Be cautious of people who tell you what you want to hear. There was an Emperor who walked around naked one time, while they laughed and told him what a beautiful new set of clothes he had on. From the Circus History Message board, so take it for what it is worth.
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There is some speculation that Hans Brick did not write "Jungle Be Good" himself, and that it may have been written by a close friend, Edward Campbell, a respected British journalist. Mr. Campbell had a passion for the circus and was acknowledged as an authority on the training of wild animals. He even trained a mixed cage act himself, consisting of several lions an a bear, to demonstrate that animals could be trained humanely. A review of "Jungle Be Good" said that the book is more of a primer on animal training than an autobiography of Hans Brick's life.
I did a "Google" search of Hans Brick. The Internet offered little information. There was almost no biographical information on Hans Brick. The bulk of the information that I found comes from the text of a lecture delivered by Edward Campbell in 1971, titled "Some Unusual Aspects of Communication."
In 1943 Hans Brick trained and supplied animals for the production of the Pinewood Studios film "The Dark Tower".
I also found what appears to be a statement of Hans Brick's philosophy on animal training. "Breakers and trainers in general are innate animal-lovers. Do not force your friendship on any animal, but make your friendship available at all times". That is the Hans Brick's golden rule.
The most interesting item I found was that Hans Brick taught a lion to fetch, just like a dog. He trained his favorite lion, Habibi to launch a "dart" from a spring loaded gun, chase after it, then return with it and lay the "dart" at Hans Brick's feet.
There were some inconsistencies in some of the information I found. There was a statement that said his father, an animal trainer was killed by a tiger while at the Nouma Hava Menagerie (Italy) in 1889. If Hans Brick died at age 72 in 1972, the date of his birth would be around 1900. The math there does not add up. Another item said that Hans Brick built the circus at Chessington. The number of animals that were quoted in the following sentence, "Stock is 406 mammals in 103 species; 568 birds in 136 species; 28 reptiles and amphibians in 19 and 58 species respectively", leads me to believe that it may have been a zoo and not a circus. As a trapper, maybe Hans Brick supplied the animals for the zoo.
In 1960 he wrote a book, JUNGLE BE GENTLE, published in London by Peter Davies. In it he describes what must have been the most exotic animal act ever seen. On page 127 he described it as follows: "A rhino with a gaudy macaw perched on his back led the most exotic group I ever trained. The act consisted of a rhino with his attending parrot, a hippopotamus, two goats, a zebra, a giraffe (with a chimp as jockey), and an Indian tapir. I have have not yet found confirming collateral evidence about the extraordinary exotic act with the rhino, tapir etc. - Richard Reynolds
From there we went to different Circus's with his Lion Habibi, He trained all sorts of animals for the Tarzan films and other films he worked with Rosair's Circus,Pinders Circus, Trevor Bales Circus, Chipperfields, Robert Brothers, and did theatre's with his chimp George (Mainly the Empire Theatre's).
He carried on working voluntary with animals whenever anyone asked him for advice.
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Sounds like a future sanctuary director to me. Limited skills, and everybody does it wrong, and will not accept I am the "messiah" so forget them. Give me your money, and let me build/do what I want. Then we will see who was a failure in the animal training/zoological field.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Ian, is this your "champion". There is a reason I have stayed away from Hans Brick each time you address him.
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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8 comments:
Amazing how you are able to jump from two statements I have made from Brick's book to the conclusion that he is my "champion". You find one statement about the man and have the whole thing figured out. Incredible.
Brick was born over 100 years ago and the book was his account of his career. If he had been born 75 years later he would have had the opportunity to ask your advice on how to conduct himself, but, unfortunately that wasn't possible., so he had to make do with his own experiences.
Ian
Ian,
I didn't jump anyplace. As he has been referenced many times, I just assumed. We have to also assume if somebody connects them selves to a book about their career, it is going to be pretty self promoting, some might call it "fluffed" and "irrelevant" facts left out. That's why only my mother is going to "pen my story". That way I can be assured of only the "right facts" being recorded. LOL I particularly liked the "Golden Rule" of not forcing your friendship on an animal. Like Rolkur to the philosophy of forward collection/dressage, that contradicts gentle training methods, where you are forcing the animal to accept your friendship with the offering of meat or candy. That Ian is a jump from two statements, the title and the "Golden Rule". I also question what a "breaker" has to do with JUNGLE BE GOOD, and also what is "broken", and how did it get "broken". As "breakers and trainers are innate animal-lovers"(read family/children here), we have to assume that some you may have had issues with were actually animal-lovers, much as your self but just expressed it differently. He wouldn't ask my advice or anybodies, Ian. His milestone work with one lion, supposedly assorted birds and monkey sitting on other animals would have put him on a plateau above all others. In fact he only offered advice, even for free.
Wade
By his own admission, Hans Brick could barely read or write. Nothing wrong with that. A prominent millionaire former circus owner over here never went to school but he knows that bar spells beer! Brick's book was written by Eddie Campbell and is a good read.
Wade - I think you're underestimating the man - by all accounts he was ahead of his time when it came to honesty.
