Monday, May 20, 2019

MARRIED THE BOSS'S DAUGHTER


6 comments:

Chic Silber said...


Neither Caroline (Pinky)

nor Florentine (Tina) are

Gunther's children only

Mark Oliver (Buffy) is his

with Sigrid

Chic Silber said...


Jeanette is the only child

of Carola & Harry Williams

Chic Silber said...


Jeanette is just about

3 weeks younger than I

Gunther was about 8½

years older than she

Roger Smith said...

Jeanette is interviewed in the documentary, MABEL, MABEL, TIGER TRAINER. Why, I can't say, as she never knew Mabel, or had any connection with her, but Leslie Zemeckis put her in, so there she is. She said her parents adopted Gunther Gebel, which made him, at least on paper, her brother. Her mother felt they should marry, thus the photo above. She felt compelled to go through with it, and lived with her former adopted brother as his wife. In time, her discomfort over what she found awkward and unnatural prevailed. She divorced him and moved on, and I, for one, say Good For Her.

Chic Silber said...


That's only 1 version of history Roger

I've heard 3 or 4 other tales of it

from other folks that were involved

or at least there at the time

Roger Smith said...

This is the way she tells it on the doc. It was all I have.

I met Gunther the first year he came here, in '69, at the Forum in Inglewood. Evidently we at Jungleland got coverage we didn't know we had, since once I introduced myself to his interpreter, he recognized me. I spoke about 20 words of German, and he commanded about that many in English at that time. He took me on a very cordial tour of his cages, the interpreter cheerfully managing the language barrier. He had to get busy, and we met after the show for a beer in the Forum's elegant private bar. Present were Rudy Bundy and Henry Ringling North. Everyone groaned and tried to smile when Al Dobritch sauntered in. Still with the interpreter, whose name I didn't learn, we adjourned for another beer to his stateroom on the train, there joining the company of two blonde women for whom there were no introductions. Jeanette may have been one of them--? Interesting night, all said.