Gilbert Houcke - Revision history

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‎Epilogue

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‎The Final Years

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‎Circus Krone’s Tigers

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‎”Sterne über Colombo”

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‎”Sterne über Colombo”

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‎Image Gallery

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‎Circus Knie’s Tigers

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‎The Post-War Years

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‎Image Gallery

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‎Image Gallery

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 [[File:Bidel-Rancy_Grave.jpg|right|280px|thumb|The Bidel-Rancy grave in Asnières]]Gilbert Houcke retired to an apartment he had in Uzès, in the southwest of France. Luckily, he had now a devoted companion, Bernadette, a woman who loved him and took care of him. To ensure he had enough to live on, Fredy and Rolf Knie paid him a pension. Each summer, Gilbert and Bernadette went to Switzerland and spent their vacation on tour with Circus Knie. In 1976, he helped the young [[Louis Knie]] create an act similar to his, with a group of nine tigers. Thus, his training methods and artistry were carried on by the Knie family&mdash;his last gift to a great circus family that had never failed him.
-Prince Rainier of Monaco, an amateur cat trainer, invited Gilbert Houcke as a guest of honor every year at the [[International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo]], where Gilbert was always introduced to cheering audiences and presented awards to wild animal trainers. In spite of his health condition, he was still, in the eyes of the public and to circus professionals, the ''great'' Gilbert Houcke. To the immense chagrin of circus aficionados, he passed away in his home on December 13, 1984; he was sixty-six years old. He was put to rest in the vault of the Bidel and Rancy families at the cemetery of Asnières, a borough of Paris.
+Prince Rainier of Monaco, an amateur cat trainer, invited Gilbert Houcke as a guest of honor every year at the [[International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo]], where Gilbert was always introduced to cheering audiences and presented awards to wild animal trainers. In spite of his health condition, he was still, in the eyes of the public and to circus professionals, the ''great'' Gilbert Houcke. To the immense chagrin of circus aficionados, he passed away in his home on December 13, 1984; he was sixty-six years old. He was laid to rest in the vault of the Bidel and Rancy families at the cemetery of Asnières, a borough of Paris.
 Gilbert Houcke was a quiet and private man, an avid and curious reader who had acquired over the years a solid culture. About his tigers, he said: "I trust them, and they trust me. (...) I would never even think of chastening a cat who had injured me. The fault, if there is a fault, is mine. I love my tigers and they love me, I am sure. (...) My job consists in discerning their individual talents and take advantage of these, without ever asking them to do something that would be against their nature. Something that, unfortunately, so many cat trainers have never understood…”

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 It was a perfect opportunity and Gilbert agreed to take charge of the park’s large wild animal collection. But in 1973, before he could fully enjoy his conversion to a new life, tragedy struck: His beautiful wife, Jacqueline, died suddenly of a viral infection that had not been diagnosed in time. To make matters worse, Jean Houcke, Gilbert’s father, passed away at age ninety-three a few weeks later. Gilbert was totally devastated and became despondent. Nevertheless, he took the job at Saint-Vrain, preparing the opening of the new park scheduled for March 1974. Being still in the company of wild cats was his only consolation.
-However, without Jackie to look after him, he became oblivious to his health, which had remained fragile, and he didn’t take regularly his medications. One day, in January 1974, he failed to show up at work. The park personnel became worried and finally went to check his bungalow: Gilbert was lying on the floor, unable to move: He had been victim of a stroke. When medical help finally came, it had been too long a time since the stroke; one side of his body was paralyzed, and he would be henceforth confined to a wheelchair.
+However, without Jackie to look after him, he became oblivious to his health, which had remained fragile, and he didn’t take regularly his medications. One day, in January 1974, he failed to show up at work. The park personnel became worried and finally went to check his bungalow; Gilbert was lying on the floor, unable to move: He had been victim of a stroke. When medical help finally came, it had been too long a time since the stroke; one side of his body was paralyzed, and he would be henceforth confined to a wheelchair.
 ===Epilogue===

