A photograph from 1931 of an elephant left behind at the Gratz Fair, Gratz, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
Pictured are Erma Mae [Umholtz] Witmer holding daughter Lorraine [Witmer] Shade, an elephant from the Schultz Animal Show, and Ralph H. Witmer all of Gratz.
According to information in A Comprehensive History of the Town of Gratz Pennsylvania:
A problem developed and the zoo keepers left without their animals. The roaring of tigers and lions could be heard in town, until someone came and took the animals away.
The problem was more exactly described in a brief article that appeared in the Elizabethville Echo of 24 December 1931:
SHOW MOVING TO NEW YORK
The Schultz Animal Show which had been quartered at the Gratz Fair Grounds since October moved to New York yesterday.
Animals and paraphernalia were shipped in a special express car from the local station [Elizabethville] yesterday. The show’s performing menagerie included horses, ponies, an elephant, dogs, monkeys and lions.
Captain Schultz’s Animal Show had appeared in October at the Gratz Fair as part of its 1931 programming. While no ad describing the Gratz performance has been seen, one has been found from a performance from Westfield, New Jersey, that took place in June 1931. That ad is shown below:
The elephant pictured in the Gratz photo was apparently named “Lindy” and was billed second only to the lions.
No ads promoting Captain Schultz’s Animal Show have been seen for 1932 or beyond, so it could be assumed that the Gratz performance in October 1931 was the last one and either the animal show was sold/broken up or went out of business. Essentially, the animals were abandoned at Gratz for about two months until the animal show owners could re-locate them to winter quarters in New York.
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Ad from Westfield Leader, available on pdf version of newspaper.
News article from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.