actually I was more fascinated with Parley and Eddie's movie stories, evidently Mr. Allen had shut down several productions over the years while representing the Unions but during this I happened to notice his lacquered finger nails and tried but failed to imagine a time he had any elephant shit under them. As my father used to say, "To some guys elephants are a job, to others a Religion."