Elephant actress Anna May and trainer Alfred Alcorn, California Zoological Garden, Los Angeles, 1936

Title: Elephant actress Anna May and trainer Alfred Alcorn, California Zoological Garden, Los Angeles, 1936
Date Created: [circa June 6, 1936]
Date: 1936-06-06
Publisher: Los Angeles Times
Language: No linguistic content
Collection: Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection

Description: A behind-the-scenes look at the animal actors that have roles in popular motion pictures. These animals are well-groomed like any human Hollywood star, and are trained for the profession from a very young age, marked as being highly intelligent. They reside at the California Zoological Gardens on Lincoln Park Boulevard.Anna May is an Indian elephant who has been in the motion picture business for 26 years. Other than her diet of hay and fruit, two of Anna May's favorite things to eat, trainer Alfred Alcorn explains, are onions and tobacco.
In 1912 William Selig purchased the site that is now Lincoln Park in Los Angeles, at Mission Road and Selig Place, as additional film studio acreage for the housing of wild animals used in his films. The studio was insolvent by 1918 and the zoo was auctioned off in 1923. Over time, it had various names, including Luna Park Zoo, the L.A. Wild Aimal Farms, the California Zoological Gardens, and Zoopark.
Similar photographs appear with the article, "Stars That No Director Dares Defy!", Los Angeles Times, 07 June 1936: I4.
Anna May stands on a small pedestal with her trunk resting on top of her head while her trainer stands just beneath her neck.
Caption: Text from newspaper caption: Anna May and her trainer, Alfred Alcorn
Handwritten on negative: Anna May
Text from negative sleeve: 5674 Zoo Olga Celeste (zoo park) - animal trainer (animals used in movies - see 6/7/36 article) June 8, 1936

Repository: University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections
Local Identifier: uclamss_1429_14340
ARK: ark:/21198/zz002j7x1d
Manifest url

Rights statement: copyrighted
Rights contact: UCLA Library Special Collections, A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library, Box 951575, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575. Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu. Phone: (310) 825-4988
Rights Holder: The Regents of the University of California
Rights Country: US
Funding Note: Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds.
License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .