Great news!

There's some great news this week about Elephants in Rhode Island.
We've been working for a long time to get a web presence for Elephants in Rhode Island. True, we have this blog, a facebook page, a twitter feed and our own email address, but somehow, things were falling short without our own website.
So- today- after a month or more of intense work, we are delighted to announce that Elephants in Rhode Island now has its own website with pages for our projects as we go along.
It includes ways you can get involved, the details of what the project is all about, and the latest updates from our whole world of RI elephants!
You can find us at http://rielephants.com. Please make sure to check it out and let us know how you like it as well as what features you'd like to see us add.

On another front, I just discovered that there's a trivia team in northern RI called Free Fanny. They compete in trivia nights around the state and are named after Pawtucket's sweetheart, Fanny the Elephant. Turns out they all knew and loved her, and this is the way they keep her memory alive. Way to go, gang! I hope to include them in "Uproar in Pawtucket" the next doc in the series.

More as things progress...

A New Tribute to our friend Fanny

Poet Bea Lazarus was a nurse at Pawtucket hospital when she met Fanny. She'd often stop by Slater Park in Pawtucket to visit her friend after work, when the sun was golden and Fanny was at her best.
When it was time for the elephant to leave home in 1993, Bea was moved to write a delicate and heartfelt poem to her. She's taped it for us. You can see it at
► 3:41► 3:41 www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAnM1mnDnig

Ashaway and a huge surprise!.

Thursday was National Elephant Appreciation Day (for those of you who didn't know) and I celebrated by giving a talk about (what else?) Elephants in Rhode Island at the Ashaway Free Library in SW RI. The kind library staff there enthusiastically hostd the talk. They even made a batch of "Elephant Ear" cookies that disappeared from the table in minutes... The RI Council on the Humanities sponsored the program.
What fun!
We talked about the big elephant stories, I played The Ballad of Baby Roger and both adults and kiddies had some good questions. I had to do a bunch of research when I got home to send them...
Yesterday I checked the email and found an utra-exciting note from a fan who actually visited Fanny the Elephant in her final home at the sanctuary and had video of her there, as well as an interview with her keepers! I'm looking forward to meeting her and seeing what comes up. This has been a big area that I've been missing in the film- footage of her final years, and this would be perfect!
More as things develop....

She's still the one...

Folks are still in love with Fanny.
Even kids who never met her showed up last night at the library to hear stories, see the trailer, and learn more about Pawtucket's Sweetheart who left town almost 20 years ago.
One of them is going to be an official fundraiser at her school when it opens this fall.
There were 35 people there in all, including some of the original players, like Former Mayor Metivier who brought a priceless bit of tape. It followed Fanny on her last night in Pawtucket.
"We were all in tears that night," he and Aaron Wishnevsky agreed.
Aaron, who visited Fanny in Texas a lot with his wife Pat, brought a stash of pictures of the Black Beauty Ranch, and a full sized footprint.
Add to that Eclipse Neilsen of the "Free Fanny" coalition, the assistant zookeeper who took care of Fanny, and lots of people who knew and loved her.
Even Chris Kane, who made the sculpture of Fanny that stands in the park now, popped in, as did Jen Warmbold, lead elephant keeper Roger Williams Park Zoo. I could go on and on.
The pictures and memories that people shared are going to be invaluable as we go into high gear until this movie is done.
There was just one fly in the ointment- my business cards hadn't come in yet, and I didn't have a handout with our contact information for everyone.
So please- please- contact us through our email address (elephantsinri@gmail.com) or Facebook page (Uproar in Pawtucket)and we promise to keep in touch!
Ultimate conclusion? I'm positive this is the right story to tell and, once again, am gratified by the passion Fanny evokes, even today.

Another Bombshell!

I heard today from David Bottai of the band The Hometown Rockers. They were the ones that wrote and performed Fanny's song that you can hear in the trailer, but there was much more to the song than the clip I had.
I am blown away!
Because we're going to Pawtucket tomorrow to meet everyone and have had some publicity, people are coming out with the greatest stuff.
I can hardly wait!
David also had a picture of himself as a kiddo riding on Fanny, which will definitely be in the film.
I am humbled to be telling her story- really-

Good news and disappointing....

