The zoo

A lot has happened since the last post, culminating in an 8 hour visit to Roger Williams Park Zoo. We had such amazing cooperation from the zoo staff that I was truly humbled. These folks took a lot of time out of their work day to answer questions, and show us around. And I could ask basically anything that I wanted to. I tried to include questions that I thought the general concerned public would want to know, both good and bad, about elephants in this zoo. I don't play hardball as a rule, but I did include queries on zoo studies about longevity, health care, etc. And was encouraged by the answers. As a matter of fact, my original premise about the evolution of our consciousness regarding exotic species really seems to be borne out in conversation.

Take the elephant's feet, for example. We've learned that elephants hear through their feet as well as their ears- though different types and frequencies of sound. One of the most distressing practices of zoo care in the past has been the fact that these animals have had to stay on concrete and their feet deteriorated and they've been unprotected from traffic sounds, etc. In RWPZ, though, this has all changed. The elephants are never on concrete and with the sand room, rubberized floors, and outside dirt, along with regular foot care, they're in pretty good shape.

These elephants aren't on chains, except in unpredictable situations where their safety and that of the keepers might be jeopardized. Procedures are done in the public area where people can watch to see that the animals aren't being abused. The name of the game, actually, is transparency, which was really heartening.

The staff had obviously done a lot of planning, because they had scheduled activities that would really help us understand the elephant's day- including bathing, mani/pedi, feeding, trunk wash for TB testing, and "enrichment" activities- ie, playtime.

The most interesting of these, to me, was painting. The pachyderms are learning to paint pictures on canvas (they can already do murals) with tempera paints (the kind kids use in case they eat it). Right now, it's mostly trunk painting, but they're learning to wield brushes, too, like their Thai brethren. "Why?" you may ask. It all has to do with keeping their minds occupied. These babes are smart, and can and do get bored. The more challenges, the more lively their minds, and the healthier they stay. So though this is a small piece of the whole picture, they seem to like it. As Jen, their keeper, pointed out, "You can tell they're really engaged by the way their ears go forward and they concentrate." Just like me!

So now, most of the primary shooting is done. It's time to review and transcribe tapes, work on the script and a more complete treatment, and figure out what needs to go where.

More as things progress.

Up to Chepachet- again

It was off to Chepachet again for a chat on camera with Edna Kent, Glocester's Town Historian.

I stopped at the Town cemetery on the way and located one of the shooter's graves with no problem at all. I wasn't at all surprised that Albert Eddy's impressive grave didn't mention a thing about his role in the historic elephant killing. I intend to go back to hunt the rest of the gang down, though Fenner Eddy (his brother and the main shooter) is, in fact, buried in upstate New York.

After our interview, all three of us headed out to follow the footsteps of the famous pachyderm. Even though the town has changed in a lot of ways from 1826, there were plenty of traces of it as it may have appeared back then. Heading down Tanner's Lane was a real time travel experience.

Condensing it...

It's really hard to think of condensing this project into a 2.5 minute trailer. What is the film's essence? How can I convey it in a flash?

If you were in the theater watching trailers before the latest Indie Blockbuster, what could I show you that would make you put this movie on your "definitely to do" list? How could I fan your flame so that you couldn't wait to tell all of your friends about it?

That's where I am right now. I have so much research under my belt, I've talked with and filmed so many people and have such amazing footage from various sources that it's time to seriously think about crafting a trailer for the film. It's always the toughest part for me to do...

I also continue to noodle with a title. "Elephants in Rhode Island" is fine, but other possibilities are "Hunting Elephants in Rhode Island", "The Saga of Elephants in Rhode Island", "Elephants in Rhode Island, a Love Story".

Feel free to make suggestions or comment...

Circus Surprise

OK. I have been avoiding any real confrontation with circus elephants. I, after all, am not a tough activist. I generally melt in the face of adversity. And I collapse in the face of animal misuse. But the Cole Bros. Circus came to town, and they had elephants.

Like a sleepwalker, I drove into the parking lot where the big top was begin set up and asked if they did, indeed, have elephants in their entourage. "Please, god, please," I prayed. "Don't let there be any elephants. Let me leave happy."

"Sure we do, honey," said the lady at the ticket booth.

"I'd love to take pictures of them," I said.

"Go around back and ask for Louie."

