Friday, September 04, 2015

More Cat Acts #1


7 comments:

Roger Smith said...

Court and his beloved snow leopard, Doutschka. Richard Reynolds III may know for sure if she was the 1st snow leopard to perform, at least over here. Court tells of her tragic death in his autobio, but I won't spoil it for new readers. If you love big cats, these severely threatened mountain dwellers will steal you heart all over again.

Paul G said...

I believe in more recent years Gilda Cristiani had one as well as Ron & Joy Holiday, no not the clouded leopard, which is very beautiful too, but a snow leopard.

J Dier said...

I believe that is a spotted leopard (Panthera pardalis) that Mr. Court is holding. Here is a link to a pic of him with his beautiful snow leopard. /www.pinterest.com/pin/226728162460745461/

Cindy Potter said...

Rog-
LOVE your historical input!!!
KEEP IT COMING!!!
:-)
Cindy Potter

Richard Reynolds said...

This is not Doutschka, the snow leopard. No, it is a common spotted leopard. Gunther did this same stunt.

Court's Doutschka was the first performing snow leopard in USA. Sadly she was killed by a common spotted leopard in 1940 MSG rehearsals before she could appear before a paying audience.

There are references to them in European acts before Doutschka.

Back here, Lucio Cristiani and his wife had a snow leopard in their uncaged leopard act. The Hoffmans had one as did Siegfried and Roy. Cyndi Gamble had another.

Gunther told me that Circus Williams had one in its menagerie. He thought about getting one for his leopard act on RBBB but was afraid it could not take the sometimes long train rides

Roger is right. Snow leopards and hard to beat for beauty.

Unknown said...

I have a nice eight by ten of Court with his snow leopard and knew the tail was not quite right. You guys beat me to the punch.

Court's book is very good as are a lot of the trainer's books. He did a triple flyaway from the bar in a low bar act way back and was well respected as an acrobat.

The Keller book was a Reader's Digest condensed book.

Bob

Roger Smith said...

You guys are right. I spoke before a closer look. Court had a very similar photo with his snow leopard. I'll have to be forgiven, I'm nearly 50 years of age.