Saturday, March 08, 2014

From Chic Silber #3


 Ursula Bottcher

Posted by Buckles at 3/08/2014 05:37:00 AM

7 comments:

Chic Silber said...


I believe the bear is Alaska

"Uschi" died a few years back

in her native city of Dresden

08 March, 2014 08:58
Chic Silber said...


This photo (slightly enhanced)

was used as her book cover

I think they added some height

08 March, 2014 09:02
Chic Silber said...


Manfred Horn her partner for

many years was killed working

another bear act in the 90s

08 March, 2014 09:56
Chic Silber said...


After working on the Blue Show

for several years she went to

the park in Haines City where

high line accomodations were

created for her 10 polar bears

She was incredibly demanding

& had several people fired in

her Blue Show years as she was

under constant threat from the

East German government to lose

the bears should anything bad

occur during her tenure

08 March, 2014 10:03
Larry Louree said...

I really enjoyed Ursula's act when she was at Circus World Florida. It still amazes me to see how fast those huge bears could move from one side of the ring to the other. and all inside that thin cable "cage" that raised out of the ring curb.

08 March, 2014 10:17
Chic Silber said...


I believe the cable mesh arenas

were 1st created in Europe and

had many advantages over what

was used previously including

visibility but the square woven

pattern was a bear (pardon the

pun) to encourage it to reside

comfortably in the ring curb

The terrific redesign with the

diamond pattern was a godsend

& saved much bloodshed

08 March, 2014 11:21
Chic Silber said...


The mesh arena at Circus World

was a "hand me down" from Blue

08 March, 2014 11:24

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