Norman Elder
Encyclopedia
Norman Sam Elder explorer, exotic animal
owner, writer, artist, Olympic
equestrian
, was one of Toronto
's eccentrics. Elder, was the owner of the Norman Elder Museum
at 140 Bedford road in the Annex
, an affluent neighbourhood in Toronto
, Ontario
, Canada
.
Company.
He grew up on Park Lane Circle, Toronto, where he discovered himself, his love of animals, and his knack for outrageous endeavors.
Elder was life long friends with Canadian businessmen Galen Weston
and Conrad Black
.
He was a graduate of Upper Canada College
, the University of Western Ontario
and the University of Toronto
.
He also ran for Alderman
in Toronto where he had many remarkable television interviews before losing.
In 1998, an Ontario Court sentenced Elder to two years less a day in prison for molesting several teenage boys.
Elder died on Wednesday, October 15, 2003 in Toronto of an apparent suicide by hanging.
One of the interior scenes in David Cronenberg's
film Naked Lunch
was shot in the Museum's main living room.
The Norman Elder Museum was home a number of exotic animals. 'Tony', a Galapagos Islands
tortoise, lived for many years, roaming the first floor. He ate lettuce and would often walk to those in the room. He enjoyed his neck being scratched, and would extend it during the process. He eventually fell ill and was transported to Guelph University hospital, where he died. There, he was frozen until he could be delivered to a taxidermist. He was eventually returned to the museum stuffed.
Also living in the museum were two very large pythons and a boa constrictor which lived in the basement and often escaped to other parts of the house. Also residing in the house from time to time were a fruit bat
, three lemur
s, several chinchilla
s and numerous ferret
s.
Of the myriad artifacts displayed within the museum, the most peculiar were a reconstructed panther
skeleton, a collection of grapefruit-sized turquoise malachite
eggs, fossilized elephant bird
eggs, unexploded military mortar shells, an elephant skull with jaw-bone, dried elephant dung balls, a stuffed dingo
, and various human skulls from the Ganges river
.
The front garden of the museum was enclosed by an 8 foot high iron polar bear
fence purchased from the Toronto Zoo
during renovations.
The back garden held an underground, granite-walled tunnel which led to a room known as the tomb. The entrance to the tunnel was a secret doorway under Elder's bed in the first-floor master bedroom.
140 Bedford Rd. was gutted and renovated after Elder's death, leaving little trace of the house's former occupant. Norman's beloved dog Charley (who was stuffed and mounted on a movable wheeled platform) was retrieved and is owned by a private collector.
, Namibia
, the Amazon
, the Congo
, the Arctic
, Madagascar
, and many other countries. He founded the Canadian Chapter of the Explorers Club in 1979.
He is responsible for the discovery of one of the main pygmy
tribes that proved cannibalism
was still being practiced.
He wrote 'This Thing of Darkness', a book about the Amazon
with the foreword written by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
. He competed in the Three-Day Events
in the Olympic Games
, first in Rome
in 1960, and again in Mexico City
in 1968.
He also competed in the 1959 Pan-American Games where in he placed third individually riding Prince Maple, and also won team gold. In 1967 he finished second individually, riding Ranae Doe.
His brother Jim Elder
also competed in the Olympics six times in equestrian events winning a gold medal.
Elder was the author of 'The Norman Elder Horse Book'.
10 teenage boys between 1970 and 1980. On March 12, 1998, Judge Faith Finnestad sentenced Elder to two years less a day in jail.
The boys were all between the ages of 18 and 20 at the time of the encounters but Canada's laws at the time gave 21 as the age of consent for homosexuals.
Animal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
owner, writer, artist, Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
equestrian
Equestrian at the Summer Olympics
Equestrianism made its Summer Olympics debut at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. It disappeared until 1912, but has appeared at every Summer Olympic Games since. The current Olympic equestrian disciplines are Dressage, Eventing, and Jumping...
, was one of Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
's eccentrics. Elder, was the owner of the Norman Elder Museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
at 140 Bedford road in the Annex
The Annex
The Annex is a neighbourhood in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The traditional boundaries of the neighbourhood are north to Dupont Street, south to Bloor Street, west to Bathurst Street and east to Avenue Road...
