Avondale Park. Birmingham, Alabama. The town is decorated for Christmas. Garland everywhere. Wreaths aplenty. Visions of reindeer tinkling in the snow.
There is an old man in the park, talking to a giant bronze elephant statue. His adult children are nearby, snapping photos. A small crowd is gathered around him because he is in love with this inanimate object.
I ask the man why he is passionately stroking a statue.
“Ain’t a statue,” the old man explains. “This is Miss Fancy. She’s an old friend of mine.”
Then he tells a story.
The real Miss Fancy was born in 1871, in the wilds of India. She was a puny elephant, purchased by the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus for a pittance.
In circus world, Hagenbeck-Wallace was big potatoes. Second largest circus in America. Founder, Carl Hagenbeck, was a pioneer who believed in reward-based animal training instead of fear-based training, so he never hurt animals like other circuses. As a result Miss Fancy was cheerful and good-natured.
Miss Fancy was likely trained to ride bikes, play musical instruments,
play baseball, sing Schubert, and of course, wear wedding dresses.
In the late 1800s, Miss Fancy toured the United States, and entertained audiences from California to Maine. She was seen on posters and handbills from coast to coast.
But in 1913, her career ended. The circus made headlines when a Hagenbeck-Wallace train wrecked. It was a disaster. Hundreds of animals were badly maimed or wounded. Fancy was among the injured.
So the circus sold her. Fancy was 41 years old when she was sold to Avondale Park, in Birmingham.
“She was sent here to retire,” said the old man, affectionately stroking the statue. “She became the lifeblood of our town.”
Avondale Park was a glorified zoo. A rest home for animals. There wasn’t much going on in Avondale. People paid a few pennies to see Miss Fancy eat hay and make poop.
Things were pretty loose…