 Inscription says: "Best Regards Terrell Jacobs 1937." Talked with John last night who said that I misread the signature and this picture was taken in 1939. Having said that, this would be with RBBB and in connection with the Black Leopard Act.  |
Monday, February 12, 2007
Terrell Jacobs (From John Herriott)
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8 comments:
Thats one big leopard or was he a short gentleman
I vividly recall as a very young boy when on Ringling in his uniform, Sam Brown belt and all, with his always short cropped hair the announcer introduced him as HERR TERREL JACOBS suggesting a European connection. Kind of odd now with the anti=German sentiment prior to the war, but then again the war war still a few years away.
ALso Terrel's bow was always a crisp military salute.
Are there any pictures of Terrell Jacobs smiling? He always looks so serious in his photos, even
outside the cage.
Richard Reynolds says - - -
I wonder if that photo was taken earlier than RBBB in 1938 or 1939?
In 1938 on RBBB Jacobs only dealt with black leopards as best I can ascertain.
He was given a nearly impossible task, namely, to try and break a bunch of wild caught adult black leopards into a presentable routine in just three months, not nearly enough time.
Jacobs was hired by Johnny North for that purpose. North had a thing for black leopards and when he got control of RBBB in December 1937, he wanted such an act for the big one. Jacobs was to do that plus his big lion act.
Most if not all the black cats were acquired from Frank Buck. To haul them around a new aluminum black leopard cage wagon was built - -no. 99.
Jacobs could never get the black leopard act to work. He struggled with it first in Peru and then in Sarasota. However, he did present a single black leopard in the ring a few times in the Garden. He wound up doing his lions only.
Nevertheless, the show used that stunning trained black leopard poster throughout 1938 both on RBBB and on the post-strike Barnes-SF-RBBB combine. I recall it in a store window here in Atlanta in advance of the '38 show. Boy did that get me and others excited.
But when the show went on there was no black leopard act to be seen as had been advertised. That was really a disappointment for both my Dad and me. I think there was some explanation offered in the press. Dad always referred to Terrell disparagingly as "the guy who could not train the black leopards."
Now, Jacobs did have with him on the road that year a young black leopard named "Midnight" that had been trained by Mel Koontz and was purchased by RBBB from W.J. Richards of the California Zological Gardeens. (I think that was one and the same as the old Selig zoo) Jacobs went around with it on a leash. Midnight was likely the black leopard he presented a few times in the garden.
But, as far as I know, there was never any spotted leopard as shown here.
This appears to be an extremely large leopard
This is an african leopard, which are larger than their asian cousins.
I saw a Canadian made documentary in which Terrell Jacobs was interviewed while he was in a ring with five male lions. I think it was titled "Carnival." The interviewer asked him if he had it all to do again would he still become a lion tamer. Jacobs replied: "Hell no."
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