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Showing posts with label Victorian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Victorian. Show all posts

Monday, 7 April 2008

Circus and Other "Low" Arts: A Defence

Joseph Carey Merrick "The Elephant Man"
Joseph Carey Merrick "The Elephant Man" (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I recently re-watched one of my favourite films, “The Elephant Man”. Released in 1980, this is perhaps one of director David Lynch’s most conservative pieces. The director’s notoriously surreal style is restricted to short dream sequences instead of dominating the piece as he is often want to do. I like some of Lynch’s work, particularly “Lost Highway”, and I am also an admirer of the two stars of the film, Anthony Hopkins, who plays the compassionate Dr. Treves, and John Hurt, who plays his most famous patient and the film’s eponymous hero, the tragically disfigured and disabled John Merrick (actually a portrayal of the real-life Joseph Carey Merrick). When I saw this film as a child it was the first feature I ever recall moving me to tears. Imagine my horror years later when I heard a rumour that Mr. Merrick was once an employee of my Victorian ancestors. Later on I found that this rumour was suspicious at best, but what I did uncover was a very different story about the life of Joseph Merrick. I also had to face the fact that a loved film “The Elephant Man” reflects much of the Edwardian snobbery that set a firm divide between the “high art” of straight theatre, a representative of dignity in the film, and the "low art" of sideshows, which the film depicts as the representative humiliation and exploitation.

Monday, 17 December 2007

Who was Wilhelm Philadelphia?



The expression "celebrities in their day" can be aptly applied to many of the characters I have researched for my upcoming book "The Legend of Salt and Sauce". The two elephants themselves were described in one objective contemporary book as currently the most famous elephants in the UK when barely a decade later, Sauce's name was changed to "Jumbo" to garner public attention on Cody's Circus. The name was to be changed back again to Sauce or "Saucy" by Billy Butlin her final owner when she appeared at his holiday camp in Skegness. However, one character who certainly seems to have been well known in his day, but there is little surviving evidence of is Wilhelm Philadelphia. The man has the recognition of being Salt and Sauce's first ever trainer.




In his book "Grey Titan: The Book of Elephants", George Claude Lockhart, the famous ringmaster, described the troupe of elephants his father purchased as being "wild". Apparently the marks of their rough handling in India were visible on their legs. This wildness is given as a reason for why they were so unruly during the 18 months or so his father, George William Lockhart, trained and presented them. The fact of the matter is that George Snr would have had to have been an incredible trainer to put wild elephants through the routine they are pictured doing with him in the short amount of time. There is also one other factor that counts against him being the elephants' first trainer and that is the credited presence of Wilhelm Philadelphia. George Jnr. names him in his book and in other sources as the man responsible for delivering the group of four elephants. Young George also remarks that Philadelphia had previously been injured by elephants and his body contained steel plates as a result.

Other historical information later revealed photographs of Philadelphia pictured with a lion and then we found another piece of compelling evidence - Philadelphia lining up a group of four baby elephants at Hagenbeck's Zoo on a photograph dated 1900. He was clearly a well respected and experienced elephant handler.

The fate of Wilhelm Philadelphia is not clear. Here is the footnote I wrote for "The Legend of Salt and Sauce" on the man:

"I recently discovered a fairly objectively written piece on the keeping of elephants in captivity on the “Elephant Country Web” website http://www.elephantcountryweb.com/ that lists several examples of people killed by elephants. One of these people, according to the article, was Wilhelm Philadelphia. The article states “Ross, the cow elephant, crushed the trainer Wilhelm Philadelphia to death on the wall of her box at the Sarrasani Circus in 1921”. The date, of course, contradicts the archival information we have on Philadelphia’s appearances on Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus".




Tuesday, 4 December 2007

The Indian Elephant: Wild and Domestic (Deleted Chapter from "The Legend of Salt and Sauce")


The following is an early version of a chapter I completely re-wrote for my book "The Legend of Salt and Sauce". Salt and Sauce were Indian elephants not, as it is occasionally been stated, Singhalese. The Asiatic elephant was, up until the 1960s, the most popular type of circus elephant. The large African counterpart (Loxodonta africana) only became popular in the later 1960s onwards.


