| "That's Frank Phillips at left, I remember him from from his days in Jungleland, the subject however is the clown who judging frommy my picture below, must have lost his wig. |
Saturday, August 18, 2007
FRANK PHILLIPS DOWNIE BROS (From Bill Strong)
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There were great stories about Frank Phillips at Jungleland. He had trained the MGM lion, Leo, for the studio's famed opening logo. My favorite of the Phillips MGM lions was the magnificent Pasha. He was largely responsible for breaking in Dick McGraw. Benny Bennett told me this one about Phillips that translated perfectly to my time there. The back fence of the Compound was made of bibles from the lamented 1938 Hagenbeck-Wallace show. These were stood on end, posted and railed, and made a great fence. Frank Phillips created a secret door in one of them so he could sneak off the lot for a cold one at the next-door beer joint. The management, Richards and Horne, knew of this, but never could discover where the trick plank was. In my day, the tavern was the Golden Spur. Among the more printable nicknames we gave the joint was The Bloody Saddle, and I'll leave it at that. Uncle Ben showed me the special passageway and how to work it, and every time I vanished I mentally saluted Frank Phillips for knowing the value of a cold one (or two) after a hot time in the cage.
Mr. Phillips was born Francis Phillip Wholeben on April 4, 1908, in Clarendon, Pennsylvania. He died of cancer at his home in Thousand Oaks, on January 2, 1963, at the age of 58. His widow, Seba (pronounced Seeva) was my friend and housekeeper to Mabel Stark until Mabel's death in 1968.
Catch the excellent article on Mr. Phillips by Bill Johnston, in the July-August 1991 BANDWAGON.
Roger, was the original MGM lion named "Jackie"?
If so, do you know who trained him?
Frank Phillips trained Leo and Pasha for the logo in the 40s and 50s, but they were not the originals--nor were the Jackies. Dick McGraw was in on one of those shoots with Phillips. They seated the lion and waved a stick at him to get the rather mild roars. Each shoot took most of a day, and of course they got dozens of shots to edit from.
The three Jackie lions were trained by Mel Koontz, whom I knew after his retirement. One Jackie was used by MGM, but the others didn't have much in terms of manes, and weren't ideal for the logo. The Jackies were mostly wrestling cats--Mel broke Pat Anthony in to work one doubling for Victor Mature in SAMSON AND DELILAH. The rule here is, contact lions are one-man animals, and Pat said without Mel right there, he could never have wrestled Jackie, no matter what DeMille was paying.
Like everyone's chimp was Cheetah, it follows that everyone's lion was MGM's, but the true logo lions came from the Compound and these two trainers, and the original Cheetah was Peggy, trained by Henry Tyndall.
Holy mackerel! You ought to write a book, you're a walking encyclopedia about that stuff!
Arigato gozaimasu, Roger-san.
To Pat: Many kind thanks. The literal hell of it is--this information is fading rapidly. Alma Goebel Heil, daughter of Compound founder Louis Goebel, wants me to write a book about the history of the Old Place. It would be treated as a local history book. These are always considered minor works, and such authors usually pay to have them published out of a vanity house, but it is nonetheless very tempting.
For now, Mabel Stark's family wants me to write the definitive biography of the Tiger Queen, and this is my present task, along with concentrated editing of my 7 film scripts, providing labors I'm enjoying too much for now before sending them into the snake pits of Hollywood.
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