Saturday, December 23, 2017

#14 Frank Buck!


Posted by Buckles at 12/23/2017 06:00:00 AM

4 comments:

Eric said...

The cover of Buck's first best-selling book, which was written with Edward Anthony, who also collaborated with Clyde Beatty on some of his books.

23 December, 2017 12:03
Roger Smith said...

Buck was decimated by the infamous stock market crash of 1929. When he teamed with Ed Anthony for BRING 'EM BACK ALIVE, in 1930, they had a hit, and both men's fortunes soared. They collaborated again for 1932's WILD CARGO, and once again made the best-seller lists. Later, the two had a falling out, and 5 of Buck's next books were co-written with Ferrin Frasier, with one as told to Carol Reed.

Upon Clyde Beatty's sensational "jungle fever" publicity, after his near-death attack by Nero lion, in 1932, Anthony co-wrote 1933's THE BIG CAGE. While it was still at the printers, Universal chief Carl Laemmle snapped up the movie rights in an almost overnight deal with John Ringling. The result co-starred a 13-year-old Mickey Rooney, and veteran character actor Raymond Hatton. But as with Buck, Anthony's prickly nature alienated him from Beatty, whose next book, JUNGLE PERFORMERS, was done out by New York columnist Earl Wilson, in 1941. At long last, Beatty and Anthony agreed on their 2nd and last collaboration in 1965, FACING THE BIG CATS. This book almost came undone when both Beatty and his wife, Jane, wanted an interview of hers included. Anthony balked, and the squabble had publisher Doubleday ready to throw up its hands. A last-minute reconciliation saw the book come out just weeks before Beatty's death that year, on July 19th. The team was writing the captions for the photos when I joined out, and Anthony was nice enough to meet, but still rather cool to this First of May cagehand.

23 December, 2017 18:14
Eric said...

Large sections of FACING THE BIG CATS is lifted directly from THE BIG CAGE.

23 December, 2017 23:40
Roger Smith said...

Yes, they are, ERIC. This is why it's not my favorite Beatty book. It was quite interesting to be there at the time, knowing Beatty was getting another book ready. In the Airstream, I had seen them poring over a copy of THE BIG CAGE, not guessing Anthony was composing a re-hash, considering since 1933 there was an abundance of fresh material. On the jumps at night, with me as driver, Jane Beatty led discussions for a title, even being so thoughtful as to ask for my suggestions. One of hers was "My Forty Years with the Big Cats", to which her image-conscious husband exclaimed, "Gee, honey, why don't you just go out and announce my age?"

Of the 3 books, my favorite remains JUNGLE PERFORMERS, the Earl Wilson effort. But he wrote to both Dave Price and I that he got very little attention for it, since the book came out in December of 1941. Pearl Harbor and our immediate entrance into WWII made anyone's animal trainer book irrelevant.

24 December, 2017 03:41

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