The Man Chimp

Story and image come from:

http://anunnaturalhistory.tumblr.com/post/53128216190/bostock-s-consul-the-chimpanzee

In New York, in 1893, Frank Bostock had pulled off another typical Wombwell stunt, staging the escape of yet another lion to promote his American venture. However, according to a story in the Northern Echo, published in 2014, Bostock’s most celebrated exhibit in New York was Consul the Man Chimp. The Echo’s report showed that the newspapers also had not lost their attraction to improbable menagerie stories and related that:

Consul, last seen dressed as a chauffeur and driving a car down Fleet Street to a newspaper office, was a chimp much-loved for his aping of human behaviour.

Dressed to impress, Consul walked upright, drank wine, smoked and only travelled first class – once occupying a suite of rooms at the Paris Hotel Continental where his neighbours included heads of states and rich adventurers. He was insured for £20,000 and lay in state at the Paris Hippodrome following his tragic death.

Such was the success of Consul, that after his death, Frank trained up successor chimpanzees, also named Consul. The death of the original Consul in 1904 merited the following obituary in the Capricornian:

The performing chimpanzee Consul, which was regarded as the smartest monkey in the world, has died in Berlin. The chimpanzee was insured for £20,000. [An English paper has the following with reference to the chimpanzee: — “A living argument for Darwin’s theory is to be found in America in Consul, the chimpanzee, which is one of the central attractions of Bostock’s Animal Arena. This queer little man-like money lives like a gentleman. He rises at the sound of the gong at ten o'clock in the morning. After he has discarded his light blue silk pyjamas he takes his morning tub… Just before be retires at 11.30 pm he takes a pint of hot chocolate for a nightcap. Consul’s nearness to the human family is shown in his appreciation of stimulants and his fondness for cigars and cigarettes. He would sell his birthright if he had the opportunity, for a bottle of whisky. The very sight of it brings forth a grin from ear to ear. A full account of Consul’s daily doings would be a mere catalogue of all the things that other gentlemen do. He sleeps in a bed, stretches and yawns. He brushes his teeth and combs his hair, carefully parting it in the middle. He dresses and undresses himself and shows partiality for certain combinations of dress. He also mends his clothes, washes them, and   hangs them out to dry. He plays football, boxes like Fitzimmons and can carry a 30 lb weight while walking erect. Consul rides a bicycle. He is the only animal known who has succeeded in getting on and retaining the momentum of the bicycle. He is an expert chauffeur, and owns a handsome electric motor car.  He uses a typewriter and writes his name boldly.  His intelligence is marvellously suggestive”.] 

It is particular interesting that Consul’s fondness for cigars and whisky was taken as compelling evidence by the media of the day of Darwinian theory in practice. It would seem also that there was still a school of thought that felt this kind of exhibitionism had some kind of profound educational purpose. Such stories do however give a flavour of how Frank made his own fame and fortune, and carried on the Wombwell tradition.