Buckles: In about 1972 Fred Pfening was putting together a Wild Animal Trainer issue and he asked me who had worked the most cats at one time, Beatty or Jacobs. I dodged the question by telling him that I didn't think a trainer could be judged solely on the basis of the number in the act and that they both had great reputations. He handled the matter by saying in his terrific article "Masters of the Steel Arena" that Jacobs was generally acknowledged to have handled more lions and tigers at the same time than any other trainer and that Beatty had more showmanship than all the rest. |
Saturday, November 07, 2009
From Dave Price
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6 comments:
Dave,
You being the expert on Beatty and other animal trainers my question to you is I thought Jacobs was the lion king and only had lions in his act, and Beatty did both lions and tigers????
And Beatty was Mr. showmanship and no one equalled him for sheer excitement and his presentation.
Your thoughts please as when you and Fred Pfening are gone to the big top in the sky who will answer our questions.
Harry
Harry:
First of all: Pfred and I do not intend to go to any big top in the sky. Not any time soon.
Second: There are many who know more about this stuff than I do. You have probably been dazzled by my good looks into thinking I must be smart too.
Third: I don't know at what point Jacobs first introduced tigers into his act, but yes he was a lion man prior to this.
But Jacobs could not handle the black leopards in 1938. His biggest moment and it did not work. What does that say?
It probably says that he was pressured by the front office to have this act ready in a much shorter time than was possible.
If just got off the phone with my great circus friend in New York, Mike Cecere that has tried to train leopards. Mike says that leopards are another ball game from lions and tigers. He says there attention span is very short.
The will not stay on there seat and get off and lay on the ground and play with other leopards.
He had talked with people that knew Jacobs and used the collar and chain method to train.
Also back in 1938 black leopards were in short supply and Jacobs had large adult ones. And probably was trying to do this in a short period of time and it was not working.
John Ringling North wanted this act for the New York opening which did not happen. I know posters were printed as I have the Strobridage one.
I am sure JRN was not happy that the act was not ready and Alfred Court was wanting to come to America with the war going on in Europe so he replaced Jacobs with Court.
Harry
One theory that circulated Thousand Oaks held that rather than deciding on a black leopard act and allowing Jacobs to choose the stock, John North bought what was available at the moment and ordered Jacobs to train them. When the trainer is left out of the selection process, he can't know what he's facing, and the odds are against him. Jacobs was going in blind, with an imposing deadline. The failure of the act rests not so much with Jacobs as with the thoughtlessness and anxiety of JRN.
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