This photo above, brilliantly illustrates the caliber and competitive world of wild animal acts in the mid 70's through the 80's. A world light years away from the world today. Any historian who want's to truly document the world of true wild animal training at it's greatest peak and greatness need's only concentrate his effort's on that time period.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Vintage Josip Marcan
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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5 comments:
Is their a date on the first pic?
Thomas
I agree. Whenever you look at pictures of the old time greats, 9 times out of ten it's a pyramid. Not to take anything away from Alfred Court, but I think he and the old timers would flip out if they ever saw the multiple roll overs, hind leg walks, etc that became popular in the 70/80's
I agree (for now). Some early acts from Hagenbeck look great in photos. The Court mixed acts were also great in pictures, mainly pyramids. I've never seen a film of A.C. in action to see what tricks were performed. I defer to Jim Clubb's opinion. I only saw Clyde Beatty perform twice at the end of his career. Great showman but his act was a single tiger single roll-over, spinning tiger, barrel lion, multi-laydown, presented in his style. Johnny Herriott or Roger Smith will correct me.
A few acts in the 70s and 80s set a standard. Baumann led the change, Gunther had a unique style and tricks. Marcan also raised the bar. That Burck guy kept up with some special work into the turn of the century. Maybe cat acts are taking a breather for a while.
Jim,
Thank you. It is indeed gratifying coming from a fellow animal trainer. I don't think it is taking a breather, it just didn't know what else to do. Just look at the multiple hind leg walks and corbett animals that have appeared since 2005. I hope I and the profession is around to see where in the world it will go from there.
Wade Burck
Another thought: Could there be a cycle from acts that feature the trainer to acts the feature the animals, then back to featuring the trainer. Of late we've had the "tiger whisperer" and a trainer who stands on his head while the tigers jump over him -- probably a few other gimmicks (or creative presentations) out there. Beatty to Baumann back to Beatty.
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