Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Alfred Court


Mr. Court provided both a large variety of cats in the 1940's as well as a number of trainers so that three acts could work at the same time.
This was the case in the 1948 show I mentioned yesterday, there was so much going on that I was thunderstruck, polar bears in one end, tigers in the other and man that looked like "Sabu" of the movies working leopards, pumas and jaguars in the center.

Posted by Buckles at 1/04/2006 06:26:00 AM

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let me think a minute. Court arrived in New York, in 1940, with something like 80 tons of wild animal acts and equipment. Check his book. The astute, gentlemanly Willie Story was his nephew who worked cat acts, and Joe Walsh, Konselmann with the polar bears, and Damoo Dhotre of India were among the masters brought over by Court. Known in history as "The Court Trainers", these were exquisitely schooled men and women with elegant acts. Court himself, described as a man of sophistication and Old World grace, retired relatively unscathed from animal work, and lived into his nineties as a hotelier, in Nice, France.

06 January, 2006 17:39
Anonymous said...

Damoo Dhotre was the presenter of the Court leopards. Looked great in this act with his short stature as Gunther did in latter years.David Tatzlaff had one of the best leopard acts I've ever seen, but at 6'6 his size distracted from the act.

14 April, 2006 23:18

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