Friday, July 29, 2011

Reuben Castang #1

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6 comments:

Buckles said...

Hey Mister! Will that monkey bite?

johnny said...

George Emerson introduced me to Mr. Castang in 54. He was at a shopping center in LA area in his cage on a traiker with a huge chimp inside. and he would have the chimp thread a needle and then smoke a cigarette and he would pass the hat. Quite an interesting old fellow and it was a big old ugly chimp. George told me of his fabulous career with trainijg all sorts of wild animals including elephants and he was a Hagenback-germany man and personal friend of Lorenz Hagenback. It was pictured cage truck I believe. I know at the time it was antique. Believe then he was in upper 70s. Quite an experience. Unforgettable. Only in Calif.-America. johnny

johnny said...

Maybe Roger Smith could enlighten us more about Castang. I assume he had been around Thouesand Oaks for sure. johnny

Mr. Lee said...

lol... "It's ok , I'm a shriner "..I love animals....lol lol lol

Mike Naughton said...

I just checked Amazon.com and this book is available.

Roger Smith said...

Reuben Castang was here, but long before my era. There are a very few photos of him with chimps which credit him with being at the Compound. One I found was dated 1934. I don't have precise history for his time in Thousand Oaks, and his book with R.W. Thompson, as we see, was published in '34, and while it touched on picture work he did here, it didn't mention Louis Goebel or the Lion Farm.