Sunday, December 24, 2006

From Richard Flint #1



A few days ago you shared the cover of Hermann Tiede's book on animalacts. He lives near Hannover, Germany, and has a huge collection ofphotographs and clippings from programs, etc., and all devoted toanimal acts. I believe he has authored a total of seven illustratedbooks on circus animal trainers.In addition to the work of the Tiede's on animal acts, I would add twoFrench books by Christian Hamel that feature good historical text andremarkable photographs."The Elephants in the Circus" was published in 2001 and includes achapter on American trainers with individual biographical entries onsome early presenters as well as the following more recent trainers:Smokey Jones, Mac McDonald, Fred Logan, Bucky Steele, the Woodcocks,Axel Gautier, Rex Williams, Gunther Gebel-Williams, the Friscos,Patricia Zerbini, and Eloise Bertchold. Buckles and his father getmore than two full pages of text. Each chapter covers a differentcountry and the book gives an excellent account of performingelephants since the end of WWII, particularly in Europe. Most of thequite extraordinary photographs are in color and of European acts.I've scanned the cover of the 255-page book that shows the Knie act in1996 as well as one photo inside the book with its brief identifyingcutline.In 2004 Hamel issued "The Bears in the Circus," a175-page book insimilar format but less extensive than his first work. EmilPallenberg and Albert Rix each get a half page of text and WallyNaughtin, Jim Hall, Johnny Welde, and Hertha Klauser each merit aparagraph while others get briefer mention. The photographs rangefrom a goodly number of remarkable historical photos to recent imagessuch as a motorcycle-riding panda in China that I have also scanned (Irecall some debate about this on your blog many months ago).
Dick Flint
Baltimore Posted by Picasa

Posted by Buckles at 12/24/2006 05:32:00 AM

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is the worst tub sit up I have ever seen. Not one of the elephants appear to be sitting up nice and straight. Also the tubs are not nearly high enough, but that is no excuse as a ground sit up should also be nice and high. It looks like they are just hanging in there. One fault could be that the trainer is holding them in the sit up and the are drooping from being uncomfortable. I have seen presenters do that when working both horses and elephants. I mean to say holding them in the position way to long and waiting for the All Right or Bwave or whatever command they might receive. Once they get in that drooop its hard to get them out of it.

24 December, 2006 11:47
Anonymous said...

I am sure if the truth be known, most of the american elephant trainers are just jealous while training punks. None of you all, to my knowledge had tubs that hieghth chrome plated to practise on which is prevelant in this photo?
Never the less one says potatos and I(see) po tat toes.What I see, my belief is as follows, let the mass decide ?
#1 Elephants are in good shape
#2 Elephants are all in precise unison
#3 Elephants could be in process of a sit up while photo was taken
#4 or my personal belief is they are preping for a back flip to the tubs A quastion to Mr.Herriott have you ever seen a dog do a back flip from a straight sit up postion? you should cut them a little slack it is Chirstmas /and a happy new year to all

24 December, 2006 19:30
Anonymous said...

To j c Hall. You took the words right out of my mouth. The group could have been caught going down into the set or getting up. Beautiful either way. Beautiful act any way you look at it. They are all doing the same thing together, thats what counts.

24 December, 2006 20:11
Anonymous said...

As a circus photographer I will have to comment that it is totally possible that who ever took this picture was either early or late in catching the trick on film. Many a good circus act has had "off time" photos make them look bad. I have a whole box of them that I have taken that I never show anyone.

On the other hand, I can only respect the observations of a great animal trainer like John Herriott. His years in the circus ring, and observing other trainers with a professional eye, certainly give his views a lot of credibility.

25 December, 2006 07:00
Buckles said...

Whoever the original trainer was, missed the class on "sit up straight".

25 December, 2006 07:05
Anonymous said...

I count 4 out 6 trunked up but would have to give a 50-50 on the one with her back to us. Just to keep it all neat and clean. No jealousy intended. Are you kidding. Recall, I believe, the recent post of the punks and me with Hoxie and you will note all trunks up including the two Africans. I always like Buckles expression that we should dot all the Is and cross all the Ts.