The Indian Elephant: Wild and Domestic

Most historians begin the Salt and Sauce story from their arrival in Brighton, when George Lockhart Snr, the elephant trainer, took delivery of them. Yet the two elephants had already passed between at least two countries before they arrived in Britain and had been through at least one other trainer’s hands. I thought that if I intended to do as thorough job on the history of Salt and Sauce as possible, I could at least spend a chapter looking at their real roots and the institutions that were responsible for their capture and exportation. After all, Salt and Sauce were not born into the lively Victorian theatres or travelling circuses they would be forever associated with. Their lives began as newborn members of a herd of elephants in the jungles of India.

Elephas maximus, otherwise known as the Asian or Asiatic elephant, has been captured and domesticated in India and its surrounding countries for centuries. Generally speaking the Asian elephants’ temperaments prove to be far calmer than their African counterparts, which make them safer to work with. In addition to this, the two species have a few physical differences as well. The most obvious of these is that the African elephant, or Loxodonta Africana, has comparatively far larger ears than its Asian cousin and is also noticeably bigger in stature. Another conspicuous distinction between the two is that the African has a convex forehead, whereas the Asian has a hollow space at the top of its skull. On closer inspection we see that the African elephant also has three nails, known as hooves, on its rear toes compared to the Asian’s four, sometimes five rear toe hooves. Just for the record both elephants have five hooves on their front toes and both possess huge, wide columnar-shaped feet.

The modern-day elephant originated in Africa and are of the family Elephantidae.
They evolved from a semi-aquatic plant-eating African species called Moeritherium, which lived over forty million years ago. These creatures were pig-like in appearance with long bodies and short necks. Popular theory has it that as they increased in height Moeritherium found it more difficult to eat plants and therefore developed their upper lips and noses into trunks.

Around forty five million years later the animal had evolved into a creature known as Stegodon, which resembled the shape of the modern day elephant. There were still further biological developments for the animal to undergo and the most celebrated variation of the order was the enormous Mammoth. This fifteen-foot tall behemoth, believed to be the ancestor of the Asian elephant, lived up until nine or ten thousand years ago, when either through a dramatic climate change or excessive hunting by man the species was wiped out. At the time of writing scientists are attempting to clone a mammoth using genetic material from preserved remains and a current day female Asian elephant.

Elephants spread throughout Europe, Asia and North America. Over two hundred and seventy species of elephant have said to exist, of which the African and Asian are the only surviving members. Popular theory has Elephas maximus first occurring in Syria, Iraq and southern Asia. Today their wild numbers are restricted to the Asian continent, where large numbers have been captured and trained.

The female or cow of the Asian elephant species is a natural herd animal, living in large groups sometimes reaching a hundred members, but most commonly between fifteen and forty. One dominant female leads the group. These herds are proof of the extent of the species’ intelligence as their movements are thoroughly organised. Sometimes the herds divide up into sub-units and at other times they converge en masse into one large “clan” that can amount up to two hundred elephants in one area. This is quite different to the males or bull elephants, which are usually quite solitary once they have hit puberty; although they have occasionally been known to form small “bachelor” groups.

The Asian elephant has a head and body length measuring between 550 and 540 centimetres and the height from the shoulder to the ground measures between 250 and 300 centimetres. Males weigh over 5,000 kg and females, just less than 3,000 kg.
The animal’s entire body is covered in a thick grey to brown hide, occasionally mottled about the head, trunk and chest with flesh coloured blotches. The skin, which is surprisingly sensitive, is scarcely covered by long bristly hairs.

Evolution doesn’t seem to have been generous with improvements on the modern-day elephant. The short-necked Moeritherium’s ghost can be seen in the restricted head movements of the animal. Of its seven neck vertebrae only three are functional. Another biological shortcoming of the animal is its digestive system. The elephant can only digest forty-four per cent of what it can eat, which explains its consistent devouring of food all day long.

The elephant is not only unique in the respect that it is the largest land animal alive; it also has other distinguishing features, the most unusual being its trunk. This highly adapted prehensile part of the animal’s face is used not only for breathing but also as a highly effective tool. The trunk is long, flexible and strong. It functions like an extra limb and picks up food that it pushes into its mouth, or dirt that it throws over its back also as a method of cooling down. At the end of the trunk there is a small finger-like part that is sensitive enough to pick up very small objects. The trunk is also able to suck up water and spray the elephant’s body when it bathes.
Another outstanding feature of the species is its tusks, used both for digging during draughts and as weapons when fighting challenging elephants. Because of its tremendous size, weight and strength, the elephant has few natural predators. Tusks are most noticeable in the male elephant, but females also have them, albeit generally a shorter version. In places such as Sri Lanka, males rarely have them and the females never do. Ironically this lack of a defensive tool protects the Sri Lankan species from the elephants’ greatest enemy: Man.

