An elephant could develop an attitude.
Everybody stares at them.
Children scream at them.
People are always trying to touch them.
Gardeners covet their dung.
"Sometimes they get moody, and you have to sweet-talk them," says Axel Gautier, master trainer with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. ''It's all part of circus life."
Circus life.
It is not all somersaults and clowning around. It's long hours, hard work, living on a train, up to three shows a day, shoveling manure . . .
Elephants with attitudes.
"You have to love it, the circus life, or it's impossible," says Mike Melssen, general manager of what is billed as the Greatest Show on Earth, at the Spectrum through June 12.
"When I hire a worker, somebody who will be doing the setting up and tearing down and cleaning up - the guys with the shovels - I tell them they won't make it with the circus unless they are enthusiastic, positive and committed.
"Troupers. We don't want just workers. We want troupers."
The troupe that arrived on a 45-car circus train this week consists of 325 performers, managers, trainers and workers. They come from all over the world, including China, and the circus train can sound like a linear Tower of Babel.
Also this year, in addition to the Chinese acrobats, the circus troupe includes 16 Zulu warriors. The group will be doing Zulu war and ceremonial dances.
For them, and most of the other circus folk, the train is home.
"We're on the road almost continuously," Melssen says. "Except for a couple of weeks in June and a day or so now and then, we are traveling or performing all the time. When I go home at night, it's to the circus train."
The train is parked in the Conrail freight yard under Interstate 95 in South Philadelphia. It's air-conditioned and heated, and it has dining cars.
The circus owns the train and maintains it. Many of the circus folks return there to rest and relax between shows. Here in Philadelphia, 24 shows are scheduled over 13 days, and Melssen says this is typical.
What keeps the troupers from suffering burnout, Melssen says, is commitment.
"It's the circus spirit that keeps us all going. It's commitment to the show and to each other."
No one needs that sort of commitment more than the people on the work crews. "It's tough," Melssen says. "I can usually spot a guy who is going to work out right away. It's somebody who wants more than just a job. He really wants to be part of the circus."
