Sunday, March 19, 2017

#1 Animal Acts


4 comments:

Chic Silber said...


Is this the original fellow

who started the zoo that is

now the Berlin Zoo & also

who Hugo worked for before

coming to the United States

Paul Gutheil said...

ANOTHER GREAT BLOG DAY BUCKLES AND GREATLY APPRECIATED!

Buckles said...

I recall Hugo talking about a trainer in Germany named Philadelphia.

Roger Smith said...

There were two great animal men who founded their compounds in generally the same era. John T. Benson on the East Coast, and Louis Goebel out here in Thousand Oaks. Mabel Stark worked at both. At Benson's, in 1937, she broke an 8-tiger act which was intended for sale. As they say, "A little mystery becomes the proud", and Mabel added a touch when she applied for her Social Security card that year. In a letter to her niece, who was asking for family history, Mabel gave her true birthdate as December 9, 1888. But at Benson's, in '37, she shaved 5 years off her age, and claimed 1893. That year shows up in a few of her bio sites to this day. Over the winter of 1937-38, she broke her biggest act of 22 mixed lions and tigers for the fateful tour of Barnes-Sells Floto-RBB for 1938. That winter, she came to the Goebel Compound, where she remained until her death, 30 years later. Her true age was 79.