The trade of ivory has been one of the most dramatic impacts on the lives of elephants. Large amounts of their wild number were hunted for their tusks, which reached high prices all over the world for the various ornaments and furniture that can be carved out of them. This large-scale destruction reached its zenith in the early nineteenth century, resulting in a huge reduction of numbers in Sumatra, Thailand and the Malaccan peninsula. In addition to this the increasing population of humans brought man and elephant closer together in a rather less than friendly relationship. Over the centuries the Indian wild elephants were pushed back into the jungle as their natural habitat became destroyed. In response to the human intrusion considerable numbers of elephants wrecked farmland, causing major economic problems within the native crop industry. The danger of these rampaging herds was quite significant too. Even as late as 1989 it was reported that between 100 and 150 people were killed annually in India during elephant crop raids. The humans reacted to the problem with one swift solution; the animals were culled. As a result of this and the ivory poaching, today elephants are a registered endangered species.

However, elephants have been a part of Indian culture for almost as long as there has been civilisation in Asia. You only have to look at images of the Indian Hindu god of prophecy, Ganesa, who is represented with an elephant head, to see the cultural regard such a creature is held in. The tradition of capturing them from the wild goes back at least 5,500 years and its origins can be traced to the historical Indus Valley.

The process of capturing these magnificent animals was an operation steeped in ritual for the villages that took part and became their sole means of profit. The trap the elephants were herded into was a fenced-in area known as a Keddah. It stood four metres high, surrounding an area of more than a kilometre and a half. This fence was made up of tree trunks sunken two and a half metres into the ground and lashed together by ropes and jungle creepers. It had a huge V-shaped entrance where a heavy trap door was positioned above the herd’s eye view and held in place by thick ropes that were tied to trees ready for the gate-men’s sharp knives to sever. Time passed and the monsoon season came, bringing rain that had washed the scent of man away from the Keddah, making it look as if it were a natural part of the jungle.

Scouts who made their living by delivering information to Keddah contractors were sent out into the jungle to observe herds of elephants as they drew nearer to the trap. Eventually news arrived at the Keddah village that a herd of elephants had moved into position.

One day in around the year 1901 the herds Salt and Sauce belonged to were startled by a gunshot and the sudden presence of humans – thousands of them. In blind panic the animals charged through jungle undergrowth towards their orchestrated capture. Onward they ran finding themselves heading for a series of bamboo-bridges strategically positioned ahead. As they crossed, two huge walls of fire, lit by the bridgemen, sprung up around them to narrow their passage.

Having lit the fires, the men who had been honoured with this task rushed away, as the bridges themselves erupted into flames behind the charging herd of elephants. Escaping the blaze the herd would rush through the Keddah’s gateway and into the awaiting darkness. With split second timing the ropes would be cut and the trap door dropped sealing their fate. From here the village would select appropriate elephants and release the rest.

The chosen elephants would be trained in basic obedience and then be auctioned off to various purchasers. In most cases the elephants were used to transport teak logs down the Indian rivers, as general beasts of burden and also as steeds for hunting. The elephant is a majestic looking creature and royalty, along with other people of high standing, ride on top of the animals in richly decorated howdahs. In addition to this, they are raced and there are historic records of huge amounts of Asian elephants even being used in battle from 1100 BC to AD 1500.

It was in this country that the traditional industry of capturing wild elephants in some way contributed to keeping the animal away from the threat of extinction. Before the days of funded conservation, the only way to prevent mankind from wiping out endangered species was if that species became a desirable commodity alive. So long as these animals were needed as beasts of burden or ceremonial showpieces their species would remain. There was also another institution where man would have a large place for elephants: the world of entertainment.

The mid-nineteenth century saw an increasing interest from Europe and America to see live elephants as well as other Asian and African animals. These unusual creatures were now being transported back to the menageries and circuses that were fascinating the western world. By touring, these shows were bringing animals, normally only seen in zoos, to a far wider audience. Soon western adventurers were going out on safari to bring back exotic specimens for the growing demand back home. As contact with foreign animals grew, so did public sympathy. Even during the regency era, when ivory was in incredibly high demand; the elephant touched the hearts of celebrities such as the poet, Lord Byron. He remarked once on his happy experience he had visiting the London Tower Menagerie when the resident elephant enchanted him. Byron, like many others, kept a small private collection of exotic animals and was famed for sharing his university boarding quarters with a trained bear.

