Every set of ears and eyes were spellbound by the heavily researched true story of a circus which came to Orange in the 1920s, as KOGT’s Margaret Toal relayed the pachyderm’s adventure and ill fate to members of Golden K Kiwanis on Wed., May 16, at the club’s 9 a.m. meeting at the Orange Salvation Army on MLK and Strickland. According to Toal, the story was documented in story format and drawings by the “Saturday Evening Post” and “The Illustrated World Magazine,” largely circulated periodicals of the time period.
The circus took place on Nov. 18, 1921, near where the Heritage House Museum currently stands, off Division Street, performing one of the last shows before heading to Florida for the winter months.
Otto Floto was the founder of the circus. Likewise, the largest elephant was named “Floto.”
Apparently, Floto sometimes was fed tobacco instead of peanuts, perhaps, causing her to become “wild” that night, engaging in a long-time feud with Billy, a runt of an elephant usually protected by Old Mom, the matriarch of the elephants.
The particular night of Nov. 18, 1921, Old Mom was not around, so Billy began eating Floto’s food while Floto was dining on it, resulting in Floto going into a rage, standing on her hunches, and fighting little Billy.
By this time, it was dark, and no tranquilizer guns existed. A few street lights existed in Orange, then a population of 12,000. A local hardware store is believed to have distributed guns and ammunition. As a result, about 6,000 armed people were running around town, out for elephant blood, as they traveled over the bridge on Adams Bayou into West Orange.
Finally, someone recalled that Edgar Brown, Jr., a wealthy man known for African safaris, had an elephant rifle. Roy Alba is said to have worked for Brown, and he is said to have formed a posse ready to seize Floto. The men then found Floto, as she pulled up a telephone pole and began swinging it, supposedly on Smith Street.
The high-powered rifle shot Floto behind the ear and into the head, and she expired. The towns people decided they wanted souvenirs, so they began cutting off the deceased elephant’s ears, teeth, flesh, feet, and ivory tusks. Some of the elephant meat was even canned. A fellow named Andy Webb who lived in Mississippi is said to have obtained a molar tooth weighing 25 lbs. And so, the legend of Floto continues to survive! Lesson learned: Never take an elephant’s food.
-by Anne Payne-
Edgar Brown did not go on african safaris he just had a large caliber rifle at the time also i believe it was Alva Griffith not Roy Alba
I know more about this. Margaret should contact me.
There was canned elephant meat at Expo67.