Chapter 18
The Show Must Go On
Friday, September 17, 1926 Cincinnati Ohio
I sat in the tall grass, at the edge of the camp, alone with my thoughts. I wanted a drink so bad it hurt. “Don’t get involved,” I thought.
There was a stirring in the grass. Eddie Bee popped out of a trail smacking at the weeds like a jungle explorer.
“There you are!” he said, dripping in sweat. He was breathing heavy gasping for air. Ambrose, I found him!” he yelled.
Ambrose appeared in the waist high grass wearing his full clown make-up, staring at me, as I sat shaking, holding my fiddle across my lap. “Are you okay? You aren’t looking very good my sad clown.”
I looked up at Ambrose and let out a sigh, “I don’t think I can do this much longer. It’s tearing me up inside.”
“You must be kidding. You’re the star of the show. What I wouldn’t give to be in your shoes right now.”
“No one wants this. I can’t live like this anymore.”
“Harvey, did you fall off the wagon? You’re shaking like a leaf.”
“Yeah, the boss’s sister offered me wine and I couldn’t stop myself. But it isn’t just the booze. The elephants aren’t happy. I’m just there to distract them from their misery. The boss bought a baby elephant and it’s all because of me.”
“Come now, Harvey. We can talk more about this later. You need to get dressed. The show starts in a half hour. I’m not gonna let you fuck this up,” he said, pulling me to my feet.
Ambrose took my left arm and wrapped it over his neck and walked me back to our wagon. Andy Bee ran beside us leaping through the tall grass like a dog.
“Go tell Randell that we found him and things are okay,” Ambrose said, shooing Andy away. “We got very little time to get you ready.”
I stared off into space as Ambrose applied the make up to my face.
“You need to snap out of this. You’re the main attraction. Everyone here’s counting on you.”
Randell, the Ringmaster knocked on the door to the wagon as Ambrose was helping me into my costume. Randall opened the door and peeked inside. “What’s the hold up? This is opening night.”
“We’re having a little problem here. He ate some bad chicken. You’ll be there. Won’t you, Harvey?”
“Try to hurry it up, you need to be in front and center right now.”
“You heard the man. Let’s do this,” Ambrose pulled me to my feet and led me out the door.
All the carnies and roustabouts stood watching as Ambrose led me towards the front of the parade line up. Once I saw the elephants, I shrugged my shoulders, and hung my head. Rosie stared back at me with tears in her eyes. She heard the cries of the new baby elephant during the night. I put the fiddle to my chin and placed the bow across the strings. A sad tune filled the air, as I led the elephants down the street towards the fairground.
The show was actually going great. The crowds cheered, the elephants performed their tasks perfectly. I was just going through the motions. I think the elephants knew something was different about me and wanted to play along.
Mrs Melody Vanderpelt approached me in between acts. I sat out behind the tents smoking a cigarette and shaking lie a leaf. She sat down on the grass beside me.
“What’s going on, Harvey? You ain’t looking so good.” She put her arm over my shoulder and leaned against me.
“I don’t think I can do this job anymore. The elephants are so sad and they beg me to help them. I also need a drink.”
“Oh Honey, I know. Do you have any family left that can take you in? I think this job will wind up killing you.”
“What about you and Ambrose? This life must be rough on you too.”
“Just a little secret between you and me. We plan to take a train to California and get married. We’re just waiting for our next paycheck. You should come with us. Run away from all this.”
“Ambrose, he wouldn’t go for that.”
“He loves you as if you were his real dad. Think about it Harvey.”
She finished her cigarette and said her riding act was about to start.
As I was heading towards the tents where they kept the elephants, I heard a struggle and a familiar scream.
“God damned you little bastard! You do this or you get it again!” a male voice growled. I peeked inside the tent and saw Clyde Bowman and Pete Fryman holding bullhooks ready to poke the baby elephant, who was tied to the ground, as they tortured the innocent creature.
Clyde jabbed the hook just above the baby’s ear. It screamed and tugged at the ropes. It’s teary eyes were pleading with me. The two men had been drinking and laughing.
“Please don’t hurt that baby,” I said, standing in the doorway.
“Oh look what we have here. Pied Piper of the elephants. You think you know better than us how to train these sorry fuckers?” Clyde said, stabbing the baby again this time near the eye.
“Leave that baby alone you monster!” I said, rushing towards Clyde, trying to take the bull hook from his hands. Clyde laughed as he slung me hard to the ground. Leave before we beat the crap out of you too, clown.”
Pete laughed as drug me out of the tent.
I felt powerless to help, standing outside in the dark, shaking with rage. I clenched my fist until my nails dug deep. I wanted to kill them. “Fuck it!” I needed a drink right then and there. I knew that Clyde kept booze in his trailer.
