Gilbert Houcke - Revision history

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‎The Post-War Years

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‎Image Gallery

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‎Image Gallery

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‎Image Gallery

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‎Image Gallery

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‎The War Years

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‎The War Years

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 ===The Post-War Years===
-The postwar years were a boon for European circuses and soon, international offers were showered onto Gilbert Houcke: Circus producers quickly understood that the attractive Houcke would provide good press fodder and, consequently, draw large audiences. In the winter of 1946-47, Gilbert crossed the English Channel to star in one of Britain’s top Christmas shows, [[Belle Vue Circus]] in Manchester. A rare occurrence for a single cage act, his was placed at the end of the show&mdash;the cherry on the Christmas pudding! His success was such that Belle Vue Circus hired him again, in the same conditions, for its 1947-48 Christmas season.
+The postwar years were a boon to European circuses and soon, international offers were showered onto Gilbert Houcke: Circus producers quickly understood that the attractive Houcke would provide good press fodder and, consequently, draw large audiences. In the winter of 1946-47, Gilbert crossed the English Channel to star in one of Britain’s top Christmas shows, [[Belle Vue Circus]] in Manchester. A rare occurrence for a single cage act, his was placed at the end of the show&mdash;the cherry on the Christmas pudding! His success was such that Belle Vue Circus hired him again, in the same conditions, for its 1947-48 Christmas season.
 [[File:Gilbert_Houcke_and_Tiger.png|thumb|left|400px|Gilbert Houcke at the Cirque d'Hiver (1952)]]Before his second engagement at Belle Vue, he had appeared in London for the first time, at Clapham’s Grand Theatre, with [[Captain Prince-Cox Circus]], a popular stage circus of the time. Other star engagements followed: The [[Belfast Hippodrome]], [[Circus Mikkenie]] in the Netherlands, the [[Coliseu dos Recreios]] in Lisbon, Portugal, [[Tom Arnold]]’s prestigious and huge Christmas Circus at the [[Harringay Circus|Harringay]] Arena in London (1949-50), a return to Circus Busch at Suecia’s circus building in Sweden,  [[Circus Barley]] in East-Berlin, and for the summer of 1950, the legendary [[Tower Circus]] in Blackpool, England.

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 File:Fritz_Schulz_-_Court_Act.jpg|Alfred Court's Mixed Animal Act (1939)
 File:Gilbert_Houcke_Courrier.jpeg|Gilbert Houcke's ''Courier'' (1940)
 File:Gilbert_Houcke_(1948).jpeg|Gilbert Houcke (1948)
 File:Gilbert_Houcke_tigers_(1948).jpeg|Gilbert Houcke (1948)

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 File:Houcke_-_Tigre_de_Colombo.jpeg|''Le Tigre de Colombo'' Poster (1954)
 File:Radio_Circus_Gilbert_Houcke.jpg|Radio-Circus Poster (1954)
 File:Knie_-_Gilbert_Houcke.jpg|Gilbert Houcke at Circus Knie (1955)
 File:Gilbert_Houcke_-_Kiss.jpg|Gilbert Houcke at Circus Knie (1955)

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 File:Gilbert_Houcke_and_Tiger.png|Gilbert Houcke at the Cirque d'Hiver (1952)
 File:Houcke_on_Tiger.jpg|Gilbert Houcke at the Cirque d'Hiver (1952)
-File:Houcke_Kronebau.png|Gilbert Houcke (1952)
+File:Houcke_Kronebau.png|Gilbert Houcke at the Kronebau in Munich (1952)
 File:Gilbert_Houcke_-_Colombo.jpeg|Gilbert Houcke in ''Sterne über Colombo'' (1953)
 File:Sterne_über_Colombo.jpg|''Sterne über Colombo'' Poster (1953)

