Monday, June 26, 2017

#1 The Big Cage


4 comments:

Harry Kingston said...

Pat Anthony, The man that learned cat training through the G I Bill.
Saw him om Circus Vargas and what a cat act full of thrills and a good friend for many years.

Roger Smith said...

Anthony Patrick Vitanza was a paratrooper veteran of WWII,returning for his honorable discharge in the fabled Class of '46. He had sought out Clyde Beatty as a mentor, but Beatty told him, "Pat, I'm going to do you the biggest favor I can, and turn you down. If you're serious, get yourself out to Thousand Oaks, and try to get around Chubby Guilfoyle." Pat asked that his GI Bill apply to wild animal training, and was angered when the VA laughed at him. At last, his congressman from Cleveland won Pat's approval, and he arrived out here when we were World Jungle Compound. While subsisting on the government stipend of $80 per month, Pat learned from Guilfoyle, Mabel Stark, and Benny Bennett, and was a contemporary of Dick McGraw and Chet Juszyk. After his long apprenticeship, he left here to go on his own in 1953, and most of us know the rest.

Wade G. Burck said...

One of the best, trick wise and presentation wise, mixed act's I have ever had the pleasure to be around. His bouncing lioness "Mamma" was aces as well as his ball rolling tiger "Billy". I cherish the time I got to spend with Pat on Circus Vargas and later in Mexico on Circo Frank Brown Atayde. A very complex, but very kind man.

Wade Burck

Roger Smith said...

And no one who ever saw his off-the-floor, high-spinning rollover can forget his legendary "Rita". Bill Johnston told me the story of when Rita nailed Pat. He was one step too close, and in her rollover, Rita hung all 5 of her left front claws into Pat, ripping him deeply from shoulder to wrist. Naturally, infection set in, and Pat's first surgeons began thinking amputation. Then, a young Greek doctor walked in, examined Pat, and said,"No. I can save the arm." He worked his miracles, and Pat was spared the loss. Over time, Rita developed spinal ailments, and Pat humanely retired her rollover.