In 1903 an elephant was electrocuted.  This was not an accident.  Allow me to explain.  At the turn of the century elephants used to roam free in many parts of the United States.  This was just about the time that Thomas Edison, the famous inventor, was experimenting with alternating electrical current.  The Edison Estate had a slight elephant problem.  It wasn’t uncommon to see a dozen elephants grazing in his back yard on any given day.

One particular elephant, Topsy, gave the Edison’s such a hard time that they began to discuss ways to remove him from the property.  Topsy had become a terrible nuisance, uprooting exotic trees, leaving “mountains of waste” and being generally loud and obnoxious in a wild animal sort of way.  But it wasn’t until after Edison’s wife, Mina, stepped in a pile of Topsy dung on her way to the infamous “Party Like It’s 1905 Ball” that Thomas decided to do something about the elephant once and for all.

Topsy could not simply be carted away, he decided, as an elephant of his poor manners would cause the same problems wherever he went.  Thus, Edison concluded, Topsy must be eliminated.

Ever the resourceful man, Mr. Edison set out to invent an efficient means of exterminating the vile rodent.  He toyed with various slaughtering devices, before deciding to utilize his bread and butter, electricity, to do the trick.

Word spread of Edison’s plan and over 1,500 people showed up to the party.  Few know that Edison was also an aspiring filmmaker and had been working on a screenplay for a silent film.  He had a camera of his own design, the Kinetograph, and 90 seconds worth of film to shoot the motion picture, but scrapped the project after deciding that the electrocution of an elephant would have far more comedic appeal to the viewing public than a short film about a man slipping on a banana peel.  He was correct.  “Electrocuting An Elephant” went on to achieve both box office success and critical acclaim.

Today, anyone with an internet connection can view Thomas Edison’s film in all its hilarity (Thanks, You Tube).  To view, click here: Electrocuting An Elephant: The Film

Fortunately for the elephants, there were no further executions, as Mrs. Edison, no matter how many times she washed the garment, could never remove the smell of charred elephant flesh from her favorite dress.  For this, Thomas paid dearly over the years.  And that, as Paul Harvey says, is the rest of the story.