Lindsay is going to Ecuador in June to document and create work in response to the studies of six entomologists from an Italian natural science museum in Florence… wish I could go…
Lindsay has agreed to come and be my elephant as we trek across Sutherland. We will film up the strath and in the ice house tomorrow, then hit the road, camping at the foot of Arkle for the most part.
Going back to circus animals. We never expected to find out anything more about them. Jacquie, our heritage officer suspected that they might be part of the Pinder Ord circus that toured these parts long ago, but that was just an informed guess.
However, at the opening of Chris’ Ice House project, which incidentally drew 75 people, I met Mitch Miller, a former collaborator and friend of Chris.
I knew that Mitch’s heritage lay in traveling circus folk, his family still have side stall attractions, and so I showed him the circus elephant pictures. Mitchel is about 90% sure that the photos are of his family’s circus Pinder and Ord, and the elephant pictured was the infamous, Indian Bull elephant, Bosko (stage name, JUMBO).
Bosko came from Germany and would answer to this name alone. His handler Eddie Pinder was the only human that he would tolerate. He made several serious attempts at taking the lives of more than one member of the circus family, by drowning and general brute force. Whilst bull elephants certainly do become quite dangerous whilst on heat, Bosko’s fowl temperament goes beyond what could be called hormonal and suggests bad treatment by his former German owners.
Bosko would have been used to haul trailers and carts into position when the circus arrived on site and would have been at the head of every cavalcade that marched down the main street, heralding their arrival. Being a star attraction, JUMBO would have appeared in several acts, balancing on his back legs, chasing truly terrified clowns and allowing others to balance on him. I spent a fascinating morning with Mitch learning all these facts. Mitch is compiling an archive of Scottish circus folk, which will be a fantastic resource once available. Naturally, our four pictures will be in there.
Before meeting Mitch, I had already identified the elephant as being Indian due to the size of its ears but had supposed it to be a girl because of the missing tusks ( female Indian elephants do not have tusks) . However, Bosko had to have his tusks removed because he was simply to dangerous otherwise.
A week or so before this fortunate meeting, I had finished an elephant mask based on the elephant photo. You can see him in the early stages of papier mache in the blog post marked ’All will become clear’ I hope it has a little…
So my elephant has a name, a character and a past. Bosko died of flu eventually but not in my story.
In the picture below, Bosko appears to be approaching the children a what looks like a bit of a trot ( elephants cannot run) what happens next? Bosko didn't like children, I reckon he slaps the kid and makes a run for it!
ESCAPED CIRCUS ELEPHANT LIVES THE DREAM