We've been working steadily, Producer Gennie and I, to move Fanny along.
This Tuesday we'll celebrate her life at Pawtucket Library, and have asked people to bring their stories and pictures of her to be included in the film.
I have plenty of tape, and hope to capture as much great stuff as possible.
We'll also be filming former Mayor Robert Metivier who was head honcho during the Uproar. It should be pretty amazing to get his side of the story.
We also hope to get plenty of pix of the event as there will be more than one "star" there.
One of the main reasons we're doing this event is to act as a spur for the main thrust of editing the film and filling in footage to make it more complete.
On the disappointing side, our indiegogo.com fundraising didn't net what we had hoped, though we're entirely grateful for those who did contribute to the cause. We'll use the money we raised for transportation, publicity, and, when we're ready, to compensate a musician and voice over actor.
More as things progress.

Tragic

I'm not sure whether to thank my contact in Denmark or not with his links about Baby Roger. They included a trove of newspaper clippings that it astounds me I hadn't found during my year's research on Roger.
They chronicle his deteriorating circumstances at the zoo and are ripping my heart out. Although the city was aware of how bad things were, they didn't know what to do with their "Baby" and life became unbearable all the way around.
The articles that I had read only referred to the famous fishook incident, but there was so much more going on.
This, of course, means the end of the booklet has to be changed, and the movie has to be recut as well.
More when I recover...

Bombshell!!!

I had an unexpected email from Joachim Endres of the European Elephant group asking for info on all the Alices at RWP Zoo here in Providence. I told him I would go through my info as soon as I returned home. But, in our conversation he was able to give me some dynamite info on Baby Roger that I hadn't tracked down.
According to him, the species survival plan studbook shows- Baby Roger (from 12.05.1893 to 1903; transfer to Sig. > Soutelle Circus due to aggression)
. I had no idea what happened to him after he went to Wm. Bartel's exotic animal holding pens in Yonkers, NY.
In his next email, Endres gave me this bombshell link fingering Roger's last days... They came sooner than I had thought.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=inVcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=M1cNAAAAIBAJ&pg=4625,2091275&dq=elephant+roger&hl=en
Providence's "Evening Tribune" announced that "Baby Roger now listed as Murderer".
He also listed a number of links with records of Roger's misbehavior before the incident. Obviously this will require revising the Roger book and even the end of the film...
More as the story progresses...

Another chance for the kids?

I've continued research on Fanny's story, and ran across a series of letters by Pawtucket's 12 year olds lobbying to either keep or give away their beloved elephant.
Now, I'm a sucker for kiddies reading stuff in movies, just as I am for archival footage (of which I am luck enough to have a bunch for this film). So I'd like to shoot a bunch of kids reading these letters into the camera. No costumes needed- it was 1993, after all, and the readers all need to be around 12 years old. Before I put the call out to the general public, I thought I'd ask the readers of this blog to contact me if they know/have any children who would be interested and available to read a letter for me. It would only take about 20 minutes or so, and I'll do all the readings in a day.
Thanks

Trailer!

At last! The moment everyone has been waiting for!
The trailer for Fanny (Uproar in Pawtucket) is done! You can see it at our indiegogo site (http://igg.me/p/29594?a=3933&i=shlk) or on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDpym4XGQSg
Please let your friends, neighbors, and local librarians and barkeepers know about this. Fanny was so special, and since this is the year of the elephant in media, it would be a shame to let it go by unnoticed.
Thanks!

We're live!

It's been an exciting month with Genevieve in the producer's seat. Here are the highlights-
We now have a facebook page (go to "Uproar in Pawtucket" at facebook and "like" us...).
We're on twitter at @uproarpawtucket.
And we are live on indiegogo.com ("Uproar in Pawtucket")!
This crowdfunding site gives everyone a chance to be part of the project! For contributions from $10 up, you can get any number of perks, from postcards and updates, to credits, dvds, private production clips, and invitations to our premiere party. Though the site just gives the bottom line of each increment, you can help us with any amount and we'll love you to death.
I have the trailer almost finished and you'll be able to see it both here and on the indiegogo site as soon as possible.
We're really working hard on bringing the story of Fanny to a wider audience than Roger because it says so much about elephants and our love for them, and what to do with an old elephants when a zoo closes. Please tell everyone you know about the project, and, as usual, share your stories and pictures of Fanny or the Slater Park Zoo with us.
Don't forget- our new email address is- elephantsinri@gmail.com
More later...

More updates- and a new adddress

Elephants in Rhode Island, or, specifically, Uproar in Pawtucket, now has a producer!
Meet Genevieve Belcher, everyone. She's an amazing woman, who is making some real forward motion possible in the project.
For one thing, we now have a single address for all communications. It's elephantsinri@gmail.com. Now why didn't I think of that?
Soon, we'll be having a fundraiser through both kickstarter and indiegogo to pay for archival footage, for voiceover actors, editing, scriptwriting and music, etc. We'll certainly let everyone know when all of this goes live.

