Elephant Boy

[Dave Homewood]

last week I managed to pick up an imorted copy of Elephant Boy, the 1937 film. It was great to see, and it lead me to recall that as a young kid in the 1970's I rememebred there was a TV series of the same name, a sort of spin off I guess.

I do not recall much more at all apart form the fact that I used to watch it. A look at IMDb shows that it was from 1973, and apparently in colour (we had b&w till about 1982 at our place!). But it does not reveal anything about the maker or where it was made.

Was it a British series, like the film? Did it include blacked up British actors like the film did? (I noted one of the bit part actors playing an Indian in the film was John Laurie!).

And, does it still exist?

[adriane17]

I have vivid memories of watching Elephant Boy the TV series and am certain it was in the late 1960s and certainly pre-1973. From memory it was an imported film series i.e. not BBC/ITV so it probably still exists. It may have been on the BBC. No idea of who made it, etc I'm afraid....

[Alan Turrell]

Here is the opening credits to Elephant Boy the link is below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpmpVQmETCc

[Alex Trelinski]

Totally forgotten about this show...and great to see the opening credits again.
Another series comes to mind as well called "Jungle Boy" which I certainly remember ABC screening in the mid-sixties on a Saturday teatime.

[davemachin]

I think the Elephant Boy series was made earlier, somewhere about the late fifties or early sixties. Wasn't this the one featuring Mickey Dolenz as a boy? I do remember it was repeated later on too, which is when other people probably saw it. It was a bought in filmed series so I think it will exist complete. I don't know what country it originated from but I guess It's American. Hope this helps.

Dave

[Peter Stirling]

Jan 30, 2010 8:19:35 GMT Dave Homewood said:

last week I managed to pick up an imorted copy of Elephant Boy, the 1937 film. It was great to see, and it lead me to recall that as a young kid in the 1970's I rememebred there was a TV series of the same name, a sort of spin off I guess.

I do not recall much more at all apart form the fact that I used to watch it. A look at IMDb shows that it was from 1973, and apparently in colour (we had b&w till about 1982 at our place!). But it does not reveal anything about the maker or where it was made.

Was it a British series, like the film? Did it include blacked up British actors like the film did? (I noted one of the bit part actors playing an Indian in the film was John Laurie!).

And, does it still exist?

From other posts and deductions, it was thought to made by this company Portman Productions

uk.imdb.com/company/co0058911/

basically this was an entourage of TV people that just decided to have a trip around the world in the 1970s and make TV programmes wherever they landed up .They got backing from various like Scottish TV , Global TV(rediffusion's old distributors) German TV etc.

Amongst the entourage was James Gatward, his wife Isobel Black, her father writer Ian Stuart Black and various Germans .
Elephant Boy was made in India (IIRC) but Boney and The Outsiders of course was made in Australia, Levkas Man in Greece and The Flying Kiwi was made..guess?


I maybe wrong?

[Alex Trelinski]

Jan 30, 2010 14:13:46 GMT @davemachin said:

I think the Elephant Boy series was made earlier, somewhere about the late fifties or early sixties. Wasn't this the one featuring Mickey Dolenz as a boy? I do remember it was repeated later on too, which is when other people probably saw it. It was a bought in filmed series so I think it will exist complete. I don't know what country it originated from but I guess It's American. Hope this helps.

Dave

All these series with "Boy" in them!!
"Circus Boy" was an American filmed series starring young pre-Monkee Mickey! Late fifties if I remember rightly, and was shown on the BBC.
"Jungle Boy" or to give its full title.."Adventures of a Jungle Boy" was filmed in East Africa(with ABC TV as one the backers) in 1957, which explains why I saw it on ABC nearly ten years later!!
And of course "Elephant Boy" came in 1973.

[davemachin]

Yes, thanks Alex. Circus Boy was the thing I was thinking of.

Dave

[Dave Homewood]

Flying Kiwi
Does anyone here recall this TV series? I'd never heard of it

uk.imdb.com/title/tt0491602/

[Martin McDowell]

Elephant Boy was shown in the UK in and around 1974/76 depending which ITV rtegion you received. As a Portman production filmed in Ceylon, a lot of the production facilities must have been based in Australia, where many of the crew and guest cast also originated. A few episodes have been released on DVD (with English soundtrack i think) in France. Check out this link:

www.lesheros.com/elephantboy/elephantboy.html

Re. Flying Kiwi, this series was also shown as a filler show by ITV regions in the UK around 1981/82. Twenty six episodes were made, one of which lanquishes somewhere on a betamex tape I recorded off television in 1982! It was all about a man who drove around New Zealand in a vintage car with a couple of kids. This was a pity good show from memory but even seems to be obscure in the country where it originated. Would love to see it on DVD sometime!

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Martin.