Gunther Gebel-Williams - Revision history

Djando: /* Picture Gallery */

2025-05-24T06:21:41Z

‎Picture Gallery

Djando at 05:13, 8 September 2020

2020-09-08T05:13:22Z

Djando: /* Picture Gallery */

2019-09-03T02:19:32Z

‎Picture Gallery

Djando: /* Picture Gallery */

2019-04-23T00:45:26Z

‎Picture Gallery

Djando: /* Gunther in America: Circus Super Star */

2019-04-18T18:36:12Z

‎Gunther in America: Circus Super Star

Djando: /* Enter Gunther Gebel-Williams */

2019-04-18T18:30:05Z

‎Enter Gunther Gebel-Williams

Djando: /* Enter Gunther Gebel-Williams */

2019-04-18T18:26:31Z

‎Enter Gunther Gebel-Williams

Djando: /* Apprenticeship */

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‎Apprenticeship

Djando: /* Harry and Carola Williams */

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‎Harry and Carola Williams

Djando: /* Harry and Carola Williams */

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‎Harry and Carola Williams

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 * Hans-Jürgen & Rosemarie Tiede, ''Die Hohe Schule der Raubtierdressur'' (Kaufbeuren, Freizeit News Verlag, 1997) - ISBN 3-928871-04-8
-== Picture Gallery ==
+==Image Gallery==
 <Gallery>
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 File:Circus_Williams_Elephants_(c.1965).jpg|Gunther Gebel-Williams and the Williams Elephants (c.1965)
 Image:Gilbert_Houcke.jpg|Gilbert Houcke
 Image:Gunther_Gebel-Williams_(1970).jpg|Gunther Gebel-Williams with Prince and Kongo (1970)
 File:Gunther_Gebel_1973.jpg|Gunther Gebel-Williams and his son, Mark Oliver (1973)

← Older revision		Revision as of 05:13, 8 September 2020
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−	[[Image:Gunther_Gebel-Williams_and_giraffe.jpg\|\|right\|~~250px~~]]	+	[[Image:Gunther_Gebel-Williams_and_giraffe.jpg\|\|right\|400px]]
	==Animal Trainer==		==Animal Trainer==

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 File:Williamsbau_Koln.jpg|Circus Williamsbau, Cologne (1947)
 Image:Gunther_Gebel_-_Holdy_Barley_(1952).jpg|Günther Gebel at Circus Williams (1952)
 Image:Yvonne_Berman_(1968).jpg|Yvonne Berman (1968)
 Image:Gunther_Gebel_with_Bengali_and_Kongo.jpg|Gunther Gebel-Williams with Bengali and Kongo (c.1963)

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 File:Gunther_and_Mark_Oliver_Gebel.jpeg|Gunther and his son, Mark Oliver (c.1985)
 File:Gunther_Gebel-Williams_in_NYC.jpeg|Gunther in Central Park, New York City (c.1985)
 Image:Gunther_Gebel-Williams_and_giraffe.jpg|Gunther Gebel-Williams and Friend
 Image:Gunther_Gebel_statue.jpg|Gunther Gebel-Williams statue in Venice, Florida

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 In time, Gunther Gebel-Williams became vice-president in charge of animals for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. He was now a wealthy man, but the hard work had taken its tool. Gunther began to have health problems, and he decided that it was time for him to retire from performing. The 1989-1990 production of ''The Greatest Show On Earth'' marked Gunther’s widely advertised Farewell Tour. He gave what was heralded as the last of his 11,697 performances in the United States on November 18, 1990. The number, of course, doesn’t include his years performing with Circus Williams.
-Gunther returned to the ring, however: Once to replace his successor in the cage, Tyrone Taylor, then for a series of performances in ten U.S. cities in 1994, followed by a CBS-TV special, ''The Return Of Gunther Gebel-Williams''. His last public appearance occurred September 27, 1998 at Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he replaced his son, Mark Oliver, in the big cage, to allow him to be present at the birth of his own son.
+Gunther returned to the ring, however: Once to replace his successor in the cage, Tyrone Taylor, then for a series of performances in ten U.S. cities in 1994, followed by a CBS-TV special, ''The Return Of Gunther Gebel-Williams''. His last public appearance occurred September 27, 1998 at Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he replaced his son, Mark Oliver, in the big cage, to allow the latter to be present at the birth of his own son.
 After his official retirement in 1990, Gunther had written his autobiography (with Toni Reinhold), ''Untamed'', which was published the following year. In 1996, Gunther had to undergo heart surgery. Then, in July 2000, he had another surgical intervention, this time to remove a brain tumor, followed by sessions of chemotherapy. But the cancer did not remit; Gunther Gebel-Williams died in his home, in Venice, Florida, on July 19, 2001.