The Latest

Elephants seem to be on a lot of people's minds these days. Water for Elephants has opened wide, and, more to the point, The Ballad of Baby Roger has been scheduled for broadcast on RI PBS (WSBE) at 7PM on June 18th. Hooray!
Yesterday I received an invitation from the Ashaway, RI Public Library to be their guest speaker for "National Elephant Appreciation Day" on September 22 this year. Of course, I was thrilled to accept, and will be winding my way to far off Ashaway (about 30 miles, as the elephant flies)that day with my speech and my DVD of Roger in hand. Be there or be square!
But that's not the only exposure Roger will be receiving. At 3.30PM on May 27th, Roger will be dancing his way into the hearts of one and all at the Providence Athenaeum in Providence. I've been invited by the children's librarian there to chat about him and show the movie, so it will be a story straight from the children of 1893 to the kiddies of the 21st century.
In the meantime, I am working (slowly) on Fanny. I have engaged a fundraiser to help me get some bucks together and we'll meet this week for a strategy and policy session. If you would love to help on the project, get in touch with me through this blog or at tapit@care2.com

Here comes the Press

Two articles in came out in the local press today bringing the elephants' stories to a wider audience. It shows how differently the same material can be covered.

I was thrilled with the South County Independent's survey of Roger and the whole project. I was delighted to meet the writer briefly at the actual premiere, and he did a bang up job of getting the word out to his audience. Read the story at http://www.scindependent.com/articles/2011/03/03/arts_and_living/doc4d6fbb0920be9932659438.txt

The other story, in the Jamestown Press, gave the story a more island-centric slant which was very cool to read. A few facts were off, but overall, I was delighted that it got Roger's story around the island. And I really loved the title.
See it at: http://www.jamestownpress.com/news/2011-03-03/News/Local_filmmaker_exposes_the_elephant_in_the_room.html

More as things progress...

Fanny's on Facebook

Well, I've begun serious work on Fanny's story and ran across her facebook page last night! According to Joy Frisch Lewis, who started the page, "My niece (who is 38) and I had been talking about Fanny and trips to Slater Park, so I decided to do it [start the page]."
Rght now I'm trying to contact several of the posters to see if we can talk about their memories of Fanny.
Check it out at
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=117477074949195&v=wall

What came after...

Premiere Day went off without a hitch. The Museum was stuffed (forgive the pun) and we went into a second showing of Roger for an overflow crowd. I was honored to see that even the elephant manager from the zoo, Jen Warmbold, was there! Unfortunately, I didn't know she was in the audience until after the show was over. If I'd known, I would have called her up to field questions from the crowd.

Since then, I've given two interviews with local reporters who are interested in the project as a whole. They asked some great questions and I'm eager to see the results of our conversations in their next issues at The Jamestown Press and The South County Independent.

Roger's video is now available on Amazon.com, which is pretty thrilling, and the book that goes with it, The Ballad of Baby Roger is available from me personally (I'll even autograph it for you!) at tapit@ care2.com.

Premiere Day!

Tomorrow is Roger's premiere at the Museum of Natural History in Providence. This is all very exciting for me and for the others who are involved. Because the actors all worked for credits, this is my chance to give back to them by making them all stars! (I wish I had a red carpet for them!)

The Ballad of Baby Roger is now available on DVD at Amazon.com, right alongside of "The Ballad of Easy Rider" and a three CD boxed set of "Memories" by Elvis. Quite the company!

The first viewer reviews are in and included this kudo from Chicago- Great story, well told, and nicely put together.

The weather report for tomorrow is dicey. Snow is supposed to be coming in at precisely the few hours we need for the premiere and set up, etc. I'm crossing my eyes and fingers that the weathermen, who are so often wrong, will get it wrong this time...

Updates, updates, updates....

Best news in the world for The Ballad of Baby Roger!

Everything has been finished, the premiere is ready to happen, RI International Film Festival has accepted the application to consider it for their festival, the duplicates are being made, I will get the preview copy of the disc from the video on demand source that will make it possible to buy Roger from the web, the RI Film Collaborative gave it good marks when it was reviewed there, the IMDB (Imdb.com) has granted Roger its own page (and me and all my cast and crew as well) and, as of today, Rhode Island PBS has notified me they're happy to broadcast Roger once I finish jumping through all their hoops!

It is a long and sometimes frustrating process, but it feels good to see Roger in public.

And I have begun serious work on the story of Fanny the elephant! Her film will be called, "Uproar in Pawtucket".