Here are a few Thanksgiving related Wrentham tales to chew on this holiday:
In the sixties, Wrentham was home to lions. Yes, the town is well known for its Wrentham Lions Club, but it was also home to real furry, meat eating lions. Edmund Nolan, a.k.a. Count Nolan, kept and trained the big cats for shows and exhibitions.
Before he was Count Nolan, he was a photographer and around 1960 he started training lions for exhibits and shows. In a Boston Globe article from that year he said, “I’ve been told I work closer to the animals than other trainers.”
The home is long gone but was located at 1500 West St., and rumor has it, although caged, the lions stressed out local livestock. Perhaps, it was the sound of the roar each evening. Millie Nolan, the count’s wife said, “They sometimes roar when the sun goes down, possibly because instinctively they know it’s their hunting time.”
Certainly not a comforting sound to local dairy cows.
Back in November, 1962, Count Nolan brought five of his trained cats to Brighton, MA to perform in a week long indoor circus to benefit the Elks Lodge.
The circus animals were billed as “Man-Eating Lions” and during a Thanksgiving Eve performance two escaped from the chute leading into their cage. The Associated Press reported at the time that the theater went into a panic and, the two hundred spectators, many of them children, fled.
What happened next seems to be up for debate. The AP report says the lions simply “moped around” for about a half hour before they were guided back to the cages. United Press International (UPI) told a much more entertaining story.
As the patrons fled, a woman dropped her baby in the rush of the crowd but thankfully the child was picked up and was unharmed. Others fell to the ground, but no one was seriously injured. One lion simply returned to the chute and its cage, while the other, Eloise, turned its attention to the people. The terrified crowd’s mad dash to the exits was said to startle Eloise who turned away from the people and became more interested in four chained elephants located behind the main circus ring.
Nolan told the UPI reporter that Eloise jumped 15 feet onto the back of an elephant but was quickly dispatched with a swat of the animal’s trunk. He was then able to control his lion with a chair and a pistol filled with blanks. He got her back into the cage without anyone being eaten or even seriously hurt.
Some of the fleeing spectators headed to a nearby police station shouting, “There’s a lion loose at the circus.” Reports say three police headed over just in time to see a clown perched on a pole and Nolan returning Eloise to her cage.
The general consensus of the circus goers was they were grateful to not be a Thanksgiving treat for the Wrentham lions.
Free Shave for the Jobless
Before there was Wrentham Barber Shop or Henry’s Barber Shop, Frederick J. Roach was Wrentham’s local barber. Back in November 1930, Roach wanted to help his neighbors feeling the plain of the Depression. He announced he would give free haircuts and shaves to the jobless of Wrentham. A generous act that I’m sure they were thankful to receive.
Helen Keller Sends Gift to Strikers
Just before Thanksgiving 1912, Helen Keller, from her Wrentham home, sent a check of $87 to strikers in Little Falls, NY. The strike was primarily led by immigrant women seeking better hours, conditions and pay. Keller earned the money for the check by writing Christmas greetings. She included a letter that clearly articulates her views on labor and social justice. The letter said:
“I am sending the check which Mr. Davis paid me for the Christmas sentiments I sent him. Will you give it to the brave girls who are striving so courageously to bring about the emancipation of the workers at Little Falls?
“They have my warmest sympathy. Their cause is my cause. If they are denied a living wage, I also am defrauded. While they are industrial slaves, I cannot be free. My hunger is not satisfied while they are unfed. I cannot enjoy the good things of life which come to me, if they are hindered and neglected. I want all the workers of the world to have sufficient money to provide the elements of a normal standard of living -- a decent home, healthful surroundings, opportunity for education and recreation. I want them to have the same blessings that I have. I, deaf and blind, have been helped to overcome many obstacles. I want them to be helped as generously in a struggle which resembles my own in many ways.
“Surely the things that the workers demand are not unreasonable. It cannot be unreasonable to ask of society a fair chance for all. It cannot be unreasonable to demand the protection of women and little children and an honest wage for all who give their time and energy to industrial occupations. When indeed shall we learn that we are all related one to the other, that we are all members of one body? Until the spirit of love for our fellowmen, regardless of race, colour or creed, shall fill the world, making real in our lives and our deeds the actuality of human brotherhood -- until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained.”
Happy Thanksgiving, Wrentham!
Comments