Dick had an odd way of moving, due to a severe injury received in an attack. He kinda "crouched" from the waist and knee's. Does any one recall watching another wild animal presenter, who studied under Dick, "crouch" and move in the same way when he got in the arena, but not when he was out of the arena? Pretty picture, but this set up has to go down in history as the "gaudiest ever produced!!!"
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Dick McGraw--St. Louis Zoo
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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The mural on the back wall and pedestal decoration were the work of chimp trainer and artist Mike Kostial Jr. Mike's dad, the Zoo's first lion trainer , didn't want Mike to go into animal training so Jr. went to school for commercial art. Mike Jr. thought he'd be better off training animals at the Zoo (a secure job in the depression) so he returned to the Zoo.
Mike picked up extra money by painting backgrounds and props for all the shows.
Jim,
Thank you. This backdrop mural is one of the nicer, most realistic ones, I have seen on the arena/show building wall. I have seen others from later years that were quite "god awful."
Wade
Buddy Watkins did a few in the late 1960s that I thought were pretty nice. After 1970 the elephant and sea lion shows did their own decorating -- some winners and some losers. A few years I "lifted" some designs from Ringling programes for my back wall. One curator referred the artwork as a "giant purple art-deco vagina".
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