Tuesday, September 28, 2010
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17 comments:
Gunther & Sigrid Gebel. ~frank
I caught the show in Dallas and the hype was Gunther worked a herd of elephants by himself by voice command. I had recently toured on Circus Maximus. My first time experiencing tagging along with a herd of elephants riding on rails."Boy I wanted see this one guy do his thing".
The image of this photo seams like yesterday. After seeing this show,I realized he only commanded his elephant crew by voice alone. What a showman when he stood up on top of this old cow. The thoughts of Charlton Heston parting the red sea came to mind.
Plagiarizing Mr. Woodcook;
"As time passes on, history will declair this as the "Gunther Era" and not remember to much else".
PS. How did that go? "It was so written, so it shall be".
The quote goes:
"100 years from now historians will record Wade Burck, John Herriott, Jimmy Hall and myself as animal trainers of consequence during the Gunther Gebel-Williams Era!"
Either Smokey or Val once told me that when George “Slim” Lewis and Byron Fish revised their earlier book ELEPHANT TRAMP as I LOVED ROGUES, they tried to interview Gunther so that some of his photos could be included. For some reason, he brushed them off and wouldn’t see them. As a result I don't believe there is any mention of GGW in I LOVED ROGUES. If this is the case, and if, 100 years from now, historians use this very excellent book as their sole reference for information on noteworthy elephant trainers of the past, they will find nothing to suggest that Gunther even existed!
Eric -
This may not be totally Gunther's fault. When I was writing on spec for a local Tampa paper, the RBBB publicist was very limiting in who I could speak with and what questions I could ask. A case of where the show tried to control everything that went out to the public. ~frank
Ya gotta love this blog, ya just gotta !!
Paul G.
Jimmy, I believe that your reference is to lines originally spoken by Yule Bryner (sp?) as the King of Siam in "The King & I"...
something like,
"So it shall be written, so it shall be done."
Paul Gutheil
PS You should have our email, how about letting us know where ALL you guys are?!
To Eric
Once upon a time doing some horse trading with Bucky Steel
around the time the Texas dates were going on in the fall,I ran across an old show guy I had met a day or two earlier. He was now at Bucky's place snapping a few photos of the elephants. Doing a little BSing with him, he seemed quite knowledgeable about most elephant men at the time.
A few days later, it was either Bobby Gibbs or Manny King that stopped by our place along with this same old show guy. After a long visit at my sister's house trailer, they said they had to get going. As I went out to open the gate I heard my sister ask this old guy if he would sign a book she had. As they left I asked my sister "who was that old guy"? She started laughing and said "Are you joking"? That was Slim Lewis.
Now that my limited knowledge of Slim Lewis has been stated...In regards to Gunther not being in the "I love Rouges" book;If memory serves me right,I feel you will be hard pressed to find any European elephant men in the book. The reason I feel would lean more in the direction of the author's preference.
PS.Meeting and getting to know Gunther several years after he arrived in the USA, I must say I found him to be nothing short of a gentleman.
The lines "So let it be written, so let it be done" are from DeMille's THE 10 COMMANDMENTS. Sir Cederic Hardwicke says them when he is Pharaoh, and after Yul Brynner becomes Pharaoh, he might have said them too. (The "it" was usually the command to perform some cruel or sinister act.)
P.S. My favorite quote from a Heston film is from BEN-HUR: "You are kept alive to serve this ship. Row well and live Number 41." (This is applicable to many different situations!)
Paul, those lines came out of the movie "The Ten Commandments" , "So it be written, so should it be done"...when Moses was banished.
To Paul
Yes that's the line however I feel it is from the biblical movie Cecil B.DeMill made, "the ten things your not supposed do".
Rameses AKA Yule Bryner. Also I believe it was he who said it while
red- lighting Charlton Heston to rodeo red with only a loaf of bread and no peanut butter.
BTW - I think this was the last year that we saw Gunther in 'formal' attire, the rest of his wardrobe was usually missing a lot of material. ~frank
That line was also borrowed for
the very last words by the Pharoah
in the Disney musical "Aida"
Which by the way I'm heading back
to Seoul Korea in November to
help remount the production they
bought when it had closed on
Broadway & that we had done
over there 5 years ago
Any one have a photo of the caravan that Gunther had when he first came over here. I remember it. It had a cab-over tractor, single axle Mercedes, also single axle semi trailer. Sharp looking. I remember the tractor was swapped out not too long after with I believe, a Chevy?
I recall that rig Jimmy but alas
I have no photo of that rounded
top butterscotch trailer w/ gold
trim & unique windows (slick)
Soon after he got here he bought
a Honda Gold Wing w/ all the
bells & whistles
Your mention of Mercedes Jimmy
reminds me that instead of the
Clark Tugs used to pull wagons
on the Blue Show the Red Show
had Mercedes Unimugs that came
over with all the Williams stuff
They were higher chasis vehicles
that were tougher & stronger
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