My feet were lead. What would I do if there were scars, blood, or fractures? But I headed back to Louie land and suddenly saw three huge black elephants standing in a pen, being fed hay by a hefty guy. They didn't have chains or bracelets on. Breathe. I tapped Louie on the shoulder.

"I know this sounds nuts, " I announced. "But I'm making a documentary about elephants in RI and would love to take some pictures. And..." (I gave my most winning smile.) "I've never even touched an elephant. Would it be possible to pet one of them?" Breathe.

"Sure," he said. Just give me a minute to get this hay under cover."

For the next half hour we talked about elephants- his elephants, circus elephants. It turns out that he's from an elephant handling family and they keep their charges on a 400 acre ranch (The Endangered Ark http://www.endangeredarkfoundation.com/index.html) for the six months a year they're not on the road. They aren't chained there. They roam, swim, and graze and socialize the whole time. As a matter of fact, when they're on the road, he said, the only time they're in a truck is when they are actually moving. Louie takes them swimming and grazing as often as he can. They had spent part of that very AM, as a matter of fact, browsing the hedges on the perimeter of the property where they were.

Could this be true? Could this be a humane circus animal trainer, or had he just learned the right words to assuage my fears? He did get some elephant facts wrong, but... "I wish they could stay on the ranch all year," he confided. "But it's expensive and they do have to earn a living." Breathe.

We made an appointment for Louie to talk on camera and I showed up promptly at 10AM on Sunday. Louie was at the chiropractor's. I talked with his assistant, who had joined the circus a month before. "I'm so happy," he said. "I love these animals the best of any in the circus. I want to do this for the rest of my life."

Louie joined us. We shot about 1/2 hour of him telling about his and the elephants' life. He even has a facebook page called Vanishing Giants. We talked about the fact that more and more places are banning animal circuses and what that means to him and his elephants.

While we were setting up two women arrived. One of them has terminal cancer and had come to help Louie feed and clean his charges. She had told him the night before that it was her one dream- to help care for an elephant before it was too late for her.

I may be a sap, and I may be hoping for too much. But I am also hoping that, in fact, this experience was for real. I have no reason to think it was a setup. Or maybe that where elephants are concerned, it is possible that good things do happen.

Raw Love

After a trip to Spain and several other diversions, I came back full force last week, with my faithful camera guy Ray, to shoot a couple of players in the "Fanny in Pawtucket" story.

Bill Mulholland was the head of the zoo during the Fanny imbroglio. Aaron Wishnevsky was one of Fanny's greatest fans and was active in getting her into the Black Beauty Ranch instead of a theme park/sanctuary in California.

It was obvious that Aaron and his late wife Pat were some of Fanny's greatest supporters. They visited her regularly during her 35 year stay at Slater Park and then a few times once she moved to Texas. Aaron was on her relocation committee. Marine World Africa USA, which was recommended by Loretta Swit was the front runner for her disposition. But no one had seen it. Aaron and Pat flew out to the site and were discouraged by what they saw. "It was like a zoo," he said. "Our Fanny would have to perform and be chained to a bunch of other elephants while she was there. It just wouldn't work." So he flew to TX and drove a couple of hours to Murchison after landing in Dallas for a site visit. What he saw lifted the clouds. "The animals could roam there. They had huge pens for the elephants (There was only one at that point.) and she'd be outside wandering around and swimming and grazing all the time." When he got back to Pawtucket, he convinced the council that there was no contest for her new home.

Bill Mulholland said he was frustrated due to lack of funds and commitment. He had repeatedly proposed plans to upgrade the zoo, but they always became stalled. It didn't help that the city's mayor was under indictment for corruption. "The City was at a standstill," he said. "No matter what we wanted to do, we were stymied. And things were at a crisis point."

While we were at the office, Cindy, the clerk, said that she remembered that when Fanny died in 2003, callers flooded the phones immediately. "They were all devastated," she said. So we shot her, too. And once again, came up with the same conclusions. Pawtucketers loved their elephant. When Aaron referred to her, he always used the term, "Our Sweetheart."

This emotion is raw. It's real. It's unbelievably powerful. People, when they speak of that time, don't focus on their hostility toward their opponents. They focus on their love for Fanny. It can change your life.

It began in Chepachet

So I presented my findings so far to the Glocester Historical Society in Chepachet last night. There were over a dozen people present and I was delighted at their interest in what I have dug up so far. The presentation, in spite of some early techno panic, went off really well.