25 December, 2006 08:46
Anonymous said...

I will note that in photos of European elephant acts that we see more Paralized beaks than American circus elephants. Why is that? I have no idea.

25 December, 2006 08:49
Anonymous said...

World class circus animal trainers like Buckles, John Herriott and Josip Marcan see things in photos, good or bad, that the avarage circus fan would never notice.

This is the great thing about this blog, we hear comments from both the fans and the pro's. We are all 100% circus, regardless of our opinions. Looking forward to the 2007 season of Buckles Blog.... The Greatest Blog Site on Earth! (shit, can I say that?)

25 December, 2006 09:10
Raffaele De Ritis said...

This act was put togheter by Louis Knie with the help of Sacha Houcke.
They was in total nine elephants, including two very young.
The act was impressive: fast, clean, elegant, with difficult routines and an impressive staging.
I will never forget the precision and unison of every trick in this act. The music was especially composed by Daniel Janin, a great writer from Paris.
I think Louis to be one of the greatest elephant trainers ever, at least in Europe.
The conditions of his animals, his stables, the organization of his men remains also a standard.
Few years before,in 1992, a version of this act was coreographed by Cirque du Soleil (with special music, costumes and props, and of course dancers and mimes) for the program "Knie + Soleil". If you didn't knew that, now you can use it with people that says that Cirque "never used animals"...
The tubs: i see Knie every year, and I remember those tube manufactured the first time in 1984 for a 4 zebras-4 elephants act presented by Franco Knie.

25 December, 2006 11:16
Raffaele De Ritis said...

About Thiede and Hamel books, i posted the other day a tentative bibliography in a previous post on the Tiede cover (that I think was from dec.20).

25 December, 2006 11:18
Anonymous said...

Johnny, in Europe the animal rights groups caught on faster than here. Many in England causing the outlawing of the use of an elephant hook. A stick with a sharp prod was the result which is a great detriment to the elephants. Another case of damage being done by unknowledgeable do gooders.

25 December, 2006 13:08
Anonymous said...

To Raffaele Del Ritis
your quote "(The act was impressive)". Did you see this act? If so are those elephants at the peak of their sit up? Mr woodcock has been kind enough to post a photo of a sit up,if I am not mistaken this is what Mr Herriott is refering to; your answer will be quit informative about these elephants I have my fence climbing shoes ready and am awaiting for your answer?

25 December, 2006 14:40
Anonymous said...

To Jimmiy Cole
It is quite admiral of you to hang paper for Mr Herriott. I never once ever felt that he needed it with his credencials,on the other hand maybe I should apologize? I could be wrong,
Smokey once told me that elephants do seven basic tricks and he spent seven weeks on them one trick a week as not to confuse them- one trick one week than two the next week and so on and so on, upon mentioning this to one of his step kids I was promptly told "that is a lie" he could do it in two weeks. So I then addressed Mr Jones as a liar. I guess (you) could say I was being disrespectful. From a proffesional wanna-be. I have heard of Mr. Harriot and are you aware that the Pope resides in Rome?

25 December, 2006 15:25
Anonymous said...

To John Herriott
In regards to (jealous)I sure like those (punk heighth chrome tubs)now tell me the truth?
Also let me be more specific about the
staight sit up back flip of the tub trick,I believe this great feat was accomplished on the RBBB after it be- came an indoor show.

25 December, 2006 15:45
Raffaele De Ritis said...

Ok, I will try to describe the trick after 10 years, and in my bad english…Those Knie elephants stepped on the tubs first with the front legs, then with the back legs. They immediately stepped down with the front legs. With the back legs still on the tubs, they walked around for three times. Then, they stepped completely down and, doing a couple of steps back to reach position, they sat as in the picture. They did that completely at the unison, holding for just few seconds, the time for Louis to walk fast around in the center of the ring. The sit-up was not so much higher that in the picture. After the sit-up, they was back in position and reached the center toghether, while the tubs was removed.
All that description happened in barely a minute, not more than about ten music bars (I still remember the music).
A description of some witness clearer than mine will be of course greatly appreciated. Probably Mr.Clubb or some European specialist better than me will help.

25 December, 2006 18:45
Anonymous said...

The quote
(They sat as in the picture)

25 December, 2006 21:31

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)