‘The world’s greatest most magnificent spectacle’
Frank and the Elephants: A Romance of the Rockies
by R.D. Rowberry
Nelson: Nelson History Theatre Society, 2024
$18.95 / 9781738218004
Reviewed by Ron Verzuh
*
Six circus elephants loose in the Rockies. Who could not be intrigued? What writer could resist embracing the challenge? Certainly not Richard Rowberry, a British Columbia storyteller who joins the tradition of celebrated Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock.
Our protagonist, Frank Burton, apparently the author’s grandfather (or is that part of the fiction?), is at the core of this tale of how the Sells-Floto Circus pachyderms made the news in 1920s Cranbrook. The oft-told account was the perfect backdrop for the story of Frank’s quest to win the heart of Jennifer Macpherson, “the prettiest girl in British Columbia,” and granddaughter of the cantankerous Mr. Mac.
The elephant escape also gave Halfmoon Bay resident Rowberry an opportunity to spin a political yarn about the so-called “King Byng Wing Ding” when Liberal leader Mackenzie King got into a spat with Governor General Julian Byng over whether or not to call an election in 1926. It was a complicated business that ultimately ended with King becoming prime minister after Conservative leader Arthur Meighan served for a brief period.
Frank was thrust into the middle of the election contest in the riding of Kootenay East when Liberal incumbent Dr. James Horace King, Doc King for short, hired him as the chauffeur of his “shiny new McLaughlin-Buick.” It might have prompted a rise in Frank’s status as a marriage candidate for Jenny, but it didn’t. Old Mr. Mac saw a ne’er-do-well and he was Jenny’s guardian until she turned 21 in three years.
On Frank’s right flank stood Mike Wilson, a rival to Jenny’s hand. At least that’s what Frank assumed. On his left was a second love interest named Mavis Weeks, a singer who longed for the bright lights of the big city. Frank jilts her at the train station to focus on elephant hunting. Meantime, Frank is almost “tangled up with a married carny girl” named Harriet.
As elephants tramp freely around the Kootenay wilderness, Doc King sees a political angle when Frank earns local hero status for cornering Big Myrtle, one of the female elephants. With help from a Ktunaxa First Nations couple, who find Myrtle, Frank reluctantly brings her back to captivity. Hector the stray dog assists.
It is a frightening moment. Mike had slipped and was caught directly in the line of the charge. “Frank could hear Myrtle’s squeals and grunts coming steadily closer, the pounding of her feet keeping time with his heart,” but miraculously Frank “had stepped in front of a charging elephant, had stopped her with a single word of command, [and] had saved Mike’s life.”
Rowberry gives credit where it’s due and scolds the local racists. He also works in some negative comments about residential schools, featuring Doc King and spouse Nellie. When Doc supports the residential school system, Nellie explains to him that his “going to boarding school with a lot of over-privileged boys is hardly the same thing.”
Needing a boost for his campaign, Doc King turns Frank’s elephant capture into political hay in his “Elephant Bulletin,” garnering the advantage over his Conservative opponent and a socialist that Frank supports, being “a socialist all his life.”
The voters ultimately return Doc to Ottawa as their MP, the surviving elephants are returned to the circus (although two die), Mike leaves town, and Jenny pulls a fast one to get her grandfather to agree to at least tolerate Frank.
Frank is a captivating story, partly centred on the elephant escape, but also keeping us intimately connected to the political events of the day as we follow Frank’s hijinks that eventually lead him to the altar. The creative use of flashbacks and dream sequences offers readers plenty of local colour about Frank’s exploits and background on historical events. Readers will also enjoy a detailed geography of the East Kootenay.
At one point in the story, Rowberry gives a tip of his hat to the great storyteller Stephen Leacock, citing his Winnowed Wisdom. Clearly, the Frank author is following in that Canadian tradition, but two contemporary comparisons come to mind. The characters here easily rival Dave and Morley on Stuart McLean’s long-running CBC series Vinyl Café. They also remind me of the Minnesotans who populate Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegone Days.
Frank, Jenny, Mike, Harriet, Mavis, Mr. Mac, Doc King, Nellie, and a host of others including Hector the dog are all memorable creations that make this a fun reading adventure that lands close to my Kootenay roots and leaves me with some local political history to ponder.
*
Ron Verzuh is a writer and historian. [Editor’s note: Ron has recently reviewed books by Christy K. Lee, Colin Campbell, Megan McDougall, Barbara J. Messamore, ošil (Betty Wilson), Nathan Hellner-Mestelman, Dietrich Kalteis, Graeme Menzies, Ron Base and Prudence Emery, and Geoff Mynett for BCR.]
*
The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an online book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
“Only connect.” –E.M. Forster