I am not about to argue that the people who caught, sold and bought elephants did it consciously to preserve these animals. However, I think it is interesting to note that after the potential threat of having the entire elephant species wiped out by the ivory fashion; man’s tastes once again changed the course of natural history.

During the 1880s huge numbers of elephants were being exported to the west. As animal husbandry improved so did the elephants’ survival rate. Once they arrived they had to be fit enough to be exhibited. Those who had the ability to organise the successful selecting and importation of large numbers of elephants could more or less name their price to huge circuses such as Barnum and Bailey’s in America. Elephant trainers began to come into their own, making their fortune by presenting these gigantic creatures.

The elephant would soon replace the horse in becoming the most popular animal in the circus. Words such as elephantine and mammoth would enter the English language to describe great size. Even the English word “jumbo”, meaning huge, came from the legendary circus and showbusiness pioneer Phineas T. Barnum’s gargantuan elephant of the same name.

The female elephant calves soon to be known as Salt and Sauce, along with two others who would share equally eccentric Cruet names, “Mustard” and “Pepper”, were destined for to be sold to the entertainment history. Soon they would be cruelly removed from their mothers and the rest of the herd, but mercifully saved from a possible fate with a poacher’s bullets. In such cases the lucky ones would die, whereas the wounded would be left to a lingering death caused by infection and starvation. Man was not their only predator either. The hot humid weather of Southeast Asia presented ideal conditions for the breeding of parasites. Such diseases as these thrived within the Indian jungles and swamps, where elephants frequented. We know for definite that such a disease already had infected at least three of these baby “Cruet” elephants.

Perhaps the four calves were related or maybe they were caught on separate occasions. We will never know. One can only imagine the frightened animals listening as all around them the Indian village began celebrating as the sun rose over their Keddah after a successful elephant catching operation had been completed. Being very young it is unlikely that their captors would have bothered training them. Such attention was normally reserved for the older elephants. They were displayed, still wild, in front of many bidders and traders that came to India.

Amongst these people was an agent for the German animal trainer, zoo-owner and catcher Carl Hagenbeck. Hagenbeck was born on 10th June 1844, the son of a fishmonger, who almost by accident had chanced upon the wild animal trade. Over the years Hagenbeck had carried on his father’s business, building up zoos around Germany and also running circuses. He was amongst the first trainers who advocated what he called the “gentle” or “gentling” methods in training animals. This food reward system would be the foundation to what would much later be known as “positive reinforcement” training and was soon readily picked up after his high-profile international demonstrations in the 1890’s. This was in opposition to the aggressive methods often used by wild animal exhibitors, which pretty much amounted to fighting the animals on display.

The reach of Hagenbeck was considerable. He had a number of experienced and famous animal catchers on various assignments all over the world tracking down large quantities of animals for zoos, circuses, menageries and various other exhibitions. However, it was the considerable popularity of the elephant in late nineteenth century England and America, which helped push his business to new heights. At the turn of the century such success was demonstrated in his buying of a new four and half acre property in Stellington near Hamburg. Hagenbeck had gradually outgrown each of his zoos and had helped revolutionise the care in captive animals in the process. He transferred everything he had from his old zoo in Neuer Pferdemarkt to the new location and, with the help of investors, bought land in-between Hamburg and Stellington. This would be a new beginning for the zoological pioneer as he rose to international success in the captive animal world.

His new zoo opened in 1902. This was the same year that he sent his elephant man, William Philadelphia, to Great Britain with the future Cruet members. They arrived at the doorstep of a very unique individual. This man was a true representative of the Hagenbeck-style of training and also an innovator in his own right. At different times both this man and his brother would be given the title “the greatest elephant trainer that ever lived.”

Previously he had purchased his first elephants whilst in Asia and was credited by some press as starting the elephant craze in Europe. Americans were also accused of trying to imitate his elephants’ comedy and musical routines. According to newspaper reports of the time, because of this man, agents were “scouring” the continent in order to find acts containing elephants. Perhaps he was indirectly responsible, in part, for the numerous elephant orders Hagenbeck was now getting on a regular basis.

