Tiger! Tiger! #1 (From Henry Penndorf)

Today's Birthday, And Another Belated Birthday Wish... September was a good month for wild animal trainers...Today is "America's Own" Wade Burck birthday. Wade turns 59, just a youngin', today. Saturday, September 14th, was another of one of Ringling Brothers great tiger trainers birthdays, Charly Baumann. When you think about it, how fortunate was Ringling Brothers to have both Gunther Gebel-Williams and Charly Baumann performing at the same time. I am a great fan of Gunther Gebel-Williams, but I have tremendous admiration for Charly Baumann, both as a man, and for his classic and stylish tiger presentation. I again feel very fortunate to also have met Charly Baumann (twice). He too autographed his autobiography, "Tiger,Tiger" for me. I was reading an article about Charly Baumann online, one that had been published in the UK by "The Telegraph", it summed up in a few words Charly Baumann's talent and his tiger act better then I ever could... "The hallmark of his act was the balletic grace of his tigers. He liked to display the abilities of the animals rather than his own skill at subjugating them, and he was the first to train four tigers to roll over in the ring simultaneously. He capped this feat the next year with five tigers, and eventually with six. He appeared in the cage with them before circus audiences more than 10,000 times." Ringling Brothers chose a drawing of a classic pose, Charly Baumann and Kismet, for its program cover in 1966. I believe at its peak, Charly Baumann had sixteen tigers in his act. Wade is all-American, "America's Own", born and brought up in North Dakota. A first generation circus performer. A fine trainer, Wade had the unenviable task of succeeding Gunther with Ringling Brothers. I wish Wade many more Happy Birthdays. I hope all is well. Henry