Under the cover of darkness, I opened the door to Clyde’s trailer. Empty bottles were scattered everywhere. Pictures of naked girls were pinned to the walls in various poses. In a cabinet I found a full bottle of Jim Beam, bourbon whiskey. I grabbed the bottle and slipped out of the wagon, running towards the far end of the park. I knew that my last act of the night was only an hour away, but I didn’t give a damn. It was just a matter of time till I got fired anyway.
The whiskey burned so good going down. That familiar rich chemical vapor filled my nostrils. I turned the bottle up, guzzling the amber liquid in gulps. I rolled in the grass laughing, then crying. The humiliation hurt my pride. Thoughts of suicide washed over me. I hated that I wasn’t a brave man. I decided to drink myself to death. I picked up my fiddle and stumbled back towards Clyde’s wagon to get another bottle. I tripped and fell over a tent peg, cracking my fiddle in the middle.
“Oh dammit to hell! I can’t do anything right,” I mumbled
Once again, I broke into Clyde’s wagon and found another bottle of whiskey, but also noticed a set of keys hanging on a peg near the door. I picked up the keys and said, “the show must go on!”
A half hour later, I was lying outside the elephant’s tent with half a bottle of whiskey in my lap and my fiddle in the other hand. Eddie Bee and Herc ran up to me all excited.
“What the hell’s wrong with you, Harvey? The boss’s gonna fire you when he catches you drunk like this,” Eddie said, trying to get me to sit up.
“You want me to pick him up?” Herc said, towering above me.
“No, he’s gonna have to do this all on his own. Get up you drunk clown!” he said, kicking my feet.
I jumped to my feet and slurred the words, “the show must go on!” waving my hands in the air, trying to sound all dramatic. In a deeper voice I said, “Ladies and gentlemen, the show must go on,” as if I were mocking the ringmaster. I fell back down and threw up.
Eddie shook his head with his arms folded. “That is one pitiful sight.”
“What should we do with him?” Herc said, picking me off the ground like a rag doll. “The boss is not gonna like this at all.”
“Hey Harvey, can you still play the fiddle?” Eddie said.
“Why hell yes.” I put the fiddle to my chin and began to play a waltz.
Eddie looked at Herc and said, “Let Harvey sit on your shoulders. If he can’t walk, then you gotta carry him.”
Herc slung me up on his shoulders and I played the waltz once again. We entered the elephant enclosure and led the brightly adorned beasts towards the main tent.
As we entered the big top, Randall Jefferson, who was dressed in his bright red suit and top hat, stood in the middle ring, announced in a loud voice, “Ladies and gentlemen, please give a round of applause to our very own pied piper of pachyderms, with lilting tunes to soothe the savage beasts, I introduce to you, the Fiddler Clown.”
The crowds rose to their feet, cheering and clapping. Randall shot me a disapproving look, and shook his head as Herc carried me past the crowds. Once we entered the ring, Herc placed me on the ground and backed away, flexing his muscles.
Bo Dandy walked into the ring and ordered the elephants to perform various stunts of headstands, standing on one leg, and group trumpeting, as I played a fast lively tune on the fiddle. I had trouble keeping my balance, when Eddie Bee and Ambrose joined me in the ring to keep up the illusion that this was just part of the act. They chased me around and then I stumbled and fell. The crowd roared with laughter
Randall walked over to Bo Dandy and whispered, “This is not part of the act. Is he drunk?”
Bo nodded and continued on with the act. Suddenly the shackles from around Rosie’s feet fell loose and Bo Dandy gasped. I knew then I was already in trouble. I stumbled to my feet, bent over, and barfed. Eddie jumped back and said, “ewww.”
Some of the crowd laughed, while others booed and turned their heads, unaware that Rosie had wandered away from Bo and the rest of the elephants. Bo Dandy took out his bull hook and ordered Rosie to go back with the other elephants. I got to my feet and yelled, “Don’t hurt her!”
Bo didn’t listen, but poked her hard in the face beside her ear, when she let out a roar. Rosie grabbed Bo around the waist with her trunk and slammed him to the ground repeatedly. The crowd fell silent, followed by gasps and screams.
I pulled the disk from my pocket, walked over to Rosie and yelled, “Drop him Rosie,” then whispered, “The baby is kept in the far tent.”
Rosie dropped Bo Dandy’s limp body and charged towards the exit. People in the stands panicked, running towards the exit ahead of the mad elephant. In her mad dash, Rosie trampled an old man and a young girl who fell in her path.
Ambrose helped me off the ground and said, “What did you do?”
“I unlocked Rosie’s shackles. We were gonna run away. She’s gone to free the baby.”
“Oh my dear Harvey, I don’t think I can help you out of this.”
Bo Dandy lay in a heap, moaning. His head and torso was caked with fresh blood and straw. Carlos and Andreas, the acrobatic brothers, slid down the ropes from their swings and came to the aid of Bo Dandy.
In a panic, people in the audience screamed and ran for the exit. A woman had fallen and had gotten trampled by the frightened crowd.
The other elephants remained in the ring, watching the events unfold, as Rosie went on a rampage towards the tent holding the baby elephants. Randall screamed and waved his top hat, “Don’t panic. Things are under control!” He glared at Ambrose and I. “Go get Clyde right now!”