The big hit of the evening, of course, was the world premiere of the digital version of the Baby Roger movie. For the first time anywhere in over a century, "A Visit with Baby Roger" ran for all of its 80 seconds. The applause was deafening. (OKOKOK. Maybe not deafening, but audible at least.) I thought it was appropriate that this cradle of elephant stories was also the spot where the movie came back to light...

One of the cool things about giving presentations is what you end up learning from the audience. One Civil War researcher/historian volunteered the fact that in 1862-63, there were supposedly several sitings of a wild elephant in the woods north of Woonsocket. I can hardly wait to get up north to see the info myself since the archives of the paper hasn't been digitized yet and I haven't run across any other references anywhere to this ghostly phenomenon. He (and I) suspects that this was just a case of mistaken identity, but, of course, it's a great adventure to track it down. After all, an elephant did run amuck in 1854 and cause a lot of damage just east of Pawtucket. Who's to say no elephant broke free from its menagerie and holed up in the woods for a winter? However, no bones have ever been found, no traces, as far as we know. But perhaps it was just passing through on its way to Florida...

On another front, I was shooting an interview with a woman who was at "Goodbye to Fanny Day" in 1993 up in Pawtucket. She was really articulate and passionate about Fanny. At the end of our time together, she said something that pierced me to the quick- "I'm glad someone is doing something for Fanny," she said. "So that people will remember her."

And in fact, that's what this is all about- remembering the animals that touched us so deeply. Here's to Fanny and friends...

Updates, updates

So much has happened to this project this month that I've lost track of time.

I located some actual footage of Providence's "Baby Roger"! It was taken in 1900 by a Long Island filmmaker who worked with DW Griffith early in his career. Anyway,after a daylong hunt, and some extremeley good luck in finding a friendly archivist at UCLA, I located the only existing copy of this film at the Library of Congress. They're making a digital copy for me as we speak. Though I haven't seen it, and don't expect much from the quality end of things, I'm totally jazzed about having some real moving footage of an actual player in this movie.

And speaking of moving footage- I spent time with Jan Mariani out at Roger Williams Park Zoo hanging out at the elephant yards. It felt great to see the girls (Alice, Kate and Ginny) cruising their yard in the sun, taking dust baths, etc. We made tentative plans for me to see some footage of elephants at home, and even to shoot them from a platform as they leave home for the day. And I get to talk to a keeper and a vet as well! Though this is a while off, after the school trips subside.

The really major development, though, was in finding a producer/coach to work with in making this film all it can be. Her name is Diane Hendrix in Sommerville, MA and her credentials are very impressive (see http://www.hendrixproductions.com/). We met yesterday morning to go through my treatment and as a result, the whole core and vision of this project has morphed. It has gone from an interesting, amusing and general story of the interaction of Rhode Islanders and elephants, to a passionate tale of our love for these animals in this state and how we've carried out that love.
Though I've been urged to change the title from "Hunting Elephants in Rhode Island", I'm still pretty attached to it. Perhaps a more accurate title would be "Hunting Elephants in Rhode Island; A Love Story". Because this, indeed, is what it is.

I had thought that my research would show the evolution of awareness of man to animal over the centuries. But, amazingly, what I found was that we almost immediately connected with the pachyderms. From the beginning, when Betty was shot in Chepachet, there was a huge outcry. And, on a wider scale, when "The Elephant", the first of his species, was brought to the US by Captain Crowninshield in 1797, there were essays on the animal's nobility and dignity.

What is it, I ask, about elephants and people? And what is it especially, I ask, about Rhode Islanders and their elephants?

Hear all about it...

Well, momentum is picking up on the elephants this Spring. I talked today with Bill George, program director of local radio in RI. We discussed this doc and put out a call for participation on air.

The interview will be aired on three stations at three times-
93.3FM Sunday, April 12 at 7AM
94.1FM Sunday at 7.30AM
101.5FM Sunday at 7.30AM

Clearchannel doesn't podcast these programs, so it won't be available on the web, but, if I can get clearances, I'll post it on this blog.

I've also talked to a couple of other participants in Fanny's story and am working to get them on camera. Both of them have original footage of our Pawtucket heroine, too, so I'm very jazzed about being able to use that in the finished piece.

