Saturday, March 07, 2015

Steel Arena #1 (From Eric Beheim)


Posted by Buckles at 3/07/2015 05:49:00 AM

2 comments:

Eric said...

These images are frame enlargements from CAGED FURY, a 1951 CASTLE FILMS short subject. This particular shot also appears in CLYDE BEATTY’S ANIMAL THRILLS. When frame enlargements from that film were posted on Buckles’ Blog a few years ago, someone identified these pedestals as the type used by Roman Proske, so these might be his tigers.

07 March, 2015 10:53
Roger Smith said...

Right, ERIC. See this clip on YouTube's title "Coney Island in the '40s". It runs 9:22, and Proske's six tigers all enter at once, betwixt these pedestals, at 5:45. His segment lasts about 1 minute. He throws meat to at least 2 tigers, does the head-in-the-mouth, and executes a very nice waltz with Judith, the tigress who took him down for one of his worst maulings. Scroll down to find other very brief Proske clips, lifted from this one. Here is one of the top tiger trainers for many years, and the producers do not identify him by name.

This CAGED FURY short from Castle, is not to be confused with the 1950 feature film of the same name, starring Richard Denning, and featuring the World Jungle Compound lions as worked by Benny Bennett. In that film, as we've seen here before, we find the great old 40' cage wagon, shop-built by Bennett and Earl LeGrand, at the Compound, in 1940.

07 March, 2015 17:26

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