† Minyak is a dead confiscated Female ♀ Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), , who died 1964-00-00 at Carson and Barnes Circus, in United States, .
The North American Regional Studbook lists this elephant with a Temporary Studbook Number, lacking "supporting documentation to validate their identity."
Minyak was born captive-born as birth number 1 1932-01-29 at Circus Carl Hagenbeck-Stellingen.
Minyak
Sire (f):JackyBorn: 1899
Dame m:Roma IBorn: 1905-1910
Minjak was conceived in Leipzig Zoo, but various sources give various records for her birth place: Contradictory records: 1. According to Hugo Schmidt she was born in a Zoo in Essen. 2. Gerhard Zapf gives in his book a very clear birthplace: at the Circus elephant tent while on tour in Essen. 3. EEP state she was born in Hamburg (Hagenbecks Tierpark) 4. According to EEG, she died in 1986 by Ringling, why she with 54 years should be the oldest captive-bred elephant. 5. SSP studbook state another death date than EEG.
Minyak and Sabu came from the Hagenbeck Zoo where they appeared in a five act "Kernaudi", "Minyak", "Mudu", "Sabu" and "Icky" where they were presented by Hugo Schmitt. Hugo once told me that as the Allied bombing intensified in Germany he often spent the night with them under a concrete overpass nearby waiting for the all clear signal. Hugo and the elephants were soon shipped out of the country into neutral Sweden with hopes they would be returned after the war but such was not the case, they were confiscated by the Swedish Government and eventually sold to the Ringling Show in 1947. In 1961 the Ringling Show sent a unit to South America and "Minyak" and "Sabu" were included but on their return were both sold to Hoxie-Bartok Circus in 1962 (I might add that Hugo never owned these elephants) and thenUnited Nations Circus in 1963. (Same show?) They were sold to D.R. Miller in 1964 and "Minyak" died shortly after arriving in Oklahoma and "Sabu" died a year later after being leased to Carson & Barnes Circus (owned by Jack Moore) for that season. Hugo added that "Minyak" had a calf while in the Hagenbeck Zoo and that he touched it before Minyak did. Today I hear that with so many calves being born in captivity, that is almost always the case.
Many are the films which have been shot at Stellingen or with our help, many too the television shows. One of the finest of these was Cecil B. deMille's great American colour film The Greatest Show on Earth. Here, through our animals and tamers, we were unwilling collaborators. That film, as it Happens, reminded me vividly of my own young days in American circus work. However, it did bring about another meeting with Minjak. In the German dubbing of that film her name remained the same, but even without that I would have known her from a hundred other elephants. Minjak, expropriated in Sweden, was born at Stellingen. Now she had been filmed in the biggest circus in the world, and was the star of all the other animals in it. Her foot swayed menacingly over the head of a girl artiste. She carried her principal producer, another girl performer, in her mouth. And she went through it all as magnificently as she had originally learned in our Stellingen school. When I saw that film, I found myself drying my eyes in the kindly darkness of the cinema.
(The name Minyak is already submitted into the link, just click on the link for relevant results)
