Many biographical writings about
Peter Sellers make at least a small effort to point out eccentricities in his personality and habits - - and there were plenty of examples from which to choose.
Often mention is made of his passion for collecting automobiles, and his ownership of a large mechanical elephant tends to get thrown into the same sentence.
(As it did just now)
Recently, in a tattered old copy of the August 4th, 1975 edition of People Magazine, I found this photo of Sellers perched atop his precious elephant.
I knew I'd read about the elephant in passing before, but finally there was a photo.
He looks happy and proud, and rightly so!
Some curiosity about it led to some mixed information and reasonably interesting discoveries, if not a fully satisfying answer regarding Sellers.
The photo that ran in the People Magazine article was taken many years earlier by award-winning photographer John Sadovy.
Sadovy took many celebrity portraits and art photos in his career, but had gained much of his reputation for his warzone news photos of the Hungarian Revolt of 1956.
As for Sellers, indications are that he purchased the mechanical elephant around 1960, and that the one he owned had a previous life carrying passengers as a tourist attraction on a British seaside promenade.
Sellers was reported as saying that he bought it as a business fallback in the event his film career went flat. Whether he was in any way serious is unclear.
Turns out that Britain would seem to be the birthplace of mechanical elephants, and there has been (and continues to be) a healthy amount of them trundling across British soil over the years.
Historically, the undisputed father of the British Mechanical Elephant industry would have to be
Frank Stuart, often referred to as a visionary.
Certain details appear debatable, however, as different accounts give some contradictory information.
A consensus would indicate that Frank Stuart built his first elephant in 1947, and though the mention is often made of him having built only three, it appears that there were more than that, perhaps of different design, but certainly of different stature.
There were several smaller models out there at work in several locations, which may not have all been of Stuart's design.
Various reminiscences to be found in a BBC-sponsored
North East Wales 'Ask A Local' web forum add to a bit of the
when-where-which muddle.
Nellie, an elephant that appeared in many Christmas parades in Adelaide, Australia, was a
Stuart-built elephant manufactured in England.
Quoting from a web article on the History of Animatronics:
"In 1950, a Scotsman named Frank Stuart built the world’s first robot elephant that stood nearly
nine-foot tall. The elephant was 12 feet long, made from 9,000 different parts, and powered by a
10-horsepower engine. It was covered with a half-inch thick 'hide' made from paper. According to Stuart, 'The sale price of $3,000 is expected to bring many dollars to Britain as parks acquire a popular animal that doesn’t have to be fed.'"
The Automata / Automaton Blog gives some good background, and is one of several web sites that make reference to one of Frank Stuart's 'three' elephants going up for auction in 2007:
"The elephant – a colossus by any measure, at about 20 feet tall – was the brainchild of
Frank Stuart, an English visionary and inventor who built three of the forward-propelled pachyderms in the years following World War II. One is permanently housed in a museum in Austria, one is in a private museum in Chicago, and the third (the one being sold) comes directly from the Stuart family.
"The elephant 'walks' with the help of a
four-cylinder, Chevy-powered engine and an elaborate network of hydraulics neatly tucked inside the body cavity. It literally skates along, at speeds of up to 20 mph, and has been featured over the years in publications like Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Forbes and Architectural Digest Motoring. It has also been in numerous parades and festivals.
"'Its crowning achievement came in 1952, when Dwight Eisenhower rode it to the Republican National Convention, in front of a horde of reporters, cameras and well-wishers,' Brown said. 'The elephant is smiling, and it's hard not to smile back when you look at him. It is truly among the most unique mechanical collectibles ever sold at auction.'"
So is the model that Ike rode in '52 the same one that Peter owned in the 1960's? Seems unlikely. - - And whatever happened to the Mechanical Elephant from the Sellers collection?
Could the Sellers elephant be the same one shown below in this bit of vintage British newsreel footage?
Many biographical writings about 
The photo that ran in the People Magazine article was taken many years earlier by award-winning photographer John Sadovy. 
"The elephant – a colossus by any measure, at about 20 feet tall – was the brainchild of 
"'Its crowning achievement came in 1952, when Dwight Eisenhower rode it to the Republican National Convention, in front of a horde of reporters, cameras and well-wishers,' Brown said. 'The elephant is smiling, and it's hard not to smile back when you look at him. It is truly among the most unique mechanical collectibles ever sold at auction.'"
