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Nellie the mechanical elephant
Title : Nellie the mechanical elephant Nellie the mechanical elephant
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Creator : McRae, Geoffrey, photographer
Date of creation : ca. 1952
Format : Photograph
Dimensions : 96 x 121 mm
Contributor : State Library catalogue
Catalogue record
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Description :

Nellie the elephant in the John Martin's Christmas pageant, with a number of children 'riding' on her back.


Nellie the mechanical elephant was purchased for 1,500 pounds by Edward Hayward during a trip to England, and brought home to feature in the John Martin's Christmas pageant. (On another occasion, Hayward bought and imported a double-decker bus.) At the time, Nellie was claimed to be the only full-sized mechanical elephant in the world.

A favourite since her introduction in 1950, Nellie is pictured here in her third pageant in 1952.

Indeed she is so beloved, that when mechanical problems began dogging her and preventing her from appearing annually local father and son mechanics Alby and Ross Hill offered to take her home and repair her; and she continues to appear in pageants to this day.

Subjects
Related names :

John Martin & Co.

Coverage year : 1952
Region : Adelaide city
Further reading :
'60th John Martin's State Bank Christmas pageant 1933-1993', Sunday Mail, 31 October 1993, 24 p. supp.

Adelaide's once-a-year day, Adelaide: Commercial Printing House, 1978.

'Street pageant delights crowd', Advertiser, 20 November 1933, p. 16.

A touch of magic [videorecording] : [the story behind the Christmas Pageant], West Lakes?, S. Aust. : Cine News Productions, 1993.

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