Steve,
I didn't realize "honesty" was the issue. By what accounts is his honesty referenced? As I stated, I have never read an animal training authorized autobiography. I have found works by George Schaller, Dr. Hezi Shoshoni, and Dr Heidiger ect. to be much more beneficial in understanding animal behavior which is paramount in animal training. Also the old riding masters as I can reference their efforts and compare it to the great advances today in the dressage field. As I was so lucky to watch closely and be around Gunther and Charly I didn't think I would gain anything from their books. The signed copies they gave me, I gifted to special Circus Fan friends. Not out of disrespect to Charley and Gunther, but to give true fans, who would cherish them, with "training tips" or not the opportunity to know what the great men had to say in their authorized autobiography. As I said, I am playing it safe, and my Mother is writing mine. LOL
On another note, did Mr. Perry receive the picture yet?
Wade
Wade
Your "argumentative" Lordship - "honesty" is an issue because you have made it an issue in this whole subject ...... and rightly so. From what I can deduce, Brick was an open and honest man like yourself. Maybe not so bloody argumentative! I am surprised that you don't rate him more highly. He did a lot more than work with one lion, some birds and a monkey!
Although he co-wrote a good read I'm not aware of anyone who became an animal trainer by reading a book about it. These days we can Google a subject or a name and get a whole heap of information - some of which will even be accurate. In his day there was no internet so people communicated their experiences by writing letters, books etc. Some of us in remote places never did get to see the Gunters or the Charlys in action so books about them are of value - even though we do know that parts of the story will be prettied up.
As your Mother must know you pretty damn well are you sure it's a good idea to get her to write yours?
Robert is over here in Queensland to see Stan Gill who is visiting the Gold Coast. I won't know for a while about the picture but will let you know.
Stay safe.
Steve,
I didn't understand what you meant by "honesty an issue" unless you are referencing an authorized autobiography. If thats the case yes, honesty is an issue. I asked for "by what account is his honesty referenced", and I guess you answered that. Do we have anything to prove these training methods worked, with this incredible array of fauna? A blurry photograph is useful for speculating in many cases. Supposedly every body has a right to an opinion, unless it doesn't mesh or validate theirs. If you don't believe me look at the History Channel. I didn't realize you wanted conformation, I thought we were debating so that an opinion could be based on all the facts. I didn't know if was a publicity campaign. In that case, Hans Brick was one of the greatest, and when I became aware of him, he immediately went into my TOP TEN, just above Fredy Knie, and just below Gerd Semonite.
Remote!! I spent most of my life in North Dakota. I can tell you about remote. But what a fabulous wealth of wildlife. I may have assumed wrongly that Australia has much the same. My mother would be an obvious choice to hang paper, unless she is Andrea Yeats, at which time I would not be around for an authorized autobiography so it wouldn't matter.
So as not to be perceived as argumentative, and instead perceived as having a different opinion that every one has a right to, in regards you your successful counter to the Animal Rights front with the forming of a standard and uniting of the peoples that would be a good example for us in America to reference, what has been the increase in number of Circus started or restarted, and the increase in animal acts since it's formation to today? And what are the projected increases? I might be able to get something going if I could reference that type of information.
Regards mate,
Wade
P.S. I am not going to start loping off heads yet, because everybody is not familiar with the new protocol, but it is America's Living Legend, not "your argumentative Lordship."
Eddie Campbell did indeed ghost-write the book "Jungle Be Gentle". Although I never knew Brick, I was a great friend of Eddie's and I completely believe his stories about Brick. He told me he was one of the finest trainers he had ever met, but not such a good showman. However, he was a good clown. When Chessington Zoo started Goddard employed him to train animals for the permanent circus there, which he did for a number of years. The Rosaires told me he was an incredibly good trainer and had a complete understanding of animals and their care. In fact, he probably was ahead of his time. Eddie knew all the great trainers and was a personal friend of Alfred Court's, so I think he knew what he was talking about. Brick worked for Chipperfield's during the '50s and trained their first chimp act. The last chimp from this act was still working up until 1975 when I worked for them. Eddie said Brick had a training ability that he had never found present in any other trainer that he had met in his entire life. Incidentally he believed that different subsspecies of animals exhibited different behavioural characteristics and therefore it was important to know which subspecies were better animals to train than others. For example, Bengal tigers were always better than Sumatran or Siberian. Chapman's zebras were always better than Grant's. Alligators were better to handle than crocodiles. I could go on, but I am a firm believer in this theory myself and, with the odd excepion, has yet to let me down.
Jim,
This business is built on a lot of fables about people and their skills, particularly in regards to people that we may not know. If Mr. Campbell had told you that Brick was a schmuck, would the books have made as much sense? We both know someones skills improve greatly or decrease greatly, just by asking a different person. I have seen skills diminish greatly for something irrelevant, and I have seen skills elevate greatly depending on how they looked in a bikini. Isn't it too bad there weren't record books or a standard kept, to give future generations a little better idea of what some did, or didn't do and how well they did it?
Do you know where there may be photos available of Brick and some of his work? Thanks.
Wade
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