Sunday, September 12, 2010

Gunther Gebel Williams- NY Daily News 1971

Posted by Buckles at 9/12/2010 06:04:00 AM

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally forgot about the teeterboard routine. Maybe Wade or Henry could enhance morre about it.

12 September, 2010 08:34
Wade G. Burck said...

Anonymous,
We will have to wait for Henry. I never saw it, but I heard of it often. It seemed to be quite difficult to hold together, which is more then understanding. One of the greatest things about Boss is he was always trying new and different things, instead of just repeating things over and over. That type of mentality may have kept the circus new, fresh and different if more folks were that bold. Not all he tried was successful, but the secret to excelling is to keep pushing and attempting new and different. Sometimes you succeed and sometimes you fail. That pushing of the envelope is what made him so great. He succeeded many, many, more times then he failed.
Wade

12 September, 2010 16:36
Buckles said...

First time I saw Gunther was in 1970 and he was doing the tiger teeter-board but as the tiger jumped down from the pedestal, the other would anticipate and jump upward a split second early rather than wait for the full impact.
In High School football practice we called it "suckin' eggs!"

12 September, 2010 22:50
Casey McCoy Cainan said...

Does it not seem odd to anyone that the tiger in this photo is jumping off a stack of pedestals rather then just one? I would assume the pedestals shifted at least some when the cat jumped (because they don't stack straight) just wondering what the reason would be for this. Unless it was just easier to use them stacked up, and move less furniture.

13 September, 2010 10:38
Anonymous said...

I have seen every edition of RBBB since 1968 and never saw Gunther use the 'TEETER-BOARD" with the tigers. Fine Woodworking Magizine did an article years ago, on how the teeter-board he used with the elephants was constructed. charles mathias

13 September, 2010 12:39
Chic Silber said...

Perhaps it didn't do a whole year

or maybe you saw the rodeo route

13 September, 2010 15:36
Steve said...

Casey, correct me if I'm wrong [I'm sure WGB will!] but I don't think that the tiger is coming off the stacked pedestals. Maybe there is another high pedestal just out of the photo?

13 September, 2010 16:26
Chic Silber said...

The alignment suggests that the

tiger is leaping from the pair

of pedestals as Casey mentioned

and although they don't nest well

I doubt there would have been any

shifting & it's likely that he

needed to give the tiger slightly

more elevation without having 1

more prop to deal with

This could have been a work in

progress that didn't last long

I don't remember it either

13 September, 2010 20:53
Wade G. Burck said...

Steve,
Although Boss did some real "unconventional" things with his animals and props, I think you are right. I know one thing though, if he did use stacked pedestals they did not shift. He was a real trainer and his animals were trained to get on and get off in an orderly fashion . No alibis like shaky, wobbly pedestals were allowed.
Wade Burck

14 September, 2010 08:21
Casey McCoy Cainan said...

Wade, Steve,
The cats back feet are still ON THE PEDESTAL!....lol
Maybe they didn't shift.

14 September, 2010 17:58
Wade G. Burck said...

Casey,
I told you, he was a real by God trainer. I am wondering if there was another pedestal, taller then the stacked ones, used as a launch pedestal, and the stacked ones were the spring pedestals.
Wade Burck

14 September, 2010 23:05
Jim A. said...

If you could train a cat to jump on an unsteady teeterboard, lanching from a wiggling pedestal would be possible. I remember the teeterboard trick, but not well. Like where's the tiger on the teeterboard supposed to go? Like Buckles, I remember a cat jumping off to the side. As Wade pointed out, have to give Gunther credit for attempting something different.

15 September, 2010 09:25
Wade G. Burck said...

Jim,
As you and Buckles suggest, is what GGW confirmed to me in 1984. In discussing the behavior with him, I asked "what did you eventually want the tiger to do, after it was launched? Surly not a back flip?" He said that was exactly what he eventually intended. I said, "you would have to be real good, to convince a tiger to stay still and don't move, while a board hit's it in the ass. I imagine he would only listen to you once." GGW said matter of factually, "No, she listened a couple of times, but she started jumping off and was nervous to stay." We tossed around thoughts about teaching a tiger to do a back flip, and came to the conclusion that it could be done using the arena as a support/launching pad, which would negate using the modern net arenas of today. Doable with an older barred cage. Another of his "failures" and there were so few, because they usually evolved into something else, was the two tigers holding a rope swing, with eventually him standing in the middle. Tina was used as the "gaff" in the training process, but it never quite worked out. With the weight pulling done, one tiger always dropped the rope. It evolved into the only behavior like it I have ever seen, two tigers holding a fire stick. You have trained two animals, doing the exact same thing, at the exact same time, Jim, so you may appreciate the dynamics of this particular behavior. Next the the corbette over two standing male tigers, probably the most difficult behavior I have dealt with. Pinto, one of GGW's fire stick tigers died of cancer and I had to teach King, a young male to hold the fire stick with Rolls the other fire stick tiger. Pinto and Rolls had done it together for a number of years, and were two tough old males, who defied one another to pull hard enough to make the other give it up and drop it. King on the other hand, being a timid young male, was only to glad to drop it, and let Rolls have it. All Rolls had to do was look at King out of the corner of his eye, and curl his lip at him. King gave less then a damn what I thought or said as he let it drop. It took him about 3 weeks before he stopped thinking, "you hold the damn thing if you want, meanwhile shove that little piece of meat up your a**." Gotta love those animals, huh Jimmy?
Wade Burck

15 September, 2010 11:42

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