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 Gunther was indeed familiar with the work of Gilbert Houcke, who had been a major circus star in Europe since the 1950s, and had worked extensively in Germany. But he had now the opportunity to observe his work closely for a full month. Houcke had a great elegance in the ring, and a quiet and soft manner with his tigers. Although he had an extraordinary charisma as a performer, he always gave the spotlight to his feline partners, leaving an impression of connivance between him and them. His acts always had nice little touches of humor, too, and every now and then, the tigers looked as if they made fun of their trainer. There is no doubt that Gilbert Houcke was a major influence in Gunther’s subsequent style as a cat trainer.
-In 1968, Gunther purchased a group of eight tigers, with which he put together an act in the elegant style popularized by Houcke, and Charly Baumann after him&mdash;a style that would remain prevalent in Europe. But European circuses were entering a period of crisis; in the burgeoning age of television, they had a hard time finding a new voice. The lucrative post-war period was over, and running a major circus had become a very complex and expansive proposition indeed, whose financial rewards were quickly shrinking.
+In 1968, Gunther purchased a group of eight tigers, with which he put together an act in the elegant style popularized by Houcke (and Charly Baumann after him)&mdash;a style that would remain prevalent in Europe. But European circuses were entering a period of crisis; in the burgeoning age of television, they had a hard time finding a new voice. The lucrative post-war period was over, and running a major circus had become a very complex and expansive proposition indeed, whose financial rewards were quickly shrinking.
 === Gunther in America: Circus Super Star ===

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 === Enter Gunther Gebel-Williams ===
-[[Image:Gunther_Gebel_with_Bengali_and_Kongo.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Gunther, Bengali, and Kongo]]By then, Carola’s children had graduated from school, Alfons with a diploma in hotel and restaurant management, and Jeanette with a commerce diploma. Nonetheless, they both returned to the circus; Jeanette became an elegant high school rider, and Alfons specialized in the presentation of liberty acts. But tragedy struck again, when Alfons was killed in a car accident in 1960. For a long time now, Carola Williams had considered Gunther as her second son; he entered the family quite officially in 1961, when he married Jeanette. From then on, he would be officially known as Gunther Gebel-Williams.
+[[Image:Gunther_Gebel_with_Bengali_and_Kongo.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Gunther, Bengali, and Kongo]]By then, Carola’s children had graduated from school, Alfons with a diploma in hotel and restaurant management, and Jeanette with a commerce diploma. Nonetheless, they both returned to the circus; Jeanette became an elegant high school rider, and Alfons specialized in the presentation of liberty acts. But tragedy struck again, when Alfons was killed in a car accident in 1960. For a long time now, Carola Williams had considered Gunther her second son; he entered the family quite officially in 1961, when he married Jeanette. From then on, he would be officially known as Gunther Gebel-Williams.
 In the winter of 1960-1961, the young couple performed at the [[Cirque d'Hiver]] in Paris, where Circus Williams had contracted its animal acts. The lineup included the twenty-four Lipizzaner horses and a mixed group of horses, camels, and zebras presented by Fred Petoletti; Yvonne Berman and her lions; Gunther and Jeanette in their high school act; and Gunther presenting his group of eleven elephants, with its teeterboard finale. They obtained a great success with the Parisian press and circus aficionados.

