What are the chances the "photo" above is a doctored picture, more of an "artistic interpretation" or a "master plan" of what never happened. Many of the animals are out of proportion in size, accepting that they were young animals(see picture below) and note the "great danes" in back stretching on what are obviously the light up stand's that Court used for his leopard act, unless they were part of this act below, where we don't see them, but we do see electric cords. The picture above look's a lot like just a bunch of stuff put together to give the illusion of all the animals in the cage together using props from different act's. How much does the "fence" in the middle look like the "fence" in the above thread, in the tiger act presented by Franz Trubka.
Jim Clubb is currently penning the "definative Alfred Court", and I am expecting it to be one of the greatest wild animal trainer biographys ever written, given the subject matter and the knowledge of the author. Will it "dispel the myth," or "shore up the legend?" Let's hope Jim get's some free time to finish it, and doesn't keep us waiting forever.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Alfred Court
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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6 comments:
Wade I was lucky enough to listen to Jim do a powerpoint presentation on Alfred Court after watching him and his team work the recent group of white lions.The photographs as always can stand on their own of Court and his trainers and anyone else that was associated with him.Cheers for the pics.
Glenn
Glenn,
What do you mean they can stand on their own? In that case, there actually was a Mad Hatter in Wonderland. If I have a picture of me with a dozen 30 year old Asian male elephants sitting up on tubs, does that mean I worked an act with them, or did I put them there for the picture and then got the hell out of the way before it came unglued? What if I had a photographer add a couple of Polar bears, doing head stands on their heads? Hustling something up on a pedestal for a picture is no great feat of training Glenn. Neither is 3 baby males working in a act for a year or two, the same thing as Eloise Bertchold. Sorry.
Cheers mate,
Wade
Talking to you sometimes is difficult.I will try to explain.From your photos provided,some of which were in Jim's presentation,I identified these and my comment was reflecting my appreciation for them.I realise with you that pics have and can be doctored but in the knowledge that some of them had been researched by an accomplished trainer,I am comfortable that they were the real deal.That' all mate.Look forward to your sarcasm with joy.
Cheers
Glenn
This picture is a composition of the same act. This was Court's first mixed group. It originally contained 10 lions and lionesses, 2 great Danes, 4 polar bears, 1 Himalayan bear, 2 American black bears, 2 tigers and a puma. The act did three versions of the same pyramid, but with different animals. So, the top half shows one pyramid and the bottom half shows the second pyramid - quite complicated. The gate you refer to was known as "The Horse". I don't know why it was named this. It featured in most of Court's early acts. Also my first tiger act and in Gilbert Houke's. Of course, Houke was a protege of Court's. This act was mainly presented by V. Trubka and appeared at the Blackpool Tower Circus 1928. It was eventually sold to Circus Busch in Nurnberg, Germany. More to be revealed in my book...
Sorry I forgot to comment on the second picture. This is Court's fourth mixed group and probably his best, as he got all the animals fairly young and had gained more experience by then. This was taken at Belle Vue, Manchester. It was originally presented by Anton, then Luis Kovac and then Fritz Schulz. This act came to USA in 1939 for the 1940 season RBBB. It originally contained six lions, three leopards, two tigers, three polar bears and two Himalayan bears. One leopard died before they got to the USA. I haven't got this picture, although I have seen it before. Could you send me a high resolution copy of it, Wade?
Glenn,
If you think talking to me is difficult, how about trying to understand a Court act and how it worked or who worked it? Luckily we have Alfred's Champion Jim Clubb to work it out for us. As I have stated, the more experience you have and the longer you have been "ass deep in alligators" the more different you are going to "interpret" something. There are experts in plane crashes, who analyze data and come to a conclusion, but a pilot who has "augured in" might have some differing insight. Howard Hughes has some great thoughts on the subject. I don't know if a "composite picture" can "stand on it's own" as being an accurate interpretation of events.
Jim, in an effort at accurate history, I am having a tough time understanding this: "He never could get the animals young enough to mix together as cubs like Hagenbeck did," and this: "as he got all the animals fairly young and had gained more experience by then?" Do we really know how many of these young animals were used in later acts? Not that it matters at all, but whether somebody trained young animals, or "jungle bred" adults seems to be the greatest debate over someones greatness, regardless of what or how they actually did.
I would love to sit with you someday Jim, and lay out how the original white tiger act was trained, and the advantages to doing what you want to do, and what you have to do.
Wade
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