Tuesday, September 14, 2010
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A Blog designed for discussion of topics related to, but not limited to, Circus, Zoos, Animal Training, and Animal Welfare/Husbandry. Sometimes opening up the dialog is the best starting point of all. And if for nothing else when people who agree and don't agree, get together and start discussing it, it will open up a lot of peoples minds. Debate and discussion even amongst themselves opens a window where there wasn't one before.
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12 comments:
Wade what a wonderful tribute to Charly and your commentary was excellent. I am so pleased that I was the MC of that wonderful evening at the Ringling Museum. I had done the same fror GGW and Charly was in the seats. I made sure to introduce him at that time and GGW then aknowledged him.
Charly was depressed during his retirement years and we talked frequently on the phone and he would come to our Showfolks Socials. We were friends. For our Circus festival competition Mary Ruth suggested Charly. I called him and he consented and was wonderful. Not missing one performances as a judge along with Florrie Stephenson among others. On the big night when I introduced the judges at Charlys name Charles Schlarbaum with no annoucement on his own had the great band play "Shangria La" as Charly stood. It wad awesome and not a dry tear in the house including Charly.
He spent every day with me in the ring barn in Venice when I was routining two 8 horse liberty acts for Japan and we would lunch together every day at that red neck fish retaaurant in Venice. He told me alot of Willy hAGENBACK, The place in Hollsand where he learned. Harry and GGW and traveling with the NUSCH Roland tigers in Spain. As we know the Circus owner was enamored with Charly and the wonderful marriage of Charly and Aracelli is just great.
On the Blue Show Charly and I split a whole railroade car 80ft. and to ceebrate two birthdays in May we opened up the door between and inv i,ted all the cast to a party. Booze, food it was a blast in the downtown ralroad yards in Baton Rouge. It is still talked about. Especially moving the spoon.
When I was Perf. Direc. on the Red. I would aleways tell the promoter who would be going to Blue for his next assignment to be sur and tell Charly BARNUM that John RINGLING Herriot sends his regards.
I am blessed to have been able to be associated with some great and wonderful people. My cup runneth over. Sincerely John Herriott
Wade,
Fantastic Post!!!!!
I thought GGW was the only star in the tiger training universe until I saw Mr Baumanns act in the mid 1970s
I remembered just being floored seeing the mirrored globe trick, with multiple tigers. From his costumes to the shine on his cats pedestal's Mr Baumanns was a class act.
I also remember after years of searching, finally finding his book in used book store in downtown San Diego ( this was decades before ebay and amazon.com), going home shutting my bedroom door and not coming out until I had finished the entire book.
While I love the circus and especially the animals and thier trainers. When I think of Charley Baumann, What I also think about is how this guy came thru the war, and lived in a country that was not the "popular choice".
Theres few if any like Mr Baumann left these days guys who are real men and real survivors.
Vincent/San Diego
p.s. Mr Herriot thank you for posting your memories of this great man. They are greatly appreciated.
Col. John Milton,
Your cup runneth over and poured on to me. I should hope if I every get lucky enough some day to be spotlighted at the Ringling Museum you will honor me with being the Master of Ceremonies and introduce me. That would be a deserved trifecta for you John. A hat trick in the world of Hockey. So I will pray for your health and look forward to that day, should it come, Col.
Charly was as loyal to Ringling Bros. and Irvin Feld as anybody can be loyal to anything. I think if Irvin has said, "give me your arm, Charly would have given him both of them. He was forlorn and deflated when he retired, he missed the ring so. Continuing on as Performance Director and being around the show, animals, and performers kept him "going" as they say. When he left the show for good, I think the air went out of his lungs that day. Like Mohammad Ali when he couldn't box any more, or Joe Montana when he couldn't play football anymore. What do we do Johnny, when we can't do what we do, any more????
Col. John Milton continued,
When I went back to the Venice quarters in 1991 Charly used to stop in each day to see Axel and share a shot of brandy. The first day back I hugged him, and said, "I am sure glad you are. I am going to need all the help you can possibly give me, to get this tiger gig done(originally one year, but now Ringling wanted it in six months)." Charly said, "no you will do alright, I just don't think I can stand to be around tigers again" and left. The next day he again came to see Axel, and asked, "what time are you practicing?" I told him in an hour, and could he stick around? He said, "I don't think it will be good," and left. The next day I was scrounging around in the prop barn for some props to use, and Charly walked in and "suggested" what props I should use. He pointed out some of his old props, some of Ursula's old props, and some that GGW had used years before. I asked him if he was coming back tomorrow, and as it was Sunday, and Axel was not going to be there, he said he wasn't coming. I said, "I am going to be practicing again tomorrow, and I sure wish I could show you something I am having a problem with." He asked me what the problem was, and I told him, and he advised me what he would do, and left.
