Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Lords of the Lions #2


Andre Skerbecki 1983

Posted by Buckles at 10/24/2006 06:10:00 AM

7 comments:

24-HOUR-MAN said...

In 1980 when we played Mexico City, Horst Merkle, who was working the Atayde Cat Act, had just returned from Europe. He brought back a pretty good supply of twisted stock whips and gave Trudy a white one as a gift. A couple years later when Andre was with us on a show he would stand at the back of the ring when Trudy worked the Liberty act, so she gave him the white whip as a thank you.

24 October, 2006 09:16
Anonymous said...

He was a big fan of Wolfgang Holzmeir and patterned his act similar. Did alot of whip popping.Interesting that the photo is with a male lion as his act was 90 per cent nice looking females.

24 October, 2006 10:11
Anonymous said...

Andre called me from Suesz, in '75, to take over the tigers and elephants. His girlfriend was injured in Florida and he needed to return to her. I was confident about taking the tigers, but I told them I was not an elephant man. He taught me the act with Mary, Sue, and Marge, and naturally, I fell in love with elephants, but they would be the only herd I had. It may surprise some that Andre was a veterinarian, but unlicensed to practice in this country. He did a fine job suturing an injury on the Ronrita's kangaroo that season.

24 October, 2006 17:30
Anonymous said...

The last act I knew of him working was Andre's Serengetti Lions, and as anonymous says, I thought they were lionesses, 10 or 12 in number.

27 October, 2006 15:23
Bob Cline said...

I'm pretty sure that Dave Hoover bought his lion act for the L.E.Barnes show when they framed it.

28 October, 2006 08:13
corkey said...

I am so happy to have found this blog... I can help you with a lot on Andre... I met Andre in 1977, he was managing an Arabian horse farm. I was a groom there... I started assisting him when he got the young lions in 1978. there were seven originally.. tweetzy(f) , putsy(f), tina(f), terhas(pronounced TA Ross)(M), congo(m) the one picture, nellie(f),chee chee later in the early 80's I would raise a cub named Buffy(f) he would use in the act as well..the shoulder stand cat... a lot of people thought I was Andre's daughter and he would tell them that.... but he was the father I never had and I was the child he wanted... we had great times together... I left some time around 85,, we remained in contact.. he had a daughter born in florida.. he died from complications to diebetes in 2001.. we were in wheeling , west vir. when he was diagnosed in the early 80's ... he never would take care of himself... and it would cause his death 2o years later... I currently go by Corkey Miller my stage name and have worked in tn for the past 2 years... I own 2 tigers and they are in 2 shows daily(magic beyond belief) along with other animals I have trained for show... Andre was a great teacher, a hard father... I miss him...

03 July, 2009 12:21
corkey said...

yes dave hoover bought the lions , truck and all equipment... I dont know what happened to it after that

03 July, 2009 12:22

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