East of Elephant Rock East of Elephant Rock East of Elephant Rock is a 1977 British independent drama film directed by Don Boyd and starring John Hurt, Jeremy Kemp and Judi Bowker. It was Boyd's second feature film following his little-noticed 1975 "Intimate Reflections". Like William Somerset Maugham's 1927 play "The Letter" and two subsequent film adaptations, its narrative content depended on the 1911 Ethel Proudlock murder in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which became a "cause célèbre" scandalising British colonial society and which had been featured in a "Sunday Observer" article as recently as the year before. Boyd, drawing in part on his own experience
John L. Sullivan (elephant) Brothers Circus. Old John, as he came to be known, stayed on with the circus after he retired from performing. He babysat for the performers' children, did heavy lifting, and led the elephant herd to and from the show grounds and train. On 9 April 1922, John, with Dexter Fellows, began a 53 mile pilgrimage from Madison Square Garden to the Elephant Hotel in Somers, New York, to pay tribute to Old Bet, the first elephant in America. John arrived on 13 April 1922. He laid a wreath on the monument to Old Bet. He died of old age or