Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Wolfgang Holtzmier 1970


Ringling-Barnum Red Show.

Posted by Buckles at 9/20/2006 06:09:00 AM

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

From Eric:

Wolfgang Holtzmier had some of the BEST old time circus music of any lion act that ever appeared on a Feld-produced Ringling show. In 1975, the selections were: the march from Miklos Rozsa’s "Quo Vadas" film score, followed in quick succession by
"The Northwind March," "Burma Patrol," "Alhambra Grotto," "Caravan Club," "The Fez," and the "Golden Calf Bacchanalia Music" from "The Ten Commandments." Then there was another Miklos Rozsa film score fanfare used at the end.

Re: the Karl King numbers, Keith Killinger used to relate how, in March, 1971, Irvin Feld told him to change out some of the Holtzmier music. According to Killinger, he started putting 3 Karl King marches into the band books just about the time Karl King was being rushed to the hospital in Fort Dodge. Just as he finished putting the music into the books, Karl King passed away. True or not, the King numbers remained a part of the Holtzmier music for as long as he was with Ringling.

20 September, 2006 12:30
Anonymous said...

JIMMY ILLE WAS THE FIRST RBBB BAND LEADER TO PLAY WOLFGANG AND HE WOULD CERTAINLY USE THAT KIND OF MUSIC BEING ADEVOTEE OF MERLE.

20 September, 2006 16:37
GaryHill said...

Pablo Noel was one of my favorite lion trainers! I liked the way he would dive into the pile of them lying down!

20 September, 2006 16:42
Anonymous said...

Wolfgang was a nice guy to meet. He signed for me a unique photo seemingly taken through a sort of fish-eye lens.

To garyhill: In the annual LIFE magazine coverage of RB in the Garden, they ran a photo of Pablo Noel after getting clawed rather badly. This may be only another good story, but I heard his assistant, Pancho (?), had a loaded pistol out there, and was instructed to kill Noel if he was being attacked, rather than let him die by fang and claw. Anyone know is this is true or false? I remember when I visited in Noel's time, I kept my eye on old Pancho over there in case I needed to duck.

20 September, 2006 17:29
Anonymous said...

From Eric (for John H.)

Jimmy Ille used the following music for Holtzmier's Lion Act:

"Caravan Club," "Salute to the Sultan," "March to Mecca," "War March of the Tarters," "Big Cage Galop,"and "Steeplechase Galop." The fact that Ille was an advocate of Merle Evans actually worked to his disadvantage as far as the Felds were concerned. In 1971, and prior to the taping of the annual Ringling TV special, he was dismissed and most of his Merle Evans-type musical program was changed.

20 September, 2006 18:26

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)