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 File:Gilbert_Houcke_portrait.jpg|Gilbert Houcke (c.1950)
 File:Busch-Berlin_1952.jpeg|Circus Busch Program Cover (1952)
-File:Gilbert_Houcke_and_Tiger.png|Gilbert Houcke at the Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione (1952)
+File:Gilbert_Houcke_and_Tiger.png|Gilbert Houcke at the Cirque d'Hiver (1952)
-File:Houcke_on_Tiger.jpg|Gilbert Houcke (1952)
+File:Houcke_on_Tiger.jpg|Gilbert Houcke at the Cirque d'Hiver (1952)
 File:Houcke_Kronebau.png|Gilbert Houcke (1952)
 File:Gilbert_Houcke_-_Colombo.jpeg|Gilbert Houcke in ''Sterne über Colombo'' (1953)

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 File:Gilbert_Houcke_-_Medrano_Dannes.jpeg|Gilbert Houcke at the Cirque Medrano (1955)
 File:Gilbert_Houcke_-_Medrano.jpg|Gilbert Houcke at the Cirque Medrano (1955)
 File:Gilbert_Houcke_Krone_1959.jpeg|Gilbert Houcke at Circus Krone (1959)
 File:Houcke_Krone_59.jpg|Gilbert Houcke at Circus Krone (1959)

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 File:Houcke_-_Barlay_(1950).jpeg|Gilbert Houcke (1950)
 File:Gilbert_Houcke_at_Circus_Barley.jpg|Gilbert Houcke (1950)
 File:Gilbert_Houcke_portrait.jpg|Gilbert Houcke (c.1950)
 File:Busch-Berlin_1952.jpeg|Circus Busch Program Cover (1952)

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 [[File:Gilbert_Houcke_Courrier.jpeg|left|thumb|400px| Gilbert Houcke in ''The Courier'' (1940)]]Gilbert had fallen in love with the tigers and longed to return to the big cage as a bona fide cat trainer. Trubka was under contract with Switzerland’s [[Circus Knie]]; Paula Busch’s agreement with the Knie family was that Trubkka would present the cats in Berlin and Breslau and then return to Switzerland. Gilbert asked Paula Busch to let him take Trubka’s place, but Paula preferred to give the tigers to a more experienced trainer, the Czech [[Vaclav Beneš]], who revamped the act. Meanwhile, Houcke continued to pester Paula and Micaela Busch until he was finally allowed to present the tiger act at some matinee performances.
-In 1943, Gilbert also made his film debut in Artur Maria Rabenalt’s '’Zirkus Renz'', a biopic loosely based on August Heinrich Kober’s romanticized biography of [[Ernst Renz]], also titled ''Zirkus Renz'' (1942). Gilbert replaced the actors to perform equestrian scenes, including bareback riding sequences with his sister Nadia and a nearly complete version of "The Courier" in full Roman regalia. Neither Nadia nor Gilbert were credited, but the film provides us nonetheless with rare footage of Gilbert Houcke as an equestrian.
+In 1943, Gilbert also made his film debut in Artur Maria Rabenalt’s ''Zirkus Renz'', a biopic loosely based on August Heinrich Kober’s romanticized biography of [[Ernst Renz]], also titled ''Zirkus Renz'' (1942). Gilbert replaced the actors to perform equestrian scenes, including bareback riding sequences with his sister Nadia and a nearly complete version of "The Courier" in full Roman regalia. Neither Nadia nor Gilbert were credited, but the film provides us nonetheless with rare footage of Gilbert Houcke as an equestrian.
 With the Nazi regime’s persecutions of the Jews, most circus people closed ranks and took care of their own. Micaela Busch was no exception: She harbored Jewish performers and employees in her mother’s circus; she and Paula had begun to do so as early as 1936 when they hired the last members of the Strassburger family who had not yet left Germany. But in November 1943, while Circus Busch was playing in its Breslau building, Micaela learned that she had been reported to the Gestapo. Before anything could happen, she gathered her animals and headed to neutral Sweden with the Houckes in tow. Her menagerie included forty horses, three elephants and the group of tigers.