Jumbo In The New World

September 15, 2003 5:55 PM

Freak Show: Jumbo In The New World"In 1903, American inventor Thomas Edison arranged to have an elephant publicly electrocuted in Luna Park. Up to that point Edison, in his bitter campaign to discredit the electrical theories of George Westinghouse, had been content to publicly electrocute cats and dogs. When Topsy, an enraged circus elephant, trampled to death its third trainer in three years, Edison offered to "execute" the animal in a way that would demonstrate once and for all his belief in the dangers of alternating current. The electrocution of this elephant was filmed and apparently the footage can still be viewed at the Coney Island Museum."
posted by quonsar (26 comments total)

marilyn monroe was named after a dead oliphaunt?!

(buried on the spot seems like a hell of an inconvenience...)
posted by dorian at 6:01 PM on September 15, 2003

All that now remained was a flood of elephant grease, bottled and sold as a curative ointment for aches and pains

What a dreadful story. Thanks, quonsar!
posted by anathema at 6:02 PM on September 15, 2003

ISTR that some of this was shown on this program recently on PBS.
posted by George_Spiggott at 6:06 PM on September 15, 2003

:-(
posted by Stuart_R at 6:06 PM on September 15, 2003

It could have been worse.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:09 PM on September 15, 2003

GAAAAAAAH, quonsar! I mean, dang!
posted by Lynsey at 6:20 PM on September 15, 2003

Motala is a Thai elephant who stepped on a landmine near the Burmese border. She had to have her foot amputated and now has a prosthetic foot.
posted by homunculus at 6:22 PM on September 15, 2003

What? No GOP jokes?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 6:36 PM on September 15, 2003

mr_crash -

For the real story, see McSweeny's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales.
posted by iamck at 6:44 PM on September 15, 2003

I believe a clip of the elephant electrocution footage is in "Mr Death" a documentary directed by Errol Morris.

Just in case you can't get to the Coney Island Museum.
posted by miss-lapin at 6:50 PM on September 15, 2003

dorian: (buried on the spot seems like a hell of an inconvenience...)

No, that's convenience. Imagine moving a dead elephant without the marvels of modern technology (or even with them, but still, burying elephants is hard work without moving the buggers around).
posted by zpousman at 6:56 PM on September 15, 2003

"...discredit the electrical theories of George Westinghouse..."

What he really was trying to do was discredit AC electricity, invented by rival Nikola Tesla (a pal of Westinghouse's). Edison wanted us to use DC everywhere, the fruitcake...
posted by jpburns at 7:04 PM on September 15, 2003

ah touché!
posted by dorian at 7:04 PM on September 15, 2003

From the outset the story of elephants in the New World is an unhappy one.

Really? Gee, I wonder why that would be.
posted by soyjoy at 7:08 PM on September 15, 2003

Edison was a fucker. Stole most of his ideas, tweaked them, and reaped the benefits, thanks to US patent law at the time. So, when you complain about software patents granted on dodgy grounds, remember that it was the same mechanism that made Edison rich and allowed him to electrocute elephants. I'd recommend dumping elephant shit on his grave, but that might allow something new to sprout, which would be out of character for the man.
posted by riviera at 7:22 PM on September 15, 2003

(mr. tesla was unavailable for comment)
posted by clavdivs at 7:31 PM on September 15, 2003

From the outset the story of elephants in the New World is an unhappy one.
Really? Gee, I wonder why that would be.

From the outset the story of elephants animals in the New Human World is an unhappy one...

Edison was a fucker.

Yup. There goes another science role-model down the tubes. Maybe they should teach us this stuff in grade school as preparation for the real world. "Edison? He was bright, but a real asshole S.O.B..."
posted by Shane at 7:46 PM on September 15, 2003

I've seen this film. It was the introduction to a movie called The Animal Film, which played at the Seattle FIlm Festival back when I was writing for the Rocket and got in on the screening list. The elephant gets executed and then the rest of the movie was about how your food animals are raised. It was a last minute substitution and, God, I lasted through about ten minutes.

Interesting--this reminds me of those medieval trials in Europe where animals like bulls and pigs were tried in court for murder and executed.
posted by y2karl at 8:34 PM on September 15, 2003

Sentence first, verdict afterwards. Delicious!
posted by soyjoy at 9:03 PM on September 15, 2003

this reminds me of those medieval trials in Europe where animals like bulls and pigs were tried in court for murder and executed.

There's a hilarious movie about a medieval lawyer who has to defend a pig on trial for murder: "The Advocate" (aka "The Hour of the Pig.")
posted by homunculus at 9:15 PM on September 15, 2003

Sentence first, verdict afterwards: Delicious!
posted by dg at 12:38 AM on September 16, 2003

I hold the dubious honour of having been bitten by one.
Elephant that is.

Quite the celebrity on Phuket for a while there.
posted by johnny7 at 12:41 AM on September 16, 2003

Ever wondered what happened to the real Jumbo?
posted by pooligan at 5:36 AM on September 16, 2003

Apparently I was peed on by an elephant at the circus as an infant. That explains a lot...
posted by jpburns at 6:10 AM on September 16, 2003

er, pooligan, don't take this the wrong way, but...

ever wonder what was in the main link of the thread you're commenting in?
posted by soyjoy at 8:01 AM on September 16, 2003

Bring Back the Elephants
posted by homunculus at 3:00 PM on September 17, 2003