Two of the four members of the Cruet would be connected with their new owner’s name for the rest of their lives and over half a century after his death. They would be known as Salt and Sauce. Their relationship with him would result in both their fame and their infamy, for they would be both his protégés and his killers. And this was only part of what the future held for them as they stepped out of the remains of their wooden containers and into the life of George William Lockhart.
©Copyright. Jamie Clubb 2007

Monday, 3 December 2007

Carl Hagenbeck: Pioneer


Carl Hagenbeck (1844 - 1913) is described by some as a noted merchant of animals. This is a huge understatement. He was a pioneering trainer who, like the Lockhart trainers featured in my book "The Legend of Salt and Sauce", was responsible for revolutionizing the animal training methods of his time. He also founded zoos in Germany, ran a circus and has a legacy that exists to this day. Hagenbeck is so famous that even his connection with Britain's most famous pachyderms seems superflous to any writings on his career, however, he was the starting point I had to take - along with the Indian tradition of capturing wild elephants - when I began chronicling the life of Salt and Sauce the elephants. Hagenbeck bought the captured Salt and Sauce along with the other future members of George William Lockhart's Cruet and, in spite of George Jnr's insistance that the elephants arrived in England in a wild state, employed the well known trainer Wilhelm Philadelphia to train them. Late in our research my father even found dated pictorial evidence to prove this fact. Below is a draft I wrote up when I considered putting in an appendix about Hagenbeck in my book. In the end I decided against this tangent. However, I hope it may serve as some source of interest to prospective readers of my book. The information was mainly taken from the 1910 edition of Hagenbeck's autobiography "Beasts and Men" and it ends in 1902, a significant year for Hagenbeck and a significant year for the elephants he had delivered to George Lockhart in Brighton.

CARL HAGENBECK

Hagenbeck was born on 10th June 1844. His father was a fishmonger by trade, who also kept a small menagerie of animals. One day a chance incident inspired him to begin a new venture in animal exhibiting and trading. The venture would eventually result in one of the most successful series of zoological parks and circuses in Europe. In March 1848 Hagenbeck explains that his father found six seals in his fishing net. Using the accident to his advantage he decided to exhibit the seals, for a price, at his house in Spielbudenplatz. The success of the seals urged him to travel to Berlin, where he also made a tidy profit showing them to the citizens of the country’s capital. The seals were sold, but the future was paved for the Hagenbeck family and very soon, in 1857, their animal trading company was set up. For a while this business co-existed with their fish trade. Soon they were dealing back and forth with animals from all over the world. Their suppliers included the famous Lorenzo Cassanova and their clients included the legendary showman Phineas T. Barnum.

It was in 1872 when Carl Hagenbeck, who had, by then, taken the reins of the business, first met and sold a consignment of animals to Barnum. He paid £3,000 for them. During the transaction the larger-than-life Barnum explained to Hagenbeck that he had come to Europe in search of new ideas. Hagenbeck recounted to him, amongst other amazing experiences, tales of elephant races in India and ostriches in Africa being ridden like horses. Barnum was so impressed that he even offered the animal trainer a partnership in his business, where he would own a third of the company’s income. The offer was tempting, but he graciously refused. After all the trade in exotic animals was huge in the 1860’s through to early 70’s and Hagenbeck, now a married man with children, had big plans for his own business.

He had grown up through times when westerners were largely ignorant of transporting and caring for non-domestic animals, yet he and his father had learnt through trial and error the safest methods to move and handle them. To begin with the business had been run on a loss and many of their livestock had died or escaped. Gradually, however, they were educated from their mistakes and their persistence paid off. Now in 1872 it seemed like Hagenbeck’s zoological park would never cease making money. This was not the case. A year or so after Barnum’s proposition it seemed that the enthusiastic Hagenbeck might have been a bit too optimistic about his business’s future.

The menagerie his father had begun in Spielbudplatz had finally become too small to contain the ever-growing amount of livestock he was importing. They moved their premises to Neuer Pferdemarkt in Hamburg in April 1874 - and not before time. The mid 1870’s saw the supply of wild animals exceed the demand and now Hagenbeck had to find a solution to his approaching financial problems or face his business going down hill. He needed to branch out in some way.

Like his father before him, Hagenbeck’s idea came from a chance incident. The animal painter Heinrich Leutemann had made an off-the-cuff suggestion that it would be nice to see some reindeer, Hagenbeck was currently importing, accompanied by their Laplander handlers. The idea proved to be a success and the reindeer and their completely innocent native masters captured the fascination of the public. The Laplanders simply looked after the reindeer and were fed and provided for by the Hagenbecks, who used their presence to enhance the animal attraction. The idea of spectacle and exhibition was starting to expand in Carl Hagenbeck’s mind. Soon he was following the Laplander exhibition with American Indians, Eskimos and various other primitive peoples.