The next day, Sunday we are in the back arena behind the ring barn practicing when one of my men said, "Wade, isn't that Charly Baumann? He has been sitting there for the last half hour." I looked, and he was sitting in his Cadillac by the elephant barn watching practice. I stopped and stood and stared at him, and he stared back at me for about 10 minutes. Finally the door of his car opened, and he started walking toward the arena. I told one of my guys, "go get him a stick and a chair." Charly took the stick, sat down in the chair, and stayed for two weeks, and came back 3 times a week until we opened. He thought it was out of his system, he thought he had gone "cold turkey." It doesn't go away. It is something that is in your muscle, your bone, your being. I am sure glad he stayed, because the second practice that day, I had a big, big fight with two of GGW's old males, Rolls and Rambo. I still didn't know a lot of German at that time, and they sure didn't know English, and as they are flying all over the arena, knocking seats and other tigers all over, I am in a desperate situation. Rambo grabbed my stick and bit it in half. All of a sudden I heard Charly say, "Wade, behind you!!! As I turned he reached in the arena and smacked Rita, a female sneaking up behind me, across the chest, freezing here. He then threw me the stick, and yelled some German gibberish at Rolls and Rambo, that sounded like "Rolls auf, Ramboally auf, platz unplatz or some shit like that. They both stopped fighting, looked at him, and got on their seats. I got the cat's out of the arena and Charly told me what he thought I should do tomorrow, but not to start "until he got there." LOL I sure loved having him there helping and within about a week, we had the problem worked out, and he taught me enough German, to at least not get killed. And yes John, if you were his friend, and he respected you, he loved a joke, at his expense or yours. When I hear youngsters today practicing the craft of animal training, and they are going back and forth with "which one is better then the other," I just shake my head and think "you guy's don't have a clue what you missed seeing, what you missed being around, what you missed being a part of. You have no idea the rarefied air that was breathed back in the day of Charly Baumann, GGW, Wolfgang Holtzmier, etc.
Yeah Col. John Milton Herriott, you guy's and your over flowing cup, filled mine up nicely.
Wade Burck
Wade,
What spurred Charley into retirement?
Did he decide it was time or were there other factors involved?
When asked about missing the ring and returning in the " Big Cats of the Big Top" video he clearly became emotional and got teary eyed when he talked about how much he missed his animals.
Did he retire too soon?
Vincent/San Diego
Wade and Mr Herriott - thank you for such wonderful reminiscing.
Wade - is this what you Yanks call jackpotting?
What a great story Wade. whether it be tigers, elephants or horses a few of us were lucky enough to learn and observe the greats before us.
Vincent,
Most animal trainers I have known have retired to soon. Charly's retirement was "mainly" due to health issues(plus a couple of other things, which I won't mention. If someone else, who knows the "story" wants to comment, I will let them do it anonymously." Daniel Suskow was brought over in 1981 I believe to take over Charlys act, in 1982, as well as train liberty acts. Daniel did a few show's but for various reason's it didn't work out with he and the tigers, but he continued as a liberty trainer. and then in 1983 Charly attempted to teach a black showgirl to present his act, and for various reasons that didn't work out either, and I was brought in for the 1984 season. Charly was emotional on the video, because for some strange reason I don't think they ever intended to use him on the video. The Director's asked me the first day of shooting my segment with Jim Ragona and Daniel Suskow who that guy was directing the process of getting everything ready, and when I told them, "that's Charly Baumann, one of the greatest tiger trainers that ever lived", the Director said, "was he on Ringling?", and when I said "yes, of course", he said, "I wonder why we aren't doing something on him also. Nobody mentioned him to us!!!!!!"( As Buckles Woodcock so eloquently puts it "we will all be known as a footnote from the era of Gunther Gebel Williams." Here is a sad fact Vincent. Every interview I did on Ringling, every reporter asked me about GGW, and most asked about Clyde Beatty. Not once in 7 years did anyone ask about Charly Baumann. I told the Director Spigilman or something like that, "that's crazy. If you aren't going to use him, I am not going to do it either." If you watch the video closely at Charly's segment you will note it was very impromptu, and he and Jim were "winging" it. The original "angle" for the video was to be from Beatty's day to GGW who the video was originally supposed to be about, and Daniel and I, currently on Ringling were supposed to give our thoughts on working with GGW( if you think that is not a fact, ponder why there were no similar tapes made like "Big Cat's of the Big Top" featuring elephant trainers or horse trainers???) To feature as many cat trainers as possible was not the "original" idea for the videeo. They discussed it that day, and decided to change the "angle" to include as many past and present acts, working or not, that they had access to video of(so glad they did, as it is a wonderful historical documentation). Note how GGW's name and Charlys name, and my name are listed on the back cover. That order was at my insistence also. They wanted to list Charly 3rd.
