Documentary 'Jumbo in a Jar' Uncovers Tufts Legend

Chelsea Spear grew up in North Medford listening to a lot of tall tales from her father, Peter Kearin, who worked for more than 10 years as the director of sports information at .

In the mid-1970s, after a fire at the university destroyed the giant taxidermied hide of Jumbo, the famous elephant from Barnum and Bailey's circus, an employee of the school scooped some of the ashes into a peanut butter jar for posterity.

At some point soon after, a few of the players on the Tufts Jumbos football team began the tradition of rubbing Jumbo's jar of ashes for good luck before games.

That's the story told in archival photos, animation and interviews with Rocky Carzo, the university athletic director, in Spear's three-minute documentary, "Jumbo in a Jar."

But Spear's father's version of how the Jumbo ashes became a good luck charm was somewhat different, Spear explained.

"He told me and he told my mother that he got a call from Sports Illustrated one day," and that he told the reporter how Jumbo's ashes were treated as a talisman by the football team, Spear said.

"According to my father, six weeks later Rocky called him into his office and was reading the article and said, 'I didn't know we rubbed Jumbo's ashes for luck.'"

Kearin had told his family this article led to the football team rubbing the jar of ashes before games.

It wasn't until years later, when Spear interviewed Carzo for the film, that she found out that her father's story about the Sports Illustrated interview was another tall tale.

Although Spear's father worked for the Tufts athletic department when Jumbo's hide burned up in the fire, there was no Sports Illustrated article that spawned the tradition of rubbing Jumbo's ashes.

"My father was great at telling tall tales," Spear said. "I thought it was important to find out what the true story was. It became, in a way, a tribute to my dad."

Now Spear is looking to get her documentary, which she shot using a toy camera and an iPod, into the Palo Alto International Film Festival.

For her film to make it into a showing at the festival next fall, it needs to get enough votes for Spear to land one of 30 slots.

"I would really love to get it in there and make a new audience and see 'Jumbo in a Jar' on a big screen," Spear said.

To support Spear's film, visit Spear's page on Talenthouse.com and vote, beginning June 23.

Download the movie