In 1880 the animal trade began to show promise again and soon Hagenbeck was back supplying elephants to Barnum and also to his rival Forepaugh in America. Hagenbeck sent his famous travelling agent, the explorer Joseph Menges to begin importing these grey giants, which had now become the most popular attraction in American circus. 1883 saw the Barnum and Forepaugh war claim sixty-seven elephants from Hagenbeck’s. They discovered that their best source for elephants was Ceylon. The Cingalese elephant had, of course, largely escaped the ivory hunter’s bullets because of its lack of tusks and being a sub-species of the Asian elephant, possessed a relatively docile nature. The success of importing elephants from Ceylon gave Hagenback inspiration for a grand display. In 1884 he toured all over Germany and Austria with his Cingalese exhibition, which consisted of twenty-five elephants, a huge variety of cattle and sixty-seven people.

It was not long after this that Hagenbeck revolutionised animal training. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the public had learnt a lot about animals by being in contact with them. Blood sports such as dog fighting, cockfighting, bear and badger baiting were loosing their mainstream interest and it would not be long before they were made illegal. Humans were becoming more sympathetic towards animals, and Hagenbeck was a staunch advocator of this generation’s philosophy. He invented a system he called “gentle training.”

In 1887 Hagenbeck began his own circus and employed a trainer called Deyerling. He explained to his new employee that he wanted him to train a group lions using his new experimental methods. Up until this stage wild animal acts had resembled gladiator battles with trainers entering cages and spending the majority of their time warding off aggressive carnivores such as the big cats. Animal training was fairly basic and the aggressive methods used by some of the trainers resulted in a large number of them becoming injured or killed. The “techniques” being used, as far as Hagenbeck was concerned, were not only barbaric and cruel, but also stupid. Through being in close contact with various animals and being brought up with a father who had a lot of affection for them, he had learned about their under-rated intelligence and feelings. On a basic level he argued cruelty is repaid by hatred and kindness is more than likely to produce a more positive reaction.

Hagenbeck had trained dogs as part of his research, using food rewards for learning various actions. He believed this system could be scaled up to the larger carnivores and insisted that this was the method Deyerling would implement. During this test period Hagenbeck learnt more about identifying correct characters in animals in much the same way as the Indians do when they assess elephants in their Keddahs. Early on he and Deyerling would be able to predict which animals had the correct temperament for training and which would be the safest.

In 1889 Hagenbeck’s innovative “gentle training” produced its first act. Deyerling appeared on the appropriately named Nouveau Cirque in Paris, France with his four lions performing a varied routine that climaxed with three of them pulling him on a chariot. This style of training would become the foundation for modern animal training and what would become known in the successive century as “positive-reinforcement.”

Meanwhile Hagenbeck had big plans for his new methods. Amongst his new generation of trainers was Heinrich Mehrmann, who was his brother-in-law and was beginning to garner a lot of fame presenting animal acts. He intended to take Mehrmann to Chicago, USA, to demonstrate the new humane method of training at a massive exhibition that was being held in 1893. Together Hagenbeck and Mehrmann produced an act consisting of twelve lions, two tigers, several cheetahs and three bears. This troupe premiered at Crystal Palace, England and was such a massive success that Hagenbeck was offered $50,000 by two Americans for the purchase of the act. He turned the money down and may have regretted it for the animals were soon all struck down by a mysterious disease, which seems to have been contracted from bad meat bought in England. Days after their triumphant performance the whole troupe was dead.

On returning to Hamburg, disease struck Hagenbeck’s animals again and soon an epidemic was spreading through the zoo like wild fire. Eventually it was discovered to be cholera, which was going through Germany at the time, and the illnesses were subdued. The act was eventually assembled for the Chicago exhibition, but Hagenbeck’s problems were not over yet. A cablegram arrived towards the end of 1892 from his agent in America, instructing him to send his act to England to be quarantined for the winter. On hearing of the outbreak of cholera, the United States government had insisted that the animals do this to prevent any spreading of the disease in America.

After completing their quarantine and being transported successfully to Chicago, illness struck the act yet again. This time it was not the animals who had fallen sick, but their presenter. Just before the beginning of the exhibition, Mehrmann was clearly unable to work the act and it was left to 49-year-old Carl Hagenbeck to take on the task. In spite of being out of contact with the animals for five months previously, the act went well and so began the legacy of Hagenbeck’s international animal displays.