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 ===Circus Krone’s Tigers===
-In 1935, the German cat trainer [[Carl Sembach]] married [[Circus Krone|Frieda Krone]], the daughter and only child of Carl and Ida Krone. Ida Krone had been a famous lion trainer and, like her husband, knew first-hand the precariousness of this occupation; she and her husband asked their son-in-law to stop working with wild animals and focus instead on [[Circus Krone]]’s large collection of horses and its herd of elephants&mdash;a task for which Carl Sembach will eventually show an inordinate talent. Frieda was Circus Krone’s heiress, and her parents wanted to be sure that her husband would still be at her side when she eventually took over the family’s enterprise!
+In 1935, the German cat trainer [[Carl Sembach]] married [[Circus Krone|Frieda Krone]], the daughter and only child of Carl and Ida Krone. Ida Krone had been a famous lion trainer and, like her husband, knew first-hand the precariousness of that occupation; she and her husband asked their son-in-law to stop working with wild animals and focus instead on [[Circus Krone]]’s large collection of horses and its herd of elephants&mdash;a task for which Carl Sembach will eventually show an inordinate talent. Frieda was Circus Krone’s heiress, and her parents wanted to be sure that her husband would still be at her side when she eventually took over the family’s enterprise!
 [[File:Houcke_Krone_59.jpg|left|thumb|300px|Gilbert Houcke at Circus Krone (1959)]]Circus Krone had a huge collection of wild animals that included a large group of twelve tigers originally trained by [[Ernst Tischer]] and presented by the French trainer [[Roger Debille]]. It was, at the time, Europe’s largest tiger group. In September 1953 in Hamburg, Debille was attacked by one of his tigers, Prince, the group’s leader. As it often happens, the incident was prompted by a faulty judgement on the trainer’s part, but Debille was nonetheless critically mauled and remained for some time between life and death.

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 To say the least, their names seriously lacked drawing power in post-war France and a few other European countries! Cosmopolis Films, the French distributors of the German film, found a better way to promote it in a potentially hostile market: The film, titled in French ''Le tigre de Colombo'' ("The Tiger of Colombo"), first advertised on its posters Gilbert Houcke as one of only two Söderbaum's co-stars, with his image as "Tarzan" with his tigers as their main illustration, and eventually made him the film's only credited star. If anything, it shows the degree of popularity Gilbert Houcke had already reached in Europe.
-After his foray in film, Houcke toured with the East-German [[Circus Aeros]] (managed by Micaela Busch’s former husband, Emil Wacker) and, in February 1954, he shared the bill with [[Buster Keaton]] at Brussel’s [[Cirque Royal (Brussels)|Cirque Royal]] in Belgium. Then he went on tour with France’s most successful traveling circus at the time, the [[Radio-Circus]] (the former Cirque Gruss-Jeannet, which toured in association with the popular radio station, Radio-Luxembourg), before spending the 1955 season with Switzerland’s prestigious [[Circus Knie]], where he would return later in his career.
+After his foray in film, Houcke toured with the East-German [[Circus Aeros]] (managed by Micaela Busch’s former husband, Emil Wacker) and, in February 1954, he shared the bill with [[Buster Keaton]] at Brussel’s [[Cirque Royal (Brussels)|Cirque Royal]] in Belgium. Then he went on tour with France’s most successful traveling circus at the time, the [[Radio-Circus]] (the former [[Cirque Gruss-Jeannet]], which toured in association with the popular radio station, Radio-Luxembourg), before spending the 1955 season with Switzerland’s prestigious [[Circus Knie]], where he would return later in his career.
 In the winter 1955-56, he became the star attraction of Paris’s fabled [[Cirque Medrano (Paris)|Cirque Medrano]], where, like at Bellevue, his act concluded the show. Then, on March 24, 1956 in Bouzeville, Calvados (in the Normandy region), Gilbert Houcke married a young French teacher, Jacqueline San Miguel, who was thirteen years his junior. Instead of a honeymoon, the couple went on to spend the 1956 summer season at Blackpool’s [[Tower Circus]] in England. It was to be Houcke’s last season with Circus Busch’s tigers.

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 To say the least, their names seriously lacked drawing power in post-war France and a few other European countries! Cosmopolis Films, the French distributors of the German film, found a better way to promote it in a potentially hostile market: The film, titled in French ''Le tigre de Colombo'' ("The Tiger of Colombo"), first advertised on its posters Gilbert Houcke as one of only two Söderbaum's co-stars, with his image as "Tarzan" with his tigers as their main illustration, and eventually made him the film's only credited star. If anything, it shows the degree of popularity Gilbert Houcke had already reached in Europe.
-After his foray in film, Houcke toured with the East-German [[Circus Aeros]] (managed by Micaela Busch’s former husband, Emil Wacker) and, in February 1954, he shared the bill with [[Buster Keaton]] at Brussel’s [[Cirque Royal (Brussels)|Cirque Royal]] in Belgium. Then he went on tour with France’s most successful traveling circus at the time, the [[Radio-Circus]] (which toured in association with the popular radio station, Radio-Luxembourg), before spending the 1955 season with Switzerland’s prestigious [[Circus Knie]], where he would return later in his career.
+After his foray in film, Houcke toured with the East-German [[Circus Aeros]] (managed by Micaela Busch’s former husband, Emil Wacker) and, in February 1954, he shared the bill with [[Buster Keaton]] at Brussel’s [[Cirque Royal (Brussels)|Cirque Royal]] in Belgium. Then he went on tour with France’s most successful traveling circus at the time, the [[Radio-Circus]] (the former Cirque Gruss-Jeannet, which toured in association with the popular radio station, Radio-Luxembourg), before spending the 1955 season with Switzerland’s prestigious [[Circus Knie]], where he would return later in his career.
 In the winter 1955-56, he became the star attraction of Paris’s fabled [[Cirque Medrano (Paris)|Cirque Medrano]], where, like at Bellevue, his act concluded the show. Then, on March 24, 1956 in Bouzeville, Calvados (in the Normandy region), Gilbert Houcke married a young French teacher, Jacqueline San Miguel, who was thirteen years his junior. Instead of a honeymoon, the couple went on to spend the 1956 summer season at Blackpool’s [[Tower Circus]] in England. It was to be Houcke’s last season with Circus Busch’s tigers.

