Difference between revisions of "Main Page"

[[File:Jenda_Smaha_%26_Bertha.jpg|right|300px]]Jenda Smaha (1932-2006) was considered one of the best elephant trainers of his generation. Although he came from a well-established European circus family, he spent most of his career on stage in the United States, working in casinos and variety shows. To the public at large, his name is certainly not as famous as that of the elephants he presented, ''Bertha'', and then a string of ''Tanyas''. Born Jan Vinicky on January 8, 1932 in Bad Salzelmen, a district of Schönebeck in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, he was fifth generation of a celebrated German family of equestrians and animal trainers who worked under the stage name of Smaha. Jan, nicknamed Jenda, was the son of Antonin and Ingebord Vinicky. His father was a famous circus equestrian known as Tony Smaha (1908-1986), and his mother was also a remarkable equestrienne. Jenda had two brothers, Antonin Joszi, known as Tony Smaha, Jr. (1949-2008), and Pero, equestrians and animal trainers as well. Jenda's uncle (Tony Smaha’s brother) was Joszi Vinicky, who had also a brilliant career in Europe as a Master Equestrian and animal trainer. Jenda’s grandfather, Joszi Vinicky, Sr., was born in the traveling menagerie business, and had worked as an elephant trainer with the legendary Austro-Czech circus Kludsky—which owned, at the time of its fateful bankruptcy in 1934, a group of 24 elephants. Joszi’s children, Tony and Joszi (Jr.), became accomplished equestrians as well as all-around animal trainers. ([[Jenda Smaha|more...]])