Spent most of the weekend working on the shape of things to come, too, and have finally "seen" the piece in my mind. I think it will be boffo if I can pull it off the way it ran in my mind. There's plenty of room for collaboration here, but I have miles to go before I show the finished piece...

And now, on to the zoo

It's springtime and zoo time in Rhode Island, so I've moved south from Pawtucket and have begun digging into the history of Roger Williams Park Zoo (where the hopefully fertile Alice awaits another chance at motherhood). Larry, god bless him, furnished me with a lead to the most heartwarming story yet, pachyderm wise.

In 1893, the children of Providence presented a baby elephant to the zoo. It was a little critter and won everyone's heart. Poems were written on the day he was presented there. Songs were sung. Pictures were taken, and a fab time was had by all. How can this not be part of the doc?

On another front, I have an appointment scheduled to talk with Eclipse Neilsen, the sanctuary advocate for Fanny back in 1993 (hmmmmm- a mere one hundred years later) and what's she's told me already is enough to set my ears wiggling. I can hardly wait to meet her.

My posts get a bit shorter these days, because I've been wondering if it's wise to share everything I learn before I've had time to digest it thoroughly myself and put it in context. In other words, are musings actionable????

Voices from the north

I got an email yesterday from a fellow named Larry in North Scituate, not far from Chepachet, that knocked my sox off. It seems that he's devoted a considerable chunk of time researching a piece of family history with his sister, and it all has to do with elephants.

One of the most famous elephants in modern western history was called Jumbo, a mammoth star of the British Empire who won the hearts and the minds of those islanders in the late 19th century. In a slip of sanity, the poobahs at the London Zoo sold him to P.T. Barnum, who traipsed him around North America until a train ended his life in Canada in 1885. The family connection, it seems, is that Larry's great-grandfather may or may not have been engineer of the unfortunate iron horse that plowed into poor Jumbo's side and caused his demise. Thus Larry's interest in history, in elephants, and in the history of elephants. He has grown expert at navigating elephant research and has offered to help in this project.

At the end of the email he wrote words that will forever bolster my resolution to make this film. "We need more efforts involved with matters of the heart and spirit nowadays." Already he's been able to make a Jumbo connection with RI for me and I'm delighted. He provided the above shot of Jumbo's demise.


As a result, I can see a widening of the initial story, but not to the point of drowning the original intent.

On another front, I drove all the way up to East Providence this fine day to meet with Jan Mariani, the zoo rep for Roger Williams Park Zoo, where lucky Alice the Elephant awaits another visit from the AI stork.

Jan and I agreed to have a quiet little confab over Asian food near the zoo to iron out some details of where my interests and those of the zoo overlap. It was a pretty fruitful meeting and we both left with encouraging "to do" lists for future actions. Just the kind of meeting I like. Agenda-ed, on target, productive, and filling. I eagerly await more info as the week goes on. We discussed a "Day in the Life" feature in the Zoo section that I think could really engage one and all. She may be able to help me considerably in that direction.

Last week, between trips to Baltimore and NYC, I wrote the rough draft of the Chepachet story and am very encouraged with it. It flowed, and, because I was doing it in a 3 column format, I slowly began to see the pix that go with the words. In other words, this film is beginning to appear like a picture in an old-fashioned darkroom.

More as things develop...

I'm beginning to see the light

I spent a lot of time going through my Pawtucket research the other day and thinking about how this movie is going to look when it's done and on the screen at the Academy Awards. Now, I must see about 100 docs a year, and I'm always fascinated at how many ways there are to tell a story on screen. I have (of course) my preferences as to watching them, but just as I feel I have the structure nailed, someone works a story that explodes my mind and I store it away for pilfering at the appropriate moment.

As I say, I was reading my notes and photocopies and I started to hear some voices in my head. Not the "Go and smite thine enemies" kind of voice, but the kind you might hear in my particular film. I heard layered voices, ambient sound, elephant cries, etc., with music, though the pictures weren't as clear as I might want. How to do this? Where to go from here?

More later...

Call and Response

So I sent out press releases to several newspapers around the state describing the project and asking for people to participate by letting me know their stories.

I hadn't realized that the Projo instantly posted the entire release on its blog site. http://newsblog.projo.com/2009/02/documentary-mak.html But when I suddenly got several emails and comments I was delighted. Googled my name with the word elephants and found the post itself and the public's reaction to it. The first response was from Our tax dollars at work who wrote: The state is in financial chaos, and is this what we are doing with our tax dollars? No wonder we are becoming the laughing stock of America.

