Queenie (waterskiing elephant)
waterskiing elephant
Queenie (1952 – May 31, 2011) was a captive female Asian elephant. She was noted in the late 1950s and early 1960s for waterskiing for entertainment.
Early life
Queenie was born wild in 1952 in Thailand. She was exported to the United States and put on sale in the Trefflich pet store in New York City. In 1953, at 6 months of age she was sold to Bill Green, and his daughter, Liz. The pre-arranged purchase was filmed by The Today Show. The 250-pound baby elephant was later taken to a private zoo in Fairlee, Vermont.
Career
Queenie and Dane's act made appearances at state and county fairs, TV shows, and circuses around the country. During the show, Queenie and Dane would water ski, play the harmonica, and dance.
Marj and Jim Rusing, the owners of a Florida tourist attraction called De Leon Springs, introduced Queenie to water skiing in 1950's.
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This entry incorporates text from “Queenie (waterskiing elephant)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.