Hi all, This morning I found some information on Wonderland City. (see here) Does somebody know what happened to elephant Alice after the closing in 1911? I hope somebody can help me out. More pictures are welcome to! Greetz from the Netherlands
Alice in Wonderland City Glad to see you were before me on this one Douanita , I noticed however that the link you provided was not reachable (at lest not for me) so Ill give yet another one: Avenue to Wonderland - Arts - Entertainment - smh.com.au where its also written: Sydney sculptor Rod McRae: Alice's case proved particularly interesting. One theory had her being relocated to Moore Park Zoological Gardens, a precursor to Taronga Park; another held that she was shot and buried in the sand at Tamarama Beach. Lists I made of 1) Moore park: Elephants at Sydney Zoo (Moore Park) in Australia 2) Taronga: Elephants at Taronga Zoo in Australia Hälsningar from Sweden
Hi Guys I can answer the mystery of what happened to Alice. I've been researching her over the last couple of days. I found the answers I suspected were correct in an article from 1927. I've posted the following on your Fanpage on Facebook Dan as follows: I can now confirm the following. I've found further references which will help greatly. Alice was bought to Australia by Bostock & Wombwall's Circus and Menagerie in 1905/1906 where she was used in the tour until auctioned in November 1906, when she was purchased by William Anderson for his 'Wonderland City' enterprise located in Tamamara Sydney Australia. By 1908 Wirth's Circus had purchased Alice and I found a report of her in November 1908 of her performing in the ring at Wirth's Circus. By the 1920's reports began to circulate that the now renamed 'Princess Alice' had been the companion of P.T Barnum's African Bush elephant Jumbo in fact, this is completely untrue given that the 'Princess Alice' with Jumbo was in fact also an African Bush Elephant. Claims were later made in the 1930's that Alice was over 100 years old. In fact she was in her sixties. I ascertained her approximate age from the article about the auction in 1906 where her age was stated as being 30 years old. 'Princess' Alice travelled extensively with Wirth's Circus until her death on 25 November 1941. Alice was born around 1876 - where I have no record at this stage. Hope that helps clear up the mystery
Thank you AskAlice. I had sometimes wondered where Wirth's legendary Alice had come from. She was such a steady elephant I believe from the stories about her that the old timers used to tell. The fact that she lived into her sixties is significant. Claims were often made by zoos and circuses about the longevity of elephants and 100 was a number that could almost guarantee some media publicity. I appreciate you sharing the results of your research with us.
Hi Steve She came across by chance when I researching the African Lion 'King Dick' which came from Bostock & Wombwell in 1906. I saw the mention of Alice in the article from November of 1906 where she was being auctioned in Australia. There are actually two Alice's both owned by Wirth's Circus. Originally they just simply called her 'Princess' at Wirth's then the story of course about her great age became exagerrated as time went on. I found further articles of an 'Alice' existing after 1941 at Wirth's however it is not this Alice. I believe more than likely Wirth's wanted to continue on with this ruse about 'Princess Alice' there are images of Alice the Wonderland City elephant on Flickr Commons of her pushing the wagons onto the train. It is definitely her from what I can ascertain from the other image Dan posted in his Database. I just have to now go through the Zoological Society Records and see if it was London Zoo that sold Alice to Bostock & Wombwell in the first place. It would not surprise me if they had. That or Hagenbeck is the other possibility. I will be publishing my research in full on the Scribd site which will be free to download to anyone. And here's the fully completed research document http://www.scribd.com/doc/48713254/Alice-in-Wonderland-City Cheers