Now, I have to say I've been expecting this reaction as the economy tanks and have been waiting to respond to it (no use stirring up the pot unneccessarily). So I now post my reply to that writer and give it to all of you who are interested in and supporting this documentary yourselves.

Here are the reasons that the Humanities Council funded my research.
1)History is important. The Humanities Council was formed and exists to promote and protect our understanding of the humanities, the area of knowledge that allows us to understand the world in a wider context and act on that understanding.
2)All over the nation there are lawsuits re: the proper treatment of exotic animals by zoos, circuses, etc. By studying our own responses to them in the past, we are better able to address such concerns when they come up here in the future. And they do come up every year when the circus comes to town or when the zoo must make decisions about the animals they keep.
3)By learning about our own stories of the past, we strengthen our identity and understanding of ourselves today.

All comments are gratefully appreciated...

Bingeing....

I binged on Pawtucket this week. I kept thinking of those files, those stacks of folders, just waiting to be mined by the right person- who happens to be- me. Although I had appointments here on the island or nearby every day, by Wednesday I exploded, rented a hotel room up north and headed for Pawtucket Public Library.

The files were no disappointment. Though I got a little weary of reading what seemed to be the same stories over and over, it suddenly occurred to me that I was reading the accounts of politics and impassioned advocacy with 20/20 hindsight. I knew what was going to happen. I knew that Fanny's last ten years would be happy and healthy and good for everyone all around. But Pawtucket, the mayor and concilmen, the public- none of them had any way of knowing (though they could hope) that it would all turn out for the best.

There had been a lot of problems at the zoo, after all. Vandals released Frosty the polar bear and he was shot in his tracks before the zoo folks could get a tranquilizer gun on the scene. Seven animals in the prairie exhibit died from various causes within a couple of months at the zoo due to the results of overcrowding, infant mortality, etc. A camel in rut went nuts and killed his keeper. One of the bears (it turned out later) had pancreatitis and died on his way to his relocation zoo. Fanny, even with her questionable surroundings, seemed to be on the winning end of things. Certainly she was in the hearts of Pawtucketers....

The 1992-93 fights to do the best by Fanny were a fascinating peek into the era. Fermenting partisanship against the animal rights folks and the hearts of the public with a dash of self-promotion along the way. Good hearts pretty much all the way around.

My list of people to contact grwos exponentially. I want to do a Man-in-the-street kind of thing at the zoo when the weather perks up and the leaves green out.

Thursday, Ray met me in Providence and we shot a talk with Chris Kane, the sculptor of the Fanny statue. I asked him what makes his statue Fanny, rather than a generic elephant. He did a lot of thinking and a lot of experimenting and a lot of examining of pictures of our heroine. He worked the eyes to reflect (pardon the pun) her gentle gaze, and created a special tool to try her head in all sorts of angles to get her just right. I can hardly wait to get back.

Size was an issue, Chris informed us. If he made her too large, she wouldn't be accessible to the kids he wanted to play on, under, around and through her. If he made her too small, she'd look like a toy. Even the shade of grey he used to paint her was a major consideration. Too light, and she became a plaything only. Too dark and she'd be forbidding. Although he originally envisioned her in bronze, lack of funds dictated Plan B, which was to go to fiberglass.

"In retrospect," he confided "It was totally the best decision because it really fit in with the surroundings and was more reasonable for the purpose. Bronze gets too hot in the summer for the kids to touch, and looks too old fashioned to fit into the modern surroundings."

So I continue, and will be burning the phone wires this week all the way to Pawtucket.

More as things develop.

Fanny begins...

There's something pretty satisfying about being presented with stacks of primary source folders on a subject, and that's what I faced earlier today up in Pawtucket. The Fanny files from both the Library and Historical Society there were waiting for me to mine them. I only had a couple of hours to go through them today, but I can hardly wait to retun next week for more digging.

There were a couple of bombshells even in the little I was able to go through, and I am running up a real photocopy account as I go along. Fanny, it appears, left her footprint in cement at the zoo the day before she left for Texas in 1993. I don't remember seeing it there, but then again, I wasn't looking for it the last time I visited the zoo. There was more memorabilia as well, and I'm hoping to dig it up as I go along.

