Della Guidry
February 12, 2008
Robert Mike
February 14, 2008
The head of Dumbo – a big, blue float piece – has been found and returned to the Krewe of Mardi Gras.
The float – head and all – is now safely back at Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World in Algiers. It was one of several floats rented from the New Orleans floatmaker for the Houma parade.
An anonymous caller led krewe president Gerald Breaux to the missing pachyderm’s head. After last Saturday’s parade, the beloved cartoon elephant’s head fell off the float while being transported from the East Houma Bingo Hall on Grand Caillou Road to the float den.
Parade captain S.P. LaRussa said last Wednesday that krewe members set the 800-pound float piece on the side of the road to be retrieved later and transported by truck to the Krewe of Hercules’ den. When the members returned to the bingo hall to clean the parking lot, Dumbo’s head was gone.
The 9-foot-tall and 4-foot-wide float piece was taken between the hours of 10 p.m. and midnight the Saturday before Mardi Gras Day, authorities said. The krewe filed a police report and offered a $100 reward for the safe return of the elephant’s head.
The caller directed Breaux to Railroad Avenue and Barrow Street in Houma, LaRussa said, where Dumbo’s head was found.
“Dumbo’s mother was very sad when he was gone, but she is happy now,” LaRussa said.
“Let me tell you, Dumbo is a big baby. It took about five guys to put him on the side of the road when he fell off the float, and I bet it took the same amount to carry him away,” he added.
“It’s kind of hard to hide a big blue elephant. We knew it would turn up sooner or later,” LaRussa said.
Replacing a float piece like the Dumbo is not a cheap expenditure. The elephant is estimated to cost $15,000.
A Mardi Gras World spokesman said the elephant is approximately 25 years old.
The last time a float piece disappeared locally was in 2004, when a giant bass fell from a Krewe of Hercules float near Coteau Road and Bayou Gardens Boulevard. The krewe found the fish days later in Schriever.