The turn of the century saw Hagenbeck’s business grow into a large commercial industry. His animal trading generated a steady income, his acts were an international success and his zoo continued to prosper. The zoo would, of course, soon became too small once again. In answer to this he acquired a four and half acre land in Stellington near Hamburg. Here, with the help of investors, he built one of his most famous establishments and transferred everything he had from Neuer Pferdemarkt to it. Using his innovative ideas, he once again helped revolutionise the humane treatment of animals by improving their living quarters with more space and areas to exercise. This proved popular with the public as well as more beneficial for the animals in his care. He began extensive breeding programmes and continued to make steps in improving animal husbandry. The zoo opened in October 1902 and his future was looking brighter than ever. Hagenbeck would eventually branch out with zoos all over the world and his circus would become world famous.
Hagenbeck was born on 10th June 1844. His father was a fishmonger by trade, who also kept a small menagerie of animals. One day a chance incident inspired him to begin a new venture in animal exhibiting and trading. The venture would eventually result in one of the most successful series of zoological parks and circuses in Europe. In March 1848 Hagenbeck explains that his father found six seals in his fishing net. Using the accident to his advantage he decided to exhibit the seals, for a price, at his house in Spielbudenplatz. The success of the seals urged him to travel to Berlin, where he also made a tidy profit showing them to the citizens of the country’s capital. The seals were sold, but the future was paved for the Hagenbeck family and very soon, in 1857, their animal trading company was set up. For a while this business co-existed with their fish trade. Soon they were dealing back and forth with animals from all over the world. Their suppliers included the famous Lorenzo Cassanova and their clients included the legendary showman Phineas T. Barnum.

It was in 1872 when Carl Hagenbeck, who had, by then, taken the reins of the business, first met and sold a consignment of animals to Barnum. He paid £3,000 for them. During the transaction the larger-than-life Barnum explained to Hagenbeck that he had come to Europe in search of new ideas. Hagenbeck recounted to him, amongst other amazing experiences, tales of elephant races in India and ostriches in Africa being ridden like horses. Barnum was so impressed that he even offered the animal trainer a partnership in his business, where he would own a third of the company’s income. The offer was tempting, but he graciously refused. After all the trade in exotic animals was huge in the 1860’s through to early 70’s and Hagenbeck, now a married man with children, had big plans for his own business.

He had grown up through times when westerners were largely ignorant of transporting and caring for non-domestic animals, yet he and his father had learnt through trial and error the safest methods to move and handle them. To begin with the business had been run on a loss and many of their livestock had died or escaped. Gradually, however, they were educated from their mistakes and their persistence paid off. Now in 1872 it seemed like Hagenbeck’s zoological park would never cease making money. This was not the case. A year or so after Barnum’s proposition it seemed that the enthusiastic Hagenbeck might have been a bit too optimistic about his business’s future.

The menagerie his father had begun in Spielbudplatz had finally become too small to contain the ever-growing amount of livestock he was importing. They moved their premises to Neuer Pferdemarkt in Hamburg in April 1874 - and not before time. The mid 1870’s saw the supply of wild animals exceed the demand and now Hagenbeck had to find a solution to his approaching financial problems or face his business going down hill. He needed to branch out in some way.

Like his father before him, Hagenbeck’s idea came from a chance incident. The animal painter Heinrich Leutemann had made an off-the-cuff suggestion that it would be nice to see some reindeer, Hagenbeck was currently importing, accompanied by their Laplander handlers. The idea proved to be a success and the reindeer and their completely innocent native masters captured the fascination of the public. The Laplanders simply looked after the reindeer and were fed and provided for by the Hagenbecks, who used their presence to enhance the animal attraction. The idea of spectacle and exhibition was starting to expand in Carl Hagenbeck’s mind. Soon he was following the Laplander exhibition with American Indians, Eskimos and various other primitive peoples.

In 1880 the animal trade began to show promise again and soon Hagenbeck was back supplying elephants to Barnum and also to his rival Forepaugh in America. Hagenbeck sent his famous travelling agent, the explorer Joseph Menges to begin importing these grey giants, which had now become the most popular attraction in American circus. 1883 saw the Barnum and Forepaugh war claim sixty-seven elephants from Hagenbeck’s. They discovered that their best source for elephants was Ceylon. The Cingalese elephant had, of course, largely escaped the ivory hunter’s bullets because of its lack of tusks and being a sub-species of the Asian elephant, possessed a relatively docile nature. The success of importing elephants from Ceylon gave Hagenback inspiration for a grand display. In 1884 he toured all over Germany and Austria with his Cingalese exhibition, which consisted of twenty-five elephants, a huge variety of cattle and sixty-seven people.