It's time to actually start shooting interviews. I have a couple lined up and a list of names that reaches all the way to the ground to do at the same time.

I've also begun lining up speaking engagements for the summer, to update people on the research. Chepachet first, in May, and then Pawtucket in July. Anyone who wants to book my presentation is welcome to contact me at tapit@care2.com.

Moving down south...

Big news in elephant world this week, as my friend Sue on the island was quick to point out.

According to the New York Times, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Animal Welfare Institute and the Fund for Animals have brought Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus to Federal District Court for "engaging in a number of practices they call cruel, including chaining the elephants for long stretches." Apparently the blockbuster evidence against the circuses include some pretty damning video footage of mistreatment. The circuses, of course, are pissed. In moving to dismiss the case, they argued that the plaintiffs "have most of their “facts” wrong and are also wrong on the law, basing much of their case on the Endangered Species Act, which the defendants say Congress never intended to apply to animals in captivity."

For more info, read
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/us/01circus.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=elephant%20court&st=cse
There's also a fascinating account of the background and proceedings over at http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202427940908
And to keep up to date on the proceedings, check out http://awionline.org/legal_affairs/ringling_bros/court_documents.htm

Now I've been having a real dilemma about whether this film should primarily focus on history, advocacy, or just entertainment for the whole family. Since I'm just in the hunting/gathering stage, I don't really need to decide on anything right now, but the trial gives me pause. I love the "gentle giants" and I would love to think that I could do something to help them live happy, free-ish and contented lives. But if I go down that path, I could lose the impact of the history and the intimacy of the Rhode Island angle. It will, of course, continue to haunt me.

On Thursday night, I went to a meeting of the RI Film Collaborative Documentary Makers' group. They really got me jazzed to greenlight the interviews we need for the piece and start running with it. When I described my project there was, as usual, a great outpouring of passion from, among others, the partner of the former zoo vet over at Roger Williams Park Zoo (where Alice awaits her next date with the Pittsburgh stud) and a designer who is working on a communication device (ele-tele) for elephants. Now this whole piece has an audience, has a passionate audience, and deserves to be made and seen. I wish I had a producer- but until then...

So I'll be on the phone a lot this week setting up interviews and shooting opportunities. I can hardly wait to get started again.

Research wise, I've packed up my tent and moved south from Chepachet to Pawtucket- from Bette to Fanny. The folks over at Pawtucket, who are manning the Pawtucket History Research Center, have gathered their packets and pictures and called me to come on up any time to start digging. So, god willing and the snow don't fall, I'll be headed north early next week.

More later....

Jackpot- sort of

Paydirt.

As I was photocopying the info I'd gathered on Bette's demise in Chepachet for the Historical Society, I ran across the names of the five defendants who were found guilty of the murder. I immediately emailed Andrew Smith up at Judicial Records with the info so he could locate anything of value from the courts. I'm waiting for his answer about the process that sealed the fates of Fenner Eddy, John Inman, Albert Eddy, Francis West, Angell Darling and Benjamin Bowen, but I've already got fascinating stats on how many bullets were used and by whom, who stood where and when and why the fine was set so high.

It seems that killing pachyderms came under the general "law which makes the killing of a beast an offence, punishing the same with a fine not exceeding $100 and two months imprisonment, and also subjecting the party convicted to pay to the owner treble damages to be recovered in an action of trespass. This was doubtless intended to apply to ordinary animals, horses, kine, etc. and the law could not have anticipated the shooting an elephant."

This is where the fun begins. I've started trying to track down the descendents of the perpertrators with uneven results. And there are mysteries. For example, "Fenner Eddy" (how many of those can there be?) appears to have moved to NY state before the killing. Were there two? Or did he do the deed on Spring break? If the one I found is the same, he would have been 23 at the time of shooting and with a family, to boot. But...

Angell Darling provided testimony after the Dorr Rebellion, but was he a participant or onlooker? And who is related to Amasa Eddy, Dorr's Lt. Governor? RI is a small state and Chepachet even smaller, so my hunch is that these guys were all pretty much related. Certainly the Inmans and Eddys were, I've found.

But were the conspiracy theories hinted at darkly and in back corners true, or is it, in fact, more accurate to say that the Chepachet Six were just out on a lark, taking the Elephant Man (with apologies to Merrick) at his word.

To be continued...

