Not only that, but why at 11:30 p.m., as 10 elephants did March 16? And why, with temperatures in the single digits, only hours after three inches of snow and icy rain fell over the city?
By Doug Chandler
Why did the elephants cross the Midtown Tunnel?
Not only that, but why at 11:30 p.m., as 10 elephants did March 16? And why, with temperatures in the single digits, only hours after three inches of snow and icy rain fell over the city?
Solving this riddle requires not a detective, but a publicist for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the company for which the elephants perform.
The elephants walked from the milelong circus train, now parked at railyards in Long Island City; along several streets in Hunters Point, a district within that neighborhood; and through the tollbooths of the Midtown Tunnel. Once they emerged from the Manhattan side of the tunnel, they walked west along 34th Street to Madison Square Garden — all in time for a three-week engagement that began March 18 and ends April 11.
Escorted by several police cars from the 108th Precinct in Queens, as well as by crew members from the circus, the 10 pachyderms — all of them Asian females — walked to the tunnel before a crowd of 50 onlookers, many of them residents of Long Island City.
The elephants, ranging in age from 3 to 58, wore blue headdresses with ornamental metal rivets. And each, walking single-file, grabbed the tail of the elephant in front — behavior that occurs naturally in the wild, according to the circus.
Following the elephants throughout their trek was what the Sanitation Department calls a “mechanical broom” and a supervisor, both based in Queens.
All in all, it took the elephants about 30 minutes to walk from Long Island City to Madison Square Garden, said Alan Miller, a local publicist for “The Greatest Show on Earth.”
“This is something we do in every city we play,” Miller said, acknowledging that it all has the makings of a great publicity stunt. But the circus, he said, organizes the animal walk solely “out of necessity.”
As Miller explains it, the outfit moves from one locale to another by train, as it had to do March 15 and 16, after its engagement at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale. The milelong train — “the largest private railroad in the world,” said Miller — carries most of the circus’ 300 performers and crew members and most of its 70 animals.
The train ends its journey in Long Island City, though, since the railyards in Manhattan lack the space for parking 60 railcars — space that is available in Queens, Miller said. And while most of the animals board trucks for the final leg of their trip, finding trucks for 10 elephants “is a daunting task, so we walk them.” The elephants also walk back to Long Island City after their engagement in Manhattan.
The circus works with Asian elephants because the breed is much more domesticated than African elephants, said Jeff Lovari, a national publicist for the company. He added that the same holds true for female elephants.
One of those watching the elephants from the sidelines as they approached the Midtown Tunnel was Maryfaith Decker, an artist who has lived in Long Island City for 11 years.
Decker said she has come to the animal walk each year during that period — usually with her son, Gabriel, now 9, and her daughter, Willa, now 7. At times, she recalled, “they’d be the only ones in their class” who had been to the walk because it always takes place late at night, when police can easily close off part of the tunnel to traffic, and during the school week.
Decker came to the walk this year with her boyfriend, John Roselli, to take Polaroid pictures for a weekly paper created by her son — work, she joked enthusiastically, for which she might get paid. (The paper, “neighborhood Boy,” is two months old and available free of charge at businesses in Long Island City.)
Past animal walks have included miniature horses and “llama-looking things,” said Decker, who, like other onlookers, bundled up against the cold. Asked how her children reacted to the elephants as toddlers, Decker laughed, saying, “They probably thought they were having weird elephant dreams.”
In walking the several blocks from the railyards in Long Island City to the tunnel, the elephants passed railyard facilities, warehouses and garages, many of them owned by city and state agencies. But one of the area’s businesses, the Ten63 café on Jackson Avenue, opened its doors beforehand to a small group of steady customers and employees.
The group of about 10 people gathered at Ten63 for coffee and then “walked over to see [the elephants],” said Talitha Whidbee, owner of the year-old café.
One of the customers brought along his 3-year-old daughter, according to the business owner, who appears to cherish the conversation she overheard.
The father told his daughter that “elephants only come to where princes and princesses live,” she recalled. “So I guess that means that only royalty lives in Long Island City.”
Tickets to the 134th edition of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, now at Madison Square Garden through April 11, can be purchased through Ticketmaster by visiting www.ticketmaster.com or calling 212-307-7171. For more information, visit the circus’ Website at www.ringling.com.
