For any young trainers wanting to attempt to train a proper hindleg walk, note how high up and out of the animals way GGW's tools are. Start low, and the second they rise, get out of their way, and let them come up to their toes. Doing it just like this, will prevent a lot of the "low on the haunches and shuffling" hind leg walks that are sometimes seen.
Believe it or not, this was the way to feed the cat's on Ringling "back in the day". One person lifted the door and held the animal back with a stick, and someone quickly threw in the meat. Ringlings cage's, which I used for the first 4 year tour, were some of the worst, most poorly designed unit's that have ever been on the road. Luckily, beast wagon's were built in 1991 for my second tour, and the rolling cages were only used to transport the animals into the building for the performance, and back out to the beast wagon.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Vintage GGW
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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9 comments:
Is that Mousie?
Thomas,
No it is not this is long before Mousie. Boss had many hind leg tigers. Trust me, he was no "one trick pony."
Wade
I was a circus pest and hung around after shows to watch the cages hosed down and saw a feeding once, it was serious business.
The end of the cage was up, the meat was thrown in and the door shut literally in " the blink of an eye".
The cages were small, but seeing 15or 16 huge tigers pacing back and forth was an awesome sight.
Wade,
Did GGW have two tigers named Rolls and Royce? I seem to remember the grooms wheeling cages around and for a few seconds trying to figure out which was Rolls and which was Royce.
Also one year a few of the tigers had red tails/asses. When I asked one of the grooms why, he said they had painted the seats red, and a few of them had not dried before the show, "so now we have red tigers" he said with a laugh.
Vincent/San Diego
Vincent,
Yes a had a Rolls and Pinto. They were in the act, when I took it over, and were the tigers who held the fire stick. Unfortunately Pinto had developed lung cancer and had two be put down, so I only had him about 9 months, and trained King to hold the fires stick with Rolls. They were big beautiful Bengal male tigers. The did the waltz, and roll over, as well as the fire stick. Rolls had a brother whom died earlier, who was named Royce, and Pinto had a brother named Vega. Boss often named the tigers silly names.
Wade
I have always liked how Gunther's cats walked and hopped. Their backs were always nice and straight. Now it seems they all have rabbit blood in em, and hop hunched over lol.
That mona tiger that adam had walked really nice, nice and straight. And it was very impressive to see her go forward and back. What was that like training that?
Dominick,
That has always been my point. What is the standard. Just because a horse stays in one spot, and picks up his feet, that is not a piaffe. The longer you spend teaching something, developing it as it were, the closer to the standard it is. For some reason, our profession reveres fast, quick as the "mark of excellence." All that gives you is a "facsimile."
Wade
Wade,
When Charley retired did GGW take a few of his tigers? I know at one point he incorporated the rotating mirrored globe with the sit up into his act, was this done with one of Charleys cats, or did he train his own to do this?
Did any of you ever use Siberian tigers in your acts?
Can you tell us how you came to take over GGW's act, I know that at one point one of his assistants presented the act for a time. Do you know his name and why he didn't carry one with the act?
Finally when a presenter or a trainer takes over an act typically how does that process work and is their an ideal deal amount of time for this transfer to take place?
I've read previous posts where you said you've took over an act with a few days notice? how did that work out and can you give some background on that.
thanks in advance...
Vincent/San Diego
Vincent,
Charly gave GGW Prince, who was the mirrored ball tiger. I used Prince for rehearsal, but took GGW's sound advice that Prince was old, and may need to be replaced. I then trained King to do the mirrored ball, luckily, because Prince died two weeks before the opening, but King was ready to go right in.
Folks have used Siberians, and GGW had two that I remember called "the Siberian Brothers". The big size makes the Siberian impressive, but not as athletic as a Bengal/Indian or Bengal/Indian cross. They are much better for the "fast/speed" behaviors.
A guy named Tyrone, who worked for GGW took over the act for a short time when I retired, after GGW's ill advised "come back tour" and just before Mark took it over. I don't know all of the specifics of his departure, and what I do know is speculation.
How long it takes someone to take over an act depends on their skill level. Many times a producer has to just accept it is what it is, and go with what is there.
Wade
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