From DC to Jamestown

A short trip to DC during inauguration yielded far more than chilblains and cheesy Obama trinkets.

I talked with my sister-in-law, an experienced historical researcher of local records, about my troubles finding court records of the 1826/27 trial in Chepachet, which resulted in the conviction of five and the assessing of a fine on them of $1500for the loss of Bette the Trained Elephant. Apparently there weren't public trial transcripts in those days, in general, and if there were, they weren't high on the "seal it and shelve it" list. I have a plan for those records, and not being able to find anything has been driving me nuts... She suggested the State Archives. I felt like a dunce, of course, for not having thought of them before, but this AM I contacted them first thing. The folks over there were incredibly helpful and pointed in the direction of the Judicial Records Center up in Pawtucket where an enthusiastic employee by the name of Andrew Smith got on board and is stalking the stacks for helpful info as we speak.

I also lunched with an old friend and accomplished intellectual properties lawyer and in between gossip we discussed copyright and licensing issues. Of course they're byzantine, but that's why lawyers were invented. When I told him that I was beginning to wonder if I were scattering myself in too many directions in this project, he added his comment on the last post. Thanks, Rich!

So we move apace, even in the deep freeze. More as things develop...

A cold day in the library 1.16

I spent the frigid cold AM tucked up snugly in the RI Historical Society's Library watching TV. I'd made an appointment to see some tapes from WJAR's archives- 50'rolls of on-the-spot news dating back to the 1950's. Of course I'd only chosen 4 out of the 50K plus reels in the collection, but they all (the index assured me) dealt with elephants and the circus.

It was a dislocating experience, since each film had to be hand-threaded and rolled through a viewing machine like an ancient editor, and the sound and pix were played separately. Made me (once again) appreciate digital technology!

Some of the footage would be a great addition to the doc- especially "Glocester Elephant- B roll" which followed the celebrations in Chepachet in 1976. But I have to tread cautiously here. The stuff will cost a fortune to obtain and license for my project. $15 a second for licensing is only a start. There are transfer fees. And shipping fees. Etc. fees- adding up to around $1500 a minute for an individual. Of course if I get a non-profit fiscal agent, that price could be adjusted at the non-profit rate, but they keep the rights... What, I must think, are my alternatives? I'm a real sucker for archival footage in films. But it has to be good, pertinent and otherwise ungettable stuff for me to shell out that kind of dough.

The morning wasn't a total bust, though. I ended up with three pages of titles of newspapers from the 1820s, which will require another trip to the vaults and a whole day to search them on microfilm. No guarantees that any of them will have covered the Chepachet goings on, but it's a start. And, of course, there are the state archives which I haven't begun to mine yet.

All of which leads to some cogitation. Should I be refocusing my project's lens? Should I really be working on all three stories, or limit the film to just one event (Chepachet) and wind all of the questions around it? In other words, have I once again bitten off more than I should chew?

Doc making requires much staring into space and running reels from my head to a blank wall. More as things unspool...

Chepachet and Points North 1.14.2009

Thank god the weather was clear and the roads were dry for the spin up to Chepachet to talk with the local historian, Edna Kent. We were meeting at her house for a confab to see how we could mutually benefit each other and the village of Chepachet, township of Glocester, and state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations with whatever information we had.

Edna Kent is a charmer. She's devoted her life to getting it right, history-wise, for the village where she grew up. She had mounds of stuff around the house, including her books, and Betty the Elephant and Dorr Rebellion artifacts. These last are, after all, the village's main claim to fame (aside from Chepachet's little people- but that's quite another story). It drives her crazy that's so much stuff has been given away and lost.

But to get down to brass, as they say, buttons. Edna told me that most of the town's history is in her head. She's dug up much over her life and, though she's written three books on the village, it's only a beginning. There's still a lot of oral/aural history to be transcribed. There was, for example, the story of why Scituate's farmer became involved in Betty's murder. Edna's theory has to do with damaged fruit trees and revenge. He was, she confided, "the injured party" among the conspirators in all of this. Unfortunately, we have no written or tangible proof of her theory- yet. But things do have a way of surfacing.

She also told me that the townspeople are private about the event. There's a haunting feeling that it could happen again floating around. There are elephant-related superstitions.

Edna graciously allowed me to take some pix of some of her pertinent artifacts, which she has been keeping for her forthcoming children's book on the Betty event. Perhaps we could tie all of these things in. We made informal plans for me to present my initial public program on the research sometime this summer.

