Saturday, March 19, 2016

#4 Elephant Men


Posted by Buckles at 3/19/2016 06:05:00 AM

4 comments:

Dick Flint said...

Of course, very wrong about Forepaugh in 1887. And rather generalized for the story of Thompson. See my posts of several years back for more accurate info about Thompson.

19 March, 2016 15:53
Roger Smith said...

Sometime back, around here, we had history on Sidney Rink, a rather astounding black man who was entrusted with the Barnes show herd for a number of years. He had worked his way up through Al. G.'s animal departments, proving himself in all capacities, but when made Superintendent of Elephants for a major rail show, Rink hit a pinnacle no other African-American shared. And as some of us remember, in those days he wasn't called an African-American.

19 March, 2016 17:08
Unknown said...

So, who was the first African American elephant trainer/handler? Did they train or present? In the documentary film about Tyke this man Tyler (name?)says he is the first African American in circus to be a trainer. He started as a groom for Gunther then worked for Cuneo.

20 March, 2016 10:43
Dick Flint said...

Thompson can be considered the first African-American trainer. He was born to runaway slaves in Canada. He trained and presented on the Forepaugh show in the 1880s and was credited in the program, some advertising, and some press coverage, for his work with, particularly, a comic boxing elephant act (which may have had racial overtones). Had owner Adam Forepaugh's son not been an elephant man as well, he might have received more credit. There were earlier dark-complexioned elephant handlers from India but they generally arrived with the elephants and remain unknown. Thompson is a very important international circus personage and I have been working on his biography for a number of years; I presented an early version at a Circus Historical Society meeting a few years ago. Thompson was said to be worth a quarter million dollars during his European tours in the 1890s; he owned his own 5-act that included Mary, his somersaulting elephant.

23 March, 2016 17:59

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