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 In 1955, Circus Williams hired a young Dutch cat trainer, [[Tini Berman]], known to the business as "Miss Yvonne," who presented a group of lions from [[The Knie Dynasty|Circus Knie]] trained by Ladislav Ira. Gunther fell head over heels for her, and his interest for big cats grew exponentially. To his delight, he was eventually asked to replace her in the big cage for one performance: This was his first experience working with cats in the ring, and he liked it. Yet the experience didn’t do anything to bring him closer to his paramour: Tini was happily married.
-By the time Adolf Althoff left Circus Williams in 1956, Gunther had practically completed his circus education. At twenty-two, he now helped his surrogate mother, Carola, in the day-to-day management of the circus. He would continue to learn animal training by watching Circus Williams’s very capable trainers, notably its Master Equestrian, [[Fred Petoletti]] (the son of the illustrious Master Equestrian of the legendary [[Circus Sarrasani]]), who had put together the pride of Circus Williams's stables, its beautiful group of twenty-four Lipizzaner horses, which he presented together in one ring in a superb liberty display&mdash;an act that Gunther and Jeanette would later take over.
+By the time Adolf Althoff left Circus Williams in 1956, Gunther had practically completed his circus education. At twenty-two, he now helped his surrogate mother, Carola, in the day-to-day management of the circus. He would continue to learn animal training by watching Circus Williams’s very capable trainers, notably its Master Equestrian, [[Fred Petoletti]] (the son of the legendary [[Circus Sarrasani]]'s illustrious Master Equestrian), who had trained the pride of Circus Williams's stables, its beautiful group of twenty-four Lipizzaner horses, which he presented together in one ring in a superb liberty display&mdash;an act that Gunther and Jeanette would later take over.
 But cats now fascinated Gunther, and working with them was his next goal. He eventually conceived an act with a young tiger he trusted, ''Bengali'', paired with a young African elephant, ''Kongo''. The act, which quickly became a sensation, made its debut at the [[Circus Williams|Spanischer National Circus]]&mdash;a title Circus Williams adopted for a joint venture with Spanish impresarios [[Manuel Feijóo]] and [[Arturo Castilla]] from 1962 to 1966. Gunther’s tiger and elephant act would later include a second elephant, and then two more tigers.

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 Circus Williams had been created right after the end of the war, in 1946, by the German-born British equestrian [[Harry Williams]] (1902-1951), and his wife, [[Carola Williams|Carola]], née [[The Althoff Dynasty|Althoff]] (1903-1987). Harry Williams held a British passport, and the Althoffs&mdash;Carola and her brothers, [[Franz Althoff|Franz]] (1908-1987) and [[Adolf Althoff|Adolf]] (1913-1998)&mdash;had shown an exemplary attitude during the war (from the Allies' perspective), hiding notably many Jews, performers or not, within their family’s traveling circus; the post-war Occupation authorities had had no problem delivering Harry and Carola Williams a permit to operate a circus again.
-[[Image:Gunther_Gebel_-_Holdy_Barley_(1952).jpg|right|thumb|400px|Gunther Gebel at Circus Williams, 1952]]Yet, circus life didn’t suit Elfriede Gebel, and after a few weeks, she decided to call it quits, but left Gunther in the care of the Williamses as an apprentice with a five-year contract. Whatever young Gunther might have felt at first&mdash;so far, his family life had been no bliss anyway&mdash;he soon found in Harry and Carola Williams caring surrogate parents, and he became in time a true member of their family, which already included son Alfons and daughter [[Jeanette Williams|Jeanette]], and [[Holdy Barley]], Carola’s son from a first marriage with [[Circus Barley|Harry Barley]].
+[[Image:Gunther_Gebel_-_Holdy_Barley_(1952).jpg|right|thumb|400px|Gunther Gebel at Circus Williams, 1952]]Yet, circus life didn’t suit Elfriede Gebel, and after a few weeks, she decided to call it quits, but left Gunther in the care of the Williamses as an apprentice with a five-year contract. Whatever young Gunther might have felt at first&mdash;so far, his family life had been no bliss anyway&mdash;he soon found in Harry and Carola Williams caring surrogate parents, and he would become in time a true member of their family, which already included son Alfons and daughter [[Jeanette Williams|Jeanette]], and [[Holdy Barley]], Carola’s son from a first marriage with [[Circus Barley|Harry Barley]].
 Circus Williams was to become one of Germany’s preeminent circuses; in the immediate post-war period&mdash;a golden era for European circuses&mdash;it boosted a collection of eighty horses and its well-stocked menagerie included a group of five elephants. Harry Williams was an excellent and respected all-around equestrian; he had been a good acrobat on horseback, and was a fine liberty trainer and high school rider. One of his specialties was a spectacular Roman chariot race that he performed at breakneck speed at the end of the show. The first thing Gunther learned with his tutor was how to take care of the horses.