Electrocuting an Elephant
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Electrocuting an Elephant (also known as Electrocution of an Elephant) is a 1903 American, short, black-and-white, silent documentary film of the killing of the elephant Topsy by electrocution at a Coney Island amusement park. It was produced by the Edison film company (part of the Edison Manufacturing Company) and is believed to have been shot by Edwin S. Porter or Jacob Blair Smith.
Synopsis
This film documents the publicly announced killing of Topsy the elephant at the unfinished Luna Park on Coney Island, New York City on January 4, 1903. The elephant had recently been acquired from Forepaugh Circus, where she had a reputation as a "bad" elephant, having killed a drunken spectator the previous year who burnt the tip of her trunk with a lit cigar. After several incidents at Luna Park (sometimes attributed to the actions of her handler, William "Whitey" Alt) the owners of Luna Park, Frederic Thompson and Elmer "Skip" Dundy, claimed they could no longer handle the elephant and announced they would hang Topsy in a public spectacle and charge admission. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals stepped in, questioning the idea of hanging an elephant as well as making a public spectacle out of the death of an animal. Thompson and Dundy cut the event back to invited guest and press only and agreed to use a surer method of strangling the elephant with large ropes tied to a steam powered winch. They also agreed they would use poison and electricity as well. [[File:Electrocuting an Elephant.webm|thumb|left|Electrocuting an Elephant, a 1903 film of the execution of Topsy shot by the Edison Manufacturing Co.]]
The 74 second film opens with a standard Edison Studios credit screen "ELECTROCUTING AN ELEPHANT" "Thomas A. Edison" and then cuts to Topsy being led past a crowd of people through an unfinished Luna Park to the execution spot, an island in the middle of a "lagoon" used for boat-rides, by elephant handler Carl Goliath. The film camera stops at that point and an intervening hour and forty-five minutes are not recorded. During this unrecorded interval Topsy refused to cross the bridge to the island forcing the park employees and Brooklyn Edison electricians to re-rig the strangling apparatus and electrical wiring to where Topsy stood. Topsy was also fed carrots laced with cyanide while copper-clad sandals connected to electric lines were strapped to her feet. When the film camera restarts, Topsy is seen with the bridge over the lagoon and the original execution spot, the parks "Electric Tower" with a sign advertising "OPENING MAY 2ND 1903 LUNA PARK $1,000,000 EXPOSITION, THE HEART OF CONEY ISLAND", in the background. Topsy tries to shake off one of the sandals and then stands still. At that point she stiffens as 6,600-volts AC is applied to her body. Smoke rises from her feet and then she topples to the ground. Right at the end of the film, the noose tied around Topsy's neck can be seen tightening.
See also
