Thursday, November 13, 2008

For Mary Ann


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wade, this is unmistakeably a cheetah: tail, spots, tear stripes, body type. I can't believe that there was a time in my life when I couldn't tell a cheetah from a leopard from a jaguar. LOL
Mary Ann

Anonymous said...

Now this is a real cheetah (unlike the earlier photo which is of a leopard). But which show is this and who presents it?

I’ve never seen or heard of a cheetah jumping through the ring of fire. In fact there have not been many of them in the ring.

I can think of only four. The late Prof George Keller had one in his mixed act around the 1940s or early 1950s. Then, Tichonow, a Russian trainer, had one in a mixed act on Circus Jaroslawl (USSR) in the mid-1960s or so.

Tichonow’s mixed act was extraordinary. He combined in the steel arena, two wisents (European bison), two tigers, the cheetah and a small dog.

Finally, in 1978 Jeannette Williams had two cheetahs in a number on RBBB’s Blue Unit.

Wade G. Burck said...

Richard,
In reference to the past picture, I printed their world. I recall Jeannette's Cheetahs. I saw them in Niagara Falls, New York. They rode in a chariot with Jeannette, pulled by I think Fresians. They were supposed to do a riding act on the horse's, when they matured, but I don't recall if it happened or seeing it. The cages were built in the possum belly of the bus.
I hope the stuff riding the Wisents was better then the picture I posted of the leopard riding the Yak. Did you see Tichonow's act?