Ursula Bottcher #1 (From Don Covington)

2010-03-06-bottcher5, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. In 1952 she was hired as a showgirl on Circus Jakob Busch. It was there that she met Erich Böttcher, an assistant to Epi Vidane in the elephant department, whom she married. In 1955, she made her debut with Circus Barlay with a group of three lions that had been broken by the Dutch trainer Gaston Bosman. In 1958 she took over the presentation of six brown bears owned by Circus Busch in what was then East Germany. In 1961, she appeared at Circus Olympia, assisting with six lions that were presented by Hanno and Marcella Coldam before taking over eight superb polar bears purchased by the German National Circus from the Swedish circus of Trolle Rhodin.