Dolly
Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) at
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in United States

Biography

☨ ♀ Dolly
Elephant trainer George "Deafy" Denman and a two-year old elephant named Dolly at the microphone. The sounds of the menagerie were carried over the fledgling NBC network to listeners from coast to coast.

Identification


Description
Species:	Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)
Sex and age:	Female ♀

People killed:	1: Edwin Rogers Schooley
Origin
Born:	* wild
Birth place:	in Asia unspecified location
Imported:	1923 by Firma Carl Hagenbeck
Death
Dead:	†1950-03-29
Death reason:	anesthesia: shot
Locations - owners
Present / last location:	Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, in United States

Date of arrival

1939-00-00	Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from Al G. Barnes Circus

1933-00-00	Al G. Barnes Circus from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

1923-11-10	Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from Bridgeport Harbor

	Bridgeport Harbor from Port of Hamburg

	Port of Hamburg from Carl Hagenbecks Tierpark (Stellingen)

	Carl Hagenbecks Tierpark (Stellingen) from Port of Hamburg

	Port of Hamburg from Firma Carl Hagenbeck

Record history
History of updates	2023-08-21: Name, text, source updated

Latest document update	2023-08-21 15:08:51

† Dolly is a dead Female ♀ Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), , who died 1950-03-29 at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, in United States, . Official death reason described as shot.

Casualties

1 casualties

1950-03-26: visitor Edwin Schooley fatal attack by Dolly. While in Sarasota the winter of 1949-50 while people were visiting the elephant area, a small child wandered under the guard rail and startled "Dolly" who was dozing, she then kicked out fatally injuring the child. † Edwin Schooley Died 1950-03-26, RBBB winter quarters, Sarasota. As the result of public outcry, she was shot 3/29/50 and for Unknown reasons "Minnie" was sold to the Mills Show in the fall.

Origin

Dolly was born wild at Asia unspecified location. and imported 1923 by Firma Carl Hagenbeck

Comments / pictures

Records about Dolly from Ryan Easleys Blog at https://showmeelephants.blogspot.com/
Dolly was later a longtime part of the Hunt Bros. herd, their first elephant, until Henry Vonderheid bought her in the mid-1960s. She was one of nine imported in 1923. Interestingly, Buckles said of those nine, Dolly was one of five that never went on the road before her sale in 1926.

Ryan Easley

Contradictory records:

According to Joe Bradbury, she was given cyanide poison.

According to the account elephant keeper Bob gave to Dr. Robinson, she was shot.

At the Sarasota, Florida winter quarters of Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus, Dolly snatched Edwin Rogers Schooley from the side of his horrified parents and crushed his head with one of her ponderous Feet. Three days later Dolly was led into a pit, [...] where the 27-year-old elephant was given a huge dose of cyanide.

(Pawsweb word document)

Records about Dolly from William "Buckles" Woodcocks Blog at http://www.bucklesw.blogspot.com/
"Minnie" was imported in 1929 (EDIT: error, must be 1923), she arrived with another small elephant named "Dolly" but for some reason they were never trained for the ring and all they did was walk in spec wearing clown suits as this 1933 picture above shows.

Slivers Madison once told me that he was on the Barnes Show in 1934 when these two arrived and sure enough they knew absolutely nothing and had to be trained from scratch.

At the close of the 1938 season all the Barnes elephants were moved into Sarasota and "Minnie" and "Dolly" found themselves back with the Ringling Show.

In the 40's both survived the Hartford and Cleveland fires as well as the elephant poisonings in Atlanta and in 1948 Hugo Schmitt picked them out to work in the center ring act with his five German elephants.

While in Sarasota the winter of 1949-50 while people were visiting the elephant area, a small child wandered under the guard rail and startled "Dolly" who was dozing, she then kicked out fatally injuring the child. As the result of public outcry, she was shot 3/29/50 and for unknown reasons "Minnie" was sold to the Mills Show in the fall.

William "Buckles" Woodcock

Reference list

References

Koehl, Dan, (2025). Dolly, Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) located at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in United States. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 22 April 2025 at https://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=2363. (archived at the Wayback machine)