diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/cbook/__init__.py b/lib/matplotlib/cbook/__init__.py
index 87cfe7fd4d84..73c48fa728f6 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/cbook/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/cbook/__init__.py
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@
 
 import six
 from six.moves import xrange, zip
-import bz2
 import collections
 import contextlib
 import datetime
@@ -478,6 +477,9 @@ def to_filehandle(fname, flag='rU', return_opened=False, encoding=None):
             flag = flag.replace('U', '')
             fh = gzip.open(fname, flag)
         elif fname.endswith('.bz2'):
+            # python may not be complied with bz2 support,
+            # bury import until we need it
+            import bz2
             # get rid of 'U' in flag for bz2 files
             flag = flag.replace('U', '')
             fh = bz2.BZ2File(fname, flag)