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 File:Sterne_über_Colombo.jpg|''Sterne über Colombo'' Poster (1953)
 File:Etoiles_sur_Colombo_Poster.jpeg|''Étoiles sur Colombo'' Poster (1953)
 File:Houcke_Die_Blonde_Frau.jpg|Gilbert Houcke in ''Der blonde Frau des Maharadscha'' (1954)
 File:Vojtech_Trubka_Kronebau.jpg|Vojtech Trubka (1954)

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 The only prop used in the act was a huge contraption made of a revolving hoop surrounded by six stools, which was lowered down into the cage from the cupola toward the end of the act: Three tigers jumped one after another through the revolving hoop, in what looked like a beautifully choreographed ballet. Then the contraption was hauled back up and the cage was empty again. The act ended with a spectacular series of standing jumps by one of Houcke’s huge Siberian tigers. The act would remain practically unchanged until the end.
-After his season with Circus Knie, Gilbert Houcke and his tigers appeared in Berlin for the Holiday season in one of Europe’s most prestigious Christmas shows, [[‘’Menschen-Tiere-Sensationen’’]] at the Deutschlandhalle. Then, in February and March, he returned to Wien, Austria, in the no-less prestigious [[“Artisten, Tiere, Attraktionen”]] (or ATA) at the Wienerstadthalle. After these two relatively short engagements, he went on tour for the 1965 season with the French [[Cirque Pinder]], which was then associated with the French national broadcasting company (ORTF)&mdash;and thus, like its predecessor the Radio-Circus, enjoyed an immense popularity. Gilbert shared the bill with his brother Sacha, who presented a liberty act from Circus Knie.[[File:Gilbert_Houcke_and_Tiger_-_Knie.jpg|right|thumb|400px|Gilbert Houcke at Circus Knie (1964)]]
+After his season with Circus Knie, Gilbert Houcke and his tigers appeared in Berlin for the Holiday season in one of Europe’s most prestigious Christmas shows, ''[[Menschen-Tiere-Sensationen]]'' at the Deutschlandhalle. Then, in February and March, he returned to Wien, Austria, in the no-less prestigious ''[[Artisten, Tiere, Attraktionen]]'' (or ATA) at the Wienerstadthalle. After these two relatively short engagements, he went on tour for the 1965 season with the French [[Cirque Pinder]], which was then associated with the French national broadcasting company (ORTF)&mdash;and thus, like its predecessor the Radio-Circus, enjoyed an immense popularity. Gilbert shared the bill with his brother Sacha, who presented a liberty act from Circus Knie.[[File:Gilbert_Houcke_and_Tiger_-_Knie.jpg|right|thumb|400px|Gilbert Houcke at Circus Knie (1964)]]
-In December 1965, Gilbert returned to the Cirque d’Hiver, in a superb program where he shared the bill with [[Gunther Gebel-Williams]] and his wife, [[Jeanette Williams]]. Gunther presented his tiger on elephants and [[Circus Williams]]’s herd of eleven pachyderms, and Jeanette rode in high school and presented, in alternance with her husband, Circus Williams’s spectacular group of twenty-four Lipizzan horses. However, in the cage, Gilbert had the star position, appearing just before intermission after Gunther, whose amazing act was nonetheless the curtain opener!
+In December 1965, Gilbert returned to the Cirque d’Hiver, in a superb program where he shared the bill with [[Gunther Gebel-Williams]] and his wife, [[Jeanette Williams]]. Gunther presented his tiger on elephants and [[Circus Williams]]’s herd of eleven pachyderms, and Jeanette rode in high school and presented, alterning with her husband, Circus Williams’s spectacular group of twenty-four Lipizzan horses. However, in the cage, Gilbert had the star position, appearing just before intermission after Gunther, whose amazing act was nonetheless the curtain opener!
 While the Williamses stayed at the Cirque d’Hiver for the rest of the winter season, Gilbert Houcke embarked with his tigers on a ship to South Africa, where he would spend the 1966 season with [[Circus Boswell-Wilkie]], the African continent’s premier circus and a favorite of European performers because of its two-year, advantageous contracts (although Houcke spent only one year there). During this tour, Gilbert lost a tiger, Madras, to a dental infection; he returned to Europe with seven tigers. (This number would remain the same until Gilbert’s final season in 1972, when a new tiger was added to the act).

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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)