I told her I intended to post an ad in the local paper asking for information about the 1826 event, just in case there's someone who knows something who would be willing to share it with the public. Someone may have a diary or know where there's a newspaper article hidden away. I live in hope. Maybe if I called the local newspaper and offered them my story, it would get me farther...

We parted after making a tentative date a few months hence to meet again and go through the materials that are in her trunk. I drove around some of the sites that were connected with both the original event and the centennial and a half celebrations trying to get a sense of what to film. It is winter in Rhode Island, of course, and the land was covered with snow, but I did spy a couple of spots that might lend themselves to the story.

Although I know there were probably not any transcripts as such kept of trials of the 1820's in RI, there may be bits and scraps, and I intend to find their natural resting places....

Moving through the ice

It's always tempting when making a documentary to grab the camera and run, shooting everything and everyone in your rolodex so you end up with a lot of footage in a short time. It gives you the feeling that you're making progress. It yields footage. It revs up your editing engine.

But this, after all, is Rhode Island in winter and there's ice on the ground, the sun is not to be trusted and there's snow in the forecast. Every appointment needs a snow date..... Even research appointments.

There's a bright side to the corral, though. When the sky is dark and flakes are falling, there's no question of divided attention. It's time for online reseach, plowing through books and data bases, or a quick scuttle to the neighborhood library (if you're lucky enough to have one, as I am). When you're stuck at the keyboard you come up with mighty interesting things that may be useful later on.

I had a meeting with Ray, my DP/cameraman/sound guy this AM. We worked on an outline for field trips, got our communication plan in line and, in general talked about our plans for the Elephants. He's an easy going guy who seems to have his head on straight and his eyes sqarely in their sockets and he understands the lingo. I'll have his actual CV to attach to the program ASAP. Anyway, this was all very encouraging, because the volunteer PA didn't work out and we're now down to a two man crew. I must network!!! (Note to self- contact RI Film Collaborative ASAP.)

I ran across a reference to the Fanny affair (there may be a better way of phrasing that....) in a North Carolina newspaper the other day. The article mentioned that not only was actress Loretta Swit going to bat for the forlorn pachyderm, which I knew, but that Tippi Hedren, of The Birds fame, was involved as well. I'm going to have to hunt this down.

More as work progresses...

Back in Gear

After a brief hiatus for the holidays, I'm back on the project at hand...

I received a call (several, actually) from an actor in Chicago whose agent, he said, had sent him the info on the project from NEFilm.com. He was a real mover, this one, and strove to assure me that he had whatever it took to be in my movie. He was missing a prime ingredient, though. Tact. During the course of a five minute conversation, he twice told me what a loser place RI was. "There's nothing going on there."
"Have you ever been here?"
"Well, no. But I've seen it on the map and it's no bigger than a shoe."
When I finally convinced him that he and Elephants were not made for one another, he promoted a friend of his who was an amazing editor and would be super for this movie.
"Has he ever done documentaries?" I asked- reasonably.
"No. But I'm sure he'd be great. He's such a cool editor."
I finally told him to have him call me and we'd talk. I felt like Hollywood and suddenly I knew where those phrases came from and what they were used for. He had one more question, though.
"Would you pay his airfare out there?"
Good luck in your career, dude.

I received my interim business cards for the project around Christmas and have been leaving them off in libraries, train stations, etc. ever since. They have this blog's URL on them and I'm hoping that more and more people will become aware of and maybe even contribute to the project. I want to hear stories!

And speaking of contributing, I'm now in the process of finding a fiscal agent for the project so that I can apply for more funding. That in itself is a project, since I can't just walk up to any old non-profit and ask them to handle my money for me. I have to prove, actually, that I have a viable project and a reasonable track record, so that they're not tying themselves up for nothing. So it's the paperwork game again.

There are some slick fundraising websites that I've explored, like indiegogo.com and fundable.com, but they make me a little nervous. I don't see any accountability factor, like fiscal agents, etc. These sites are, in essence, electronic house parties where people can go to donate cash to projects that suit them. More on this as things progress. I've registered with both, but am not sure how I'll use them yet.

Fundraising, is, obviously, the part of the project I feel least comfortable with. But it is the name of the game if I want to make a decent product and get it seen...