, an affluent neighbourhood in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Background
Norman Elder was the son of Robert James Elder, wealthy founder of Elder Carriage Works, the first carriage business in southern Canada. The company provided carriages for the Eaton'sEaton's
The T. Eaton Co. Limited was once Canada's largest department store retailer. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an Irish immigrant. Eaton's grew to become a retail and social institution in Canada, with stores across the country, buying offices across the globe, and a catalogue...
Company.
He grew up on Park Lane Circle, Toronto, where he discovered himself, his love of animals, and his knack for outrageous endeavors.
Elder was life long friends with Canadian businessmen Galen Weston
Galen Weston
Willard Gordon Galen Weston, OC, OOnt , is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He is the Chairman and President of George Weston Limited...
and Conrad Black
Conrad Black
Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, OC, KCSG, PC is a Canadian-born member of the British House of Lords, and a historian, columnist and publisher, who was for a time the third largest newspaper magnate in the world. Lord Black controlled Hollinger International, Inc...
.
He was a graduate of Upper Canada College
Upper Canada College
Upper Canada College , located in midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is an independent elementary and secondary school for boys between Senior Kindergarten and Grade Twelve, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The secondary school segment is divided into ten houses; eight are...
, the University of Western Ontario
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario is a public research university located in London, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus covers of land, with the Thames River cutting through the eastern portion of the main campus. Western administers its programs through 12 different faculties and...
and the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
.
He also ran for Alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
in Toronto where he had many remarkable television interviews before losing.
In 1998, an Ontario Court sentenced Elder to two years less a day in prison for molesting several teenage boys.
Elder died on Wednesday, October 15, 2003 in Toronto of an apparent suicide by hanging.
The Norman Elder Museum
The museum was a private home containing thousands of artifacts collected from his travels. The upper floors of the Museum served as a rooming house for up to 10 tenants.One of the interior scenes in David Cronenberg's
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
film Naked Lunch
Naked Lunch
Naked Lunch is a novel by William S. Burroughs originally published in 1959. The book is structured as a series of loosely-connected vignettes. Burroughs stated that the chapters are intended to be read in any order...
was shot in the Museum's main living room.
The Norman Elder Museum was home a number of exotic animals. 'Tony', a Galapagos Islands
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part.The Galápagos Islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a...
tortoise, lived for many years, roaming the first floor. He ate lettuce and would often walk to those in the room. He enjoyed his neck being scratched, and would extend it during the process. He eventually fell ill and was transported to Guelph University hospital, where he died. There, he was frozen until he could be delivered to a taxidermist. He was eventually returned to the museum stuffed.
Also living in the museum were two very large pythons and a boa constrictor which lived in the basement and often escaped to other parts of the house. Also residing in the house from time to time were a fruit bat
Fruit Bat
Fruit Bat can refer to:* Megabats, a species of bat which eats fruit* Les "Fruitbat" Carter, guitarist of Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine* Fruit Bats , an American band...
, three lemur
Lemur
Lemurs are a clade of strepsirrhine primates endemic to the island of Madagascar. They are named after the lemures of Roman mythology due to the ghostly vocalizations, reflective eyes, and the nocturnal habits of some species...
s, several chinchilla
Chinchilla
Chinchillas are crepuscular rodents, slightly larger and more robust than ground squirrels, and are native to the Andes mountains in South America. Along with their relatives, viscachas, they make up the family Chinchillidae....
s and numerous ferret
Ferret
The ferret is a domesticated mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo. Ferrets are sexually dimorphic predators with males being substantially larger than females. They typically have brown, black, white, or mixed fur...
s.
Of the myriad artifacts displayed within the museum, the most peculiar were a reconstructed panther
Panthera
Panthera is a genus of the family Felidae , which contains four well-known living species: the tiger, the lion, the jaguar, and the leopard. The genus comprises about half of the Pantherinae subfamily, the big cats...
skeleton, a collection of grapefruit-sized turquoise malachite
Malachite
Malachite is a copper carbonate mineral, with the formula Cu2CO32. This green-colored mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses. Individual crystals are rare but do occur as slender to acicular prisms...
eggs, fossilized elephant bird
Elephant bird
Elephant birds are an extinct family of flightless birds found only on the island of Madagascar and comprising the genera Aepyornis and Mullerornis.-Description:...
eggs, unexploded military mortar shells, an elephant skull with jaw-bone, dried elephant dung balls, a stuffed dingo
Dingo
The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...
