Reluctant Bootsie - The baby elephant

March 24, 1964 via The Lively Morgue

Reluctant Bootsie, a baby Indian elephant who handlers feared wouldn’t make the five mile march to Madison Square Garden from the Mott Haven railyards, was hailed a cab. As the New York Time´s article explained, Bootsie, a teething Barnum and Baily Circus elephant, was taken in and out of the cab for the benefit of photographers, then driven a few yards. The ride was canceled when Hugo Schmitt, Bootsie’s trainer, “detected signs of nervousness in the elephant.”