Wade
P.S. Trivia: Steve Binder one of the Directors for the video, was the Director of the Ringling tv specials for many years. Note the year the first Ringling video's came out(for a price), and the year the last tv special aired(free), and the year Irvin Feld died. It is all about business Vincent, sentimentality's be damned.
Steve,
Kinda but not really. Not in the true meaning/sense of 'jackpotting".
In a real "cutting up jackpot's" session, traditionally in the old days you all sat on what was called a "liars bench."(today we use bar stool's at Showfolks, but it is the same idea.) When "cutting up jackpot's" or "jackpotting" you are expected, often times encouraged to defame or criticize someone's character as well as their training ability.(most importantly they must not be present to defend themselves. Otherwise "jackpotting" can turn into what is called a "hey rube" in a second.)
When someone tells the absent person later what was said about them when you are "jackpotting" it is referred to as "agitating".
It is important to "slough"(as in slough the top, or tear it down) the absent person, party, or show with as few honest statement's as possible while "jackpotting", as you don't want fact's to get in the way of a good "jackpot." At least that is what I have come to understand "jackpotting" to mean in the circus.
John Milton and I were "relaying the tell"(the "tell" is a word I learned on the movie Mad Max, which you should know about as it was filmed on your turf. As there was no more communication left, and all printed materials had been destroyed in a nuclear war, the only way to tell the young world what it had been before, was for the elders to "tell".) The "tell" is when you sit around a fire, and relay history as you saw it and experienced it, to the next generation, so that when you are gone, they can relay the "tell" to the next generation. Fact's are paramount in a "tell", as opposed to a "jackpot", where they have no place, and are normally discouraged." LOL I hope I answered your question, mate.
Be safe,
Wade
Wade
Thanks for the background on the "BIG CATS" video. That kind of behind the scenes information is why I love this blog.
Years ago you sent me an email after noticing I was buying alot of big cat act pics, and other related material on eBay. When I replied the only trainer I asked about was CB and you replied that "Charly was always bitter and felt unappreciated in his later years", I now know why.
Your point about no videos relating to horse trainers or elephant trainers also got me to thinking...... While I was growing up I had posters of GGW up in my room, every other year I got a nice big poster of Gunther in my show program.
I never got a poster of Mr. Baumann, in a program nor do I recall seeing his image on the side of a bus, or on a huge billboard advertising the arrival of the show. I saw plenty of GGW though. You can't take anything from GGW, but I certainly have a better understanding about Charly must have felt about certain things.
Looking forward to the rest of those CB pictures, gonna take a few of my fav's and have them blown up into posters. Do you have any pics of you and Charly together??? If so please post.
Vincent/San Diego
Vincent,
As Charly and many others, including myself, were trainers in the Gunther Gebel Williams era we will always be an asterisk and a footnote. Nothing shameful about that at all. There were a number of great musicians during the rock and roll era, but only one Elvis. The public admiration is fleeting and fickle, but admiration from your contemporaries is forever.
Wade Burck
Wade,
I could not agree with you more. I was only trying to make the point that GGW was the better known figure because the RBBB publicity machine was full steam ahead when it came to him.
Just seems Mr Baumann didn't benefit from the same machine. If he was bitter or felt unappreciated over this it's certainly understandable.
Certainly the greatest praise one can receive,is that of ones peers. Given the great comments on the blog about Mr Baumann no question he was loved, admired and respected by all of you who knew and worked with him.
Vincent/San Diego
P.S. Love the story on Buckles Blog where Charly told you "You want to be like me and ggw, you have to LEARN to be a man", now have some more Gin.......funny as HE'LL!!
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