It was not long after this that Hagenbeck revolutionised animal training. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the public had learnt a lot about animals by being in contact with them. Blood sports such as dog fighting, cockfighting, bear and badger baiting were loosing their mainstream interest and it would not be long before they were made illegal. Humans were becoming more sympathetic towards animals, and Hagenbeck was a staunch advocator of this generation’s philosophy. He invented a system he called “gentle training.”

In 1887 Hagenbeck began his own circus and employed a trainer called Deyerling. He explained to his new employee that he wanted him to train a group lions using his new experimental methods. Up until this stage wild animal acts had resembled gladiator battles with trainers entering cages and spending the majority of their time warding off aggressive carnivores such as the big cats. Animal training was fairly basic and the aggressive methods used by some of the trainers resulted in a large number of them becoming injured or killed. The “techniques” being used, as far as Hagenbeck was concerned, were not only barbaric and cruel, but also stupid. Through being in close contact with various animals and being brought up with a father who had a lot of affection for them, he had learned about their under-rated intelligence and feelings. On a basic level he argued cruelty is repaid by hatred and kindness is more than likely to produce a more positive reaction.

Hagenbeck had trained dogs as part of his research, using food rewards for learning various actions. He believed this system could be scaled up to the larger carnivores and insisted that this was the method Deyerling would implement. During this test period Hagenbeck learnt more about identifying correct characters in animals in much the same way as the Indians do when they assess elephants in their Keddahs. Early on he and Deyerling would be able to predict which animals had the correct temperament for training and which would be the safest.

In 1889 Hagenbeck’s innovative “gentle training” produced its first act. Deyerling appeared on the appropriately named Nouveau Cirque in Paris, France with his four lions performing a varied routine that climaxed with three of them pulling him on a chariot. This style of training would become the foundation for modern animal training and what would become known in the successive century as “positive-reinforcement.”

Meanwhile Hagenbeck had big plans for his new methods. Amongst his new generation of trainers was Heinrich Mehrmann, who was his brother-in-law and was beginning to garner a lot of fame presenting animal acts. He intended to take Mehrmann to Chicago, USA, to demonstrate the new humane method of training at a massive exhibition that was being held in 1893. Together Hagenbeck and Mehrmann produced an act consisting of twelve lions, two tigers, several cheetahs and three bears. This troupe premiered at Crystal Palace, England and was such a massive success that Hagenbeck was offered $50,000 by two Americans for the purchase of the act. He turned the money down and may have regretted it for the animals were soon all struck down by a mysterious disease, which seems to have been contracted from bad meat bought in England. Days after their triumphant performance the whole troupe was dead.

On returning to Hamburg, disease struck Hagenbeck’s animals again and soon an epidemic was spreading through the zoo like wild fire. Eventually it was discovered to be cholera, which was going through Germany at the time, and the illnesses were subdued. The act was eventually assembled for the Chicago exhibition, but Hagenbeck’s problems were not over yet. A cablegram arrived towards the end of 1892 from his agent in America, instructing him to send his act to England to be quarantined for the winter. On hearing of the outbreak of cholera, the United States government had insisted that the animals do this to prevent any spreading of the disease in America.

After completing their quarantine and being transported successfully to Chicago, illness struck the act yet again. This time it was not the animals who had fallen sick, but their presenter. Just before the beginning of the exhibition, Mehrmann was clearly unable to work the act and it was left to 49-year-old Carl Hagenbeck to take on the task. In spite of being out of contact with the animals for five months previously, the act went well and so began the legacy of Hagenbeck’s international animal displays.

The turn of the century saw Hagenbeck’s business grow into a large commercial industry. His animal trading generated a steady income, his acts were an international success and his zoo continued to prosper. The zoo would, of course, soon became too small once again. In answer to this he acquired a four and half acre land in Stellington near Hamburg. Here, with the help of investors, he built one of his most famous establishments and transferred everything he had from Neuer Pferdemarkt to it. Using his innovative ideas, he once again helped revolutionise the humane treatment of animals by improving their living quarters with more space and areas to exercise. This proved popular with the public as well as more beneficial for the animals in his care. He began extensive breeding programmes and continued to make steps in improving animal husbandry. The zoo opened in October 1902 and his future was looking brighter than ever. Hagenbeck would eventually branch out with zoos all over the world and his circus would become world famous.
©Copyright. Jamie Clubb 2007