However, their debut performance at Dreamland goes wrong with him nearly falling off a high platform leading to him trumpeting in alarm. Later, Vandevere demands that Dumbo should fly with trapeze artist Colette Marchant on his back. Medici would become Vandevere's partner and the Medici Brothers' Circus' troupe would be employed to perform at Dreamland.

Vandevere, the owner of Dreamland Amusement Park, approaches Medici and proposes a collaboration. The audience is astounded when he begins to fly, and word of him begins to spread. Milly risks her life to deliver a feather to him, giving him the confidence to fly. However, the performance goes wrong and he is trapped on a high platform surrounded by flames.

In another performance, Dumbo plays the role of a firefighter to put out a fire with water sprayed from his trunk. They also discover that feathers are the key to his willingness to fly. Holt's children, Milly and Joe, comfort Dumbo and realize he can fly by flapping his ears. Afterwards, Medici sells her in order to prevent a public relations disaster. Jumbo is distressed by his treatment and rampages into the ring causing extensive damage and accidentally killing an abusive handler. The crowd mockingly names him Dumbo and pelts him with peanuts and other objects. However, the calf accidentally reveals them in his debut performance. She gives birth to a calf with abnormally large ears and Medici orders Holt to hide them before he'll allow the public to see the calf. However, the circus has run into financial troubles and Medici has been forced to sell their horses, so he reassigns Holt as the caretaker for their pregnant elephant, Jumbo. In 1919, equestrian performer and World War I veteran Holt Farrier returns after the war to the Medici Brothers' Circus, run by Max Medici.

Dumbo book