Water for Elephants

I’m not a great reader of novels, preferring instead non-fiction tomes. However, having recently viewed a movie trailer promoting an upcoming film to be released in April called Water for Elephants, I decided to read Sara Gruen’s New York Times Bestselling novel that the film is based on. Why my interest? 

One of the most poignant memories of my youth was the day the circus came to my home town. It was Monday, July 17, 1946 in the logging and lumber milling community of Port Alberni. The Clyde Beatty Circus had arrived via the E&N Railway overnight from Nanaimo onboard a 20-car length consist. Beatty’s circus train had left Bellingham on Sunday and travelled over the US border on Great Northern tracks into the lower mainland. From there the rail cars were barged across Georgia Strait to a rail-ferry interchange at Nanoose Bay.

The first hint that the huge circus was coming to Vancouver Island came a month earlier with the arrival of the show’s advance team. The “flying squad” of publicists proceeded to plaster on fences and the sides of buildings all over island communities, huge posters of snarling lions, monstrous elephants and colourful clowns. 

However, the month before (10:30 am Sunday June 23^rd to be exact) another event is cemented firmly in my cranium. The very week the circus posters were appearing, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit Port Alberni. The epicenter was located near Forbidden Plateau. Several brick-built buildings in the old town of Alberni fell into the streets. Luckily no one was hurt. At the height of the quake I recall trying with great difficulty to get down the swaying stairs from my second storey bedroom in our family home on South Crescent. 

Running outside we stood on the street with other neighbors until the earth stopped shaking. While standing there several cars drove by. Later one driver told my father he couldn’t understand why so many people were gathering outside. That’s how bad the roads were in the community. He hadn’t noticed the earthquake, figuring his violently vibrating car was the result of the pot-holed dirt roadway. I digress.

The arrival of the circus train at the E&N Station on the Port Alberni waterfront swelled the small community’s population as people came by chartered boats, trains and buses from lumber camps and surrounding towns to watch the circus roustabouts unload the train and move all the equipment and animals up Argyle Street to a local park. The local paper West Coast Advocate called the crowd the largest ever seen in the little city. 

At the park a crew of over 300 men worked under a canvas boss who was in charge of erecting all the tents. The first tent up was the cookhouse followed by the Big Top. In succession other tents appeared namely to house all the exotic animals and an area that in those non-politically correct days was called the “freak” show. This tent featured everything from midget sword swallowers and fire-eaters through to snake charmers and a bearded lady.

Watching the Big Top go up was the main event for us gawking townees. Towering wooden poles at the tent’s centre were pulled upwards by individual elephants. I recall watching in fascination as teams of six men gathered around a stake and drove it into the ground within seconds. As guy-lines fastened to these stakes held the poles in place, all the large elephants were harnessed in tandem and with the urging of their trainers, the huge area of canvas was slowly hauled skyward. 

Reading Sara Gruen’s book last week triggered all these memories. Water for Elephants tells the story of Jacob Jankowski who, while away from home studying at veterinary college, learns that his parents have been killed in a car accident. Without money because his parents had taken out huge loans to pay for his education, Jacob is unable to complete his veterinary exams. Aimless and distraught, he jumps aboard the first passing train which happens to be carrying the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. When it’s discovered he’s a veterinarian, Jacob is pressured into becoming the show’s animal doctor.

A character called simply Uncle Al owns the show. His dream is to turn his second-rate travelling circus into a big time operation like the Ringling Brothers. In pursuit of his vision he crisscrosses the United States and Canada buying up circuses that have gone bankrupt in the Depression-era economy. Uncle Al, who doubles as the show’s Ringmaster, figures he’s well on his way to fame and fortune when he purchases an elephant called Rosie. However, it turns out the pachyderm can’t follow the simplest commands, let alone perform as a featured act. Having spent his last dime on the elephant, Uncle Al’s Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth appears doomed. How Jacob learns to coax Rosie to perform, and thereby saving the circus, becomes the driving force behind the novel. 

My love of circuses carried into my early adult life through attending the Shrine Circus operations that toured North America for many years. Instead of the Big Top tent, these shows were performed in civic hockey arenas. The end of an era finally came when animal-right’s group protests won the day, convincing city councils not to issue business permits to travelling shows exhibiting wild animal acts.

I confess, having been brought up viewing circus entertainment as a youngster, over the years I’d been conveniently blind to the subject of animal abuse. Although I still believe the great majority of trainers treated their animals well, Gruen’s novel does give insight into the mistreatment and cruelty some circus personnel inflicted on their charges. This poignant paragraph from the book is an example. In Jacob’s narration he says, "I look up just as he flicks the cigarette. It arcs through the air and lands in Rosie's open mouth, sizzling as it hits her tongue. She roars, panicked, throwing her head and fishing inside her mouth with her trunk. August [the elephant’s reluctant trainer] marches off. I turn back to Rosie. She stares at me, a look of unspeakable sadness on her face. Her amber eyes are filled with tears."

I’m looking forward to the film version of Water for Elephants, which according to the trailers I’ve seen is due to open on April 15. I don’t believe I’ve seen a movie featuring the traditional American style circus in such detail since Cecil B. DeMille’s Academy Award winning 1952 film The Greatest Show on Earth starring Betty Hutton and Charlton Heston. Although there was some great circus footage featured, in my memory DeMille’s epic was overly long, exceedingly melodramatic and definitely short on plot. After reading Sara Gruen’s well-written novel Water for Elephants, I can’t imagine the film being anything less than a winner. 

PHOTO: 

The Clyde Beatty Circus set up and ready to play an afternoon matinee performance. When this photo was taken in the late 1950’s the show had abandoned travel by rail in favor of semi-trailer highway trucks.

And All That Jazz

Last week I received an email from Qualicum based alto saxophonist and instrument repairman Claudio Fantinato, asking if I’d play piano on the weekend with a band he was performing with at the Shady Rest Pub in Qualicum Beach. The email didn’t say who was in the group so it wasn’t until I attended a short rehearsal before the gig I found two old friends were members - Bill Cave on trumpet and Doug Gretsinger on bass. A wonderful drummer Wayne Finucan filled out the rhythm section. Arriving at the venue I found the Shady Rest packed to the rafters. I had a great time playing with not only old friends, but with such fine musicians to boot. 

The band is called Rosalee and the Jazz Swingers and features some solid and secure singing by lead vocalist Rosalee Sullivan. Next Saturday I have another commitment so I was unable to accept an invitation to play. Instead Bryan Stovel will be on bass and Doug Gretsinger will move to the guitar chair. However I’m looking forward to rejoining the group for the month’s remaining Saturdays and two more in March. The music gets underway at 7:00 pm and runs to 10 pm.

This Thursday evening Feb. 10 at 7:30 I’m playing piano with The Michael Irving Quintet at the Georgia Straight Jazz Club situated in the Elk’s Hall Lounge, 231 6^th Street in Courtenay. Michael Irving (trumpet), Cameron Wigmore (tenor sax), Nick Sheasgreen (bass) and Michael Wright (drums) make up the quintet.  Website:  http://www.georgiastraightjazz.com/