Ambrose and I ran outside the main tent and saw Rosie running towards the far end of the camp. Bill Dooley and Herc were chasing after the elephant yelling for her to stop.
“Herc, go to my wagon and bring me a rifle. We need to put that elephant down before more people get hurt,” Bill said.
We ran towards the tent at the far end of the camp and heard men screaming and Rosie trumpeting. Pete lay motionless after being trampled in the far corner while Rosie pulled at the chains holding one of the baby elephants. Clyde poked the bull hook into one of Rosie’s eyes, blinding her as she roared with rage. The other men tried to distract Rosie. This time she attacked Clyde and grabbed him around the waist crushing him. I placed the fiddle to my chin and began to play. She turned and stopped her attack, looking at me with tears in her eyes. She released her grip from around Clyde as he dropped to the ground. The baby hugged Rosie’s front leg tightly with her trunk.
About that time, Herc came running in the entrance huffing and puffing, as he handed the rifle to Bill Dooley. Rosie rocked in place as I played the sad waltz. Bill took aim and shot Rosie right between the eyes, dropping her right where she stood.
I fell to my knees, dropping the fiddle in the dirt. Ambrose knelt down beside me and put his arm around my shoulder. “I’m so sorry my dear, Harvey.”
A half hour later the police and ambulance arrived at the scene. Blue and red flashing lights illuminated the scene of the carnage. All the circus performers, roustabouts and town folk surrounded the emergency crew as they treated the injured and carted away the dead. The young girl was loaded onto a stretcher and rushed to the hospital in critical condition, while the old man, Bo Dandy, and Pete Fryman had been crushed to death.
Clyde Bowman escaped with minor cuts and bruises. However, he was quite drunk and belligerent, when the police tried to question him. He slurred his words and tried to take a swing at the officers. The police subdued him, placed him in handcuffs, and took him to jail.
Ambrose led me back to our wagon, past the crowd of onlookers, who cursed and spat at me. Mrs Devine shook her head and sighed when she saw me. Eddie Bee and Herc glared at me, their brows furrowed. Herc spat on the ground in front of me. I had gone from the heights of praise to the depths of contempt within the span of a few minutes.
Ambrose put me to bed and said, “Dear Icarus, I’m afraid you flew too close to the sun. Fame has burnt your waxen wings.”
Early the very next day, Herc banged on the wagon door. “Harvey, the boss wants to see you in his office right now.”
I was already dressed and Ambrose was reading a book. He cracked a slight smile and gave me a thumbs up as opened the door. It was a bright sunny fall morning. The leaves had all turned red and yellow as I walked towards Raymond Adler’s wagon. No one seemed to notice me as I knocked and entered the door.
He motioned me to sit down in the chair across from him. His face was bright red and sweating. I took a big gulp as I looked him in the eye.
“I’m very disappointed in you, Mr Jones. I trusted you to control those elephants and you let me down. You were drunk last night and three people got killed. I lost an elephant and now the government has launched an investigation into how I run this circus. I had to let Clyde Bowman go and he is being charged with criminal negligence for being drunk on the job, and not securing the locks on Rosie’s shackles. I’m also letting you go Mr Jones. Here is your monthly pay.” He pulled out an envelope from his pocket and handed me 40 bucks. “Now if you will kindly leave. I have no more business with the likes of you. I suggest you get yourself sober and stay that way for your sake.”
“May I see the elephants one last time to say my goodbyes? I said with my head lowered in shame.
“Don’t you think you’ve done enough damage? I suggest you leave immediately and spare us all,” he said raising his voice.
I took the money and left his office. My fall from grace, now complete. I walked back to my wagon. Ambrose was still reading when I opened the door. He glanced up and raised an eyebrow.
“How did it go?”
I let out a sigh, “He fired me and told me to leave immediately.”
Ambrose put the book down and walked over and gave me a hug. “Mrs Melody and I are planning to elope. I’ve saved up a fair amount of money. You’re welcome to come with us.”
“Thanks Ambrose, You two should have a nice life without the likes of an old drunk like me. I think I’ll head west. I’ve always wanted to see California. I believe I have a brother that lives out that way.”
I packed only what would fit in my small suitcase, a change of clothes, my fiddle, and a picture of my family. I left my books for Ambrose. I knew he would appreciate good literature.
As I was walking out the door, Ambrose hugged me tight and began to cry. “You’re like a father to me, you old fool. I’m truly gonna miss you. Please try to send a postcard now and then. Here is my mother’s address. Once I find a place and get settled in, I’ll give you a new one,” he said, slipping a piece of paper in my pocket. “Take care old friend.”
I headed off, walking west along the highway with no particular destination in sight. An old pickup truck pulled over and a young man in his 30s called out, “You need a ride, Mister?”
I looked back towards the circus grounds and then back at the man, “Yeah, I think I just might.”