, and various human skulls from the Ganges river
Ganges River
The Ganges or Ganga, , is a trans-boundary river of India and Bangladesh. The river rises in the western Himalayas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and flows south and east through the Gangetic Plain of North India into Bangladesh, where it empties into the Bay of Bengal. By discharge it...
.
The front garden of the museum was enclosed by an 8 foot high iron polar bear
Polar Bear
The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
fence purchased from the Toronto Zoo
Toronto Zoo
The Toronto Zoo is a zoo located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It opened August 15, 1974 as the Metropolitan Toronto Zoo and is owned by the City of Toronto; the word "Metropolitan" was dropped from its name when the cities of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto were amalgamated to form the...
during renovations.
The back garden held an underground, granite-walled tunnel which led to a room known as the tomb. The entrance to the tunnel was a secret doorway under Elder's bed in the first-floor master bedroom.
140 Bedford Rd. was gutted and renovated after Elder's death, leaving little trace of the house's former occupant. Norman's beloved dog Charley (who was stuffed and mounted on a movable wheeled platform) was retrieved and is owned by a private collector.
Explorer
As an explorer, Elder embarked on lengthy expeditions to remote areas of Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
, Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
, the Amazon
Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...
, the Congo
Congo Basin
The Congo Basin is the sedimentary basin that is the drainage of the Congo River of west equatorial Africa. The basin begins in the highlands of the East African Rift system with input from the Chambeshi River, the Uele and Ubangi Rivers in the upper reaches and the Lualaba River draining wetlands...
, the Arctic
Arctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
, Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
, and many other countries. He founded the Canadian Chapter of the Explorers Club in 1979.
He is responsible for the discovery of one of the main pygmy
Pygmy
Pygmy is a term used for various ethnic groups worldwide whose average height is unusually short; anthropologists define pygmy as any group whose adult men grow to less than 150 cm in average height. A member of a slightly taller group is termed "pygmoid." The best known pygmies are the Aka,...
tribes that proved cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
was still being practiced.
He wrote 'This Thing of Darkness', a book about the Amazon
Amazon River
The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...
with the foreword written by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Equestrian
Norman Elder was an accomplished equestrianEquestrianism
Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
. He competed in the Three-Day Events
Eventing
Eventing is an equestrian event comprising dressage, cross-country, and show jumping. This event has its roots in a comprehensive cavalry test requiring mastery of several types of riding...
in the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
, first in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in 1960, and again in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
in 1968.
He also competed in the 1959 Pan-American Games where in he placed third individually riding Prince Maple, and also won team gold. In 1967 he finished second individually, riding Ranae Doe.
His brother Jim Elder
Jim Elder
Robert James "Jim" Elder, OC is a Canadian horse rider famous for his accomplishments in Equestrian. He competed at six Olympic Games between 1956 and 1984, winning one gold and one bronze medal....
also competed in the Olympics six times in equestrian events winning a gold medal.
Elder was the author of 'The Norman Elder Horse Book'.
Conviction for indecent assault
In 1998, Elder pleaded guilty to indecently assaultingIndecent assault
Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in many jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime.Indecent assault was an offence in England and Wales under sections 14 and 15 the Sexual Offences Act 1956...
10 teenage boys between 1970 and 1980. On March 12, 1998, Judge Faith Finnestad sentenced Elder to two years less a day in jail.
The boys were all between the ages of 18 and 20 at the time of the encounters but Canada's laws at the time gave 21 as the age of consent for homosexuals.
Books
- This Thing of Darkness: Elder's Amazon Notebooks, Published by NC Press, Box 4010, Terminal A, Toronto, Ontario, 1979, ISBN 978-0896960862
- The Norman Elder Horse Book, Published by NC Press, Box 4010, Terminal A, Toronto, Ontario.
- Noshitaka: when I came to the Machiguengas, self-published, Don Mills, Ontario, 1966