Miss Fancy

Miss Fancy was an elephant that served as the star attraction at the Birmingham Zoo when it was located at Avondale Park. The 41 year-old was purchased for $2000 from the struggling Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus in 1913. $500 of the asking price was raised through children's donations.

She was kept at Avondale Park from 1913 to 1934 under the custodianship of John Todd, who was instructed on her care and handling by circus trainer Curly Hayes. Housed in a green-painted barn, she was reported to have eaten 150 pounds of hay and three gallons of grain per day, washed down with 60-115 gallons of fresh water and supplemented by popcorn, peanuts, apples and watermelons brought to her by residents. Despite being exercised by giving rides to children, she managed to grow from 4,800 to over 8,500 pounds during her residency in Birmingham.

She was also, apparently, a notorious drinker, consuming quarts of confiscated whisky provided by city officials during prohibition. The $4,600 annual expense of keeping the animal menagerie operating led the city to abolish the informal zoo in 1934.

In November of that same year, the Cole Bros. - Clyde Beatty Circus of in Rochester, Indiana announced the acquisition of "Frieda", an 8,600 lb. elephant from Birmingham, "which towered over the other three in the elephant row". Over time, local officials stopped receiving reports of her travels.^1.

Folklore

Several competing stories relate how Miss Fancy came into the city's possession. One has it that the Birmingham Advertising Club bought her from the circus as a promotional gimmick and, once the novelty faded, donated it to the city. Another story, promulgated by former Miami Herald editor Ellis Hollums, is that Age-Herald publisher Ed Barrett won her from a circus owner in a poker game.

Another source has it that Todd had a habit of sharing Miss Fancy's whisky and would ride her, drunk, into Birmingham from time to time.

Notes

1. The Cole Bros. Circus acquired another "Frieda" in 1947. This Frieda died of old age in 1957. Yet another Frieda from the Cole Bros. Circus injured a man who taunted her in Atlantic City in 1983, killed a woman who entered her pen in New London, Connecticut in 1985, killed another man in Fishkill, New York in 1993, rampaged through a parking lot during a parade in Hanover, Pennsylvania in 1995, and went on a second rampage in Queens, New York a few months later.

References

• Conway, Chris. "Personable Pachyderm: She Was City's Pride." (July 15, 1968) Birmingham Post-Herald.
• "Circus Officials and Celebreties Meet at Quarters." (November 17, 1934) Rochester (Indiana) News-Sentinel, quoted in Wendell C. and John B. Tombaugh (2001) "Fulton County Indiana Handbook: Cole Bros. Clyde Beatty Circus." Rochester, Indiana: Tombaugh House.