Sunday, August 06, 2006

Circus Aeros 1976 #2


"Zwei Jahre gastierten Erhard Samel und seine Frau Christiane mit deiser Nummer in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika. Bei Ringling Bros. and Barnum& Bailey, demgrobten Zirkus USA, wurden sie als eine echte Dressur-Attraktion aus der Duetschen Demokratischen Republik gefeiert."

I remember these people from the Ringling Blue Unit in 1974-75 when I first went to work for the Company. So until we hear from Mr. De Ritis only Jeanette Rix and I know their identity.

Posted by Buckles at 8/06/2006 06:36:00 AM

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember the Samels and their mixed cage act on RBBB. I met them when Christiane came to the Zoo to buy some rats to feed some pythons they used in the act. She would laydown, cover herself with a few good sized snakes and a few cats would walk over her. The act originally had two polar bears but the government sent one to Ursilla Bottcher's act. I don't recall any unusual tricks but I remember it as a nice, well presented act.

When the show was unloading in St. Louis their cage boy, Dieter Valentine (I believe), was in an accident. A cage slipped off the run and just about amputated his leg. A nurse friend told us that he was at the hospital she worked at but he didn't speak English. I figured I'd at least go to say hello but I don't speak German. He spoke enough English that we could talk about animals, zoos, and circus.

I last saw them in Carbondale, IL near the end of the tour. Christiane spoke English well and their 4 yr. old daughter sounded like she lived in Kissimmee. I regret we never kept on contact but I've seen accounts they they were doing well in the circus business. Somewhere I have a small pennant they gave me from one of the East German circuses.

Then during the "cold war" it was a big deal to associate with people from communist countries. I told someone that with me working at the Zoo, we both worked animals owned by the government (but I was happy to be doing that in the good old USA).

06 August, 2006 07:13
Anonymous said...

From Eric:

When the 104th Edition Blue Unit played San Diego in 1974, I was still in the Western Pacific on board an aircraft carrier, finishing up an active duty Navy tour. (I did get back in time to catch the show in Anaheim.) I remember the Samels’ act quite well. For some reason, both the Samels and Charly Baumann’s tiger act appeared in the second half, almost back to back. (You would think that one of these acts would have been used to open the first half.) The Samels’ music including Debussy’s "Golliwog’s Cakewalk," "The Siamese Patrol," the wooden shoe waltz from Victor Herbert’s operetta "Sweethearts," "Jungle Queen," "Taboo," "El Condor Pasa," "March to Mecca," Lacona’s "Jungle Drums," and an oriental theme from "Lawrence of Arabia." All great stuff, that fit this act perfectly. Driving back from Anaheim, we stopped for gas in San Clemente and heard on the radio that President Nixon had just announced his resignation.

06 August, 2006 12:41
Anonymous said...

Near the end of the tour Christiane told me that their relations with Charly were quite strained. They tried to avoid each other and she felt Charly used his position to "nit-pick" issues about their act. It seem to begin, in their view, when Charly was out of action for awhile with a bad back and they were the featured cage presentation.

We'll never know all the facts ( and really so-what) about how everyone got along. I know I'd love to see either act today.

06 August, 2006 13:02
Buckles said...

Barbara and I visited the Ringling Show at the old Garden in 1964, as we approached the building we noticed a group of young ladies gathered around the performers entrance. I asked what the commotion was and was old they were hoping to get a glimpse of the new tiger trainer.
After seeing the show I could see why, in those days Charly was slim, trim and very similar in appearance to the movie actor Stephen Boyd.
His and Robert Baudy's tiger acts arrived on the scene at about the same time and both were sensations. Years later we were next door neighbors with Charly and Araceli, living in the next car.
On move out night after the elephants were loaded, Barbara and I would stop by their place and with a number of other people enjoy drinks, gossip and sories, Araceli was a wonderful hostess. When the yard engine came to couiple up the train we would take off for home sometimes on the run.
Plesant memories.

06 August, 2006 15:19
Anonymous said...

Ehrardt Samel started as cage boy with Hanno Coldam (the great clown-trainer) and he initially took Marcella's lion act in the late 60s (from last week picture).
Samel's mixed cage act had 3 tigers, 2 lion-tigers, 1 lion, a leopard,a brown bear, a black bear, a panther, a puma, a polar bear. I think this is one of the few groups in the history where the different "mixed" animals was really working togheter in tricks. Christine, in the cage, used sometimes to bear a python around her neck.
I never saw the act with them(I was too young), but I saw it later, when the state-owned act was transmitted around 1980 to Peter and Katja Stanik, that changed some tricks and animals.
Where are the Samel now? I know that Christine owns the name Aeros and in the late 90s used it for different operations (from children show to an erotic theatre).
Their daughter Yvonne Samel had few years ago an act with 7 lions in the now private and small circus Aeros.

08 August, 2006 05:05
Anonymous said...

Thanks to Mr. DeRitis for jogging my memory of the Samel's daughter Yvonne. She's the same age as my older daughter and I named a sea lion after her that was in my act for several years. She'd be in her mid-30s.

I too am awaiting to see photos of performing okapis. As I recall the politics of the Congo (Zaire) and eastern Europe were the same. Might have been the source of the animals. Not trying to beat Richard but the first okapi born in capitvity was sired by a male on loan from RBBB at Brookfield Zoo.

08 August, 2006 09:24

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)