Charly Baumann

Charly would have been 82 years old today. His tiger act has been spoken of often, but words don't do it justice. It was something that had to be seen. If you missed it, you missed an opportunity of a lifetime, and I promise nothing like it will ever be seen again. With the lights, music, behaviors, and presentation, it has my vote for the Greatest Tiger Act of All Time. Charly was big time before he even came to the United States. Charly was Hollywood before Hollywood was cool. Every Tiger Trainer from my generation wanted to be Charly Baumann. He inspired and motivated a whole generation of American Wild Animal Trainers. When ever us young wannabe's would get together the main topic of conversation was, "did you see what Charly is doing", or "Charly is doing such and such." Then you went and busted your gut's trying to come as close to perfection as he did. His multiple tiger roll overs, his mirrored balls, his large group sit ups, his simultanious jumps, etc. etc. No one did it with the style and class that Charly Baumann did. Charly seemed gruff to folks who didn't really know him. That is because he was a perfectionist, and demanded that everyone around him do their absolute best. If you weren't willing to do your best, and achieve all that you could be, trust me, he would "insist" that you at least come close. Underneith that tough bravado was the kindest, gentlest, caring, man and human being you would ever hope to have the honor of knowing. The proudest moment of my life was when I was brought to Ringling when Charly retired in 1983 to be the new tiger act. To have the opportunity to be around a man of his skill and greatness is something I will be forever grateful for. There will never be adequate words to thank men like Charly, who were so big it made you strive to try to just as close to that level of greatness as is humanly possible. Happy Birthday, Charly.


Yesterday I got in touch with my dear friends Mireille Arnosi and Araceli Baumann to see if they had any pictures of Charly that hadn't been seen before. Nothing was downloaded, so these two wonderful women actually photographed pictures from Araceli's personal photo album and sent them. Can you imagine!!!!!! That is a thousand times better then something downloaded. Photo's from Araceli Baumann's actual photo album. I have more that were sent, that I will be posting at another time. Words are inadequate to thank them for their effort and time.