Title

2022 - Second-hand Elephant - Oral Presentation

Description

In 1916, the Salt Lake City newspaper, The Telegram, began imploring its readers for donations to buy an elephant (Princess Alice) for the growing Liberty Park Zoo. Later that year, Princess Alice and her trainer Dutch Shider, made Salt Lake City their home and were popular subjects for advertisement in The Telegram. Other newspapers at the time voiced their opposition to the purchase, calling her a “second-hand elephant, and circus reject”. This project explores how a newspaper fighting for more readers purchased this elephant for the sole purpose of making money, and when she had served her purpose, she was forgotten about and ultimately discarded. Princess Alice was known as the only breeding elephant in the United States and lived in Salt Lake City for 60 years after being purchased from the owner (H. Tammen) of the Sells-Floto circus. She was notoriously known for her stubborn attitude, many escape attempts, and the birth of her third calf, “Prince Utah”. Princess Alice was housed at both the Liberty Park Zoo and later at the Hogle Zoo, neither of which had the funds or facilities to properly house the animals, resulting in horrible living conditions. Princess Alice’s life tells the story of how businessmen, a growing zoo, a struggling newspaper, and a circus mogul took advantage of a cultural fascination with elephants to line their pockets and grow their other business ventures while providing an early example of sensationalized news. This is a video of the presentation, "Second-hand Elephant" given at the 2022 Undergraduate Projects & Research Conference at Salt Lake Community College. The presenters: Jenna Thompson & Ted Moore. The video can be accessed via YouTube here: https://youtu.be/xl2n9ikM-Fk

Subjects

Zoo animals, Zoos, elephants, Animal shows, animal stories, Animal behavior, Wildlife conservation, Newspaper industry, Yellow journalism, Journalism, Social aspects

Local Identifiers

22-0250