Henrik Henricksen - Revision history

Djando: /* Bostock’s Tigers */

2019-01-23T19:09:53Z

‎Bostock’s Tigers

Djando: /* Tiger-Henricksen */

2019-01-22T19:19:43Z

‎Tiger-Henricksen

Djando: /* Bostock’s Tigers */

2019-01-22T19:15:59Z

‎Bostock’s Tigers

Djando: /* Tiger-Henricksen */

2019-01-22T19:13:04Z

‎Tiger-Henricksen

Djando: /* Tiger-Henricksen */

2019-01-22T19:12:20Z

‎Tiger-Henricksen

Djando: /* The Hagenbeck Years */

2019-01-22T01:00:32Z

‎The Hagenbeck Years

Djando: /* The Hagenbeck Years */

2019-01-22T00:56:10Z

‎The Hagenbeck Years

Djando: /* Bostock’s Tigers */

2019-01-21T19:40:54Z

‎Bostock’s Tigers

Djando: /* Image Gallery */

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‎Image Gallery

Djando: /* Scandinavia */

2019-01-21T00:35:35Z

‎Scandinavia

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 Henricksen was put in charge of this imposing group. It was not an easy task: It soon became evident that Tammany had to be presented separately, at the end of the act; furthermore, not all animals could be successfully included in the presentation. After two months of hard work, trials and errors, the act was ready with a group of fourteen animals, plus the formidable Tammany, who fought alone with his trainer as a final after-piece. In 1905, Henricksen went on tour with Bostock to the Americas: Buenos Aires, San Francisco, and New York, where Bostock installed his menagerie at Coney Island’s newly-built Dreamland park.
-Billed as "The Tiger King," Henricksen obtained a huge success with his tiger act. So much so that he decided to purchase ten of his tigers from Bostock, including Tammany (which he would later rename "Cæsar"), and went to work on his own. His presentation of Cæsar became Henricksen’s trademark. His spectacular fights with the huge tiger inside as well as outside the ring made him a star attraction, and he relished showing journalists his arms and legs covered by the scars left by hazardous encounters with Cæsar’s claws. (After the death of the original Cæsar, Henricksen replaced him with another large tiger, purchased from the French Ménagerie Laurent,  which he named ''Cæsar II''.)
+Billed as "The Tiger King," Henricksen obtained a huge success with his tiger act. The ''Morning Telegraph'' of June 10, 1906 was ecstatic: "Bostock’s Arena, Coney Island, has a matinée idol. He is the fearless Henricksen, who so gaily risks his life not only at the regular performances of his group of snarling tigers, but a number of extra times every day when he goes into the arena alone with the untamed Tammany, the fiercest and largest Bengal tiger that has ever been in captivity. Henricksen is a simple-hearted and almost boyish individual, and the honors of being much courted and sought after rest lightly on him."
 ===Tiger-Henricksen===

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 Sadly, it was an age when wild animals were called "beasts" and, much too often, trainers’ histrionics stressed more their apparent courage in the face of danger than an understanding and appreciation of their charges (which they actually had for the most part).  Consequently, these "beasts" were by and large perceived by laymen as lethal threats to humans, and in case of danger, had to be immediately done with. Nowadays, the animal would have been subdued with an anesthetic dart.
-Henricksen’s pre-WWI career took him to such European venues as [[Circus Ciniselli]] in St. Petersburg, Russia, several German ''varieté'' theaters (at a time when German ''varieté'', a mixture of circus and variety theater, was all the rage), Circus [[The Schumann Dynasty|Albert Schumann]], [[Cirkus Orlando]] in Sweden, Cirkus Norbeck and Cirkus Globus in Norway, and [[Cirkus Miehe]] in Denmark, among others.
+Henricksen’s pre-WWI career took him to such European venues as [[Circus Busch]] in Berlin, [[Circus Ciniselli]] in St. Petersburg, Russia, several German ''varieté'' theaters (at a time when German ''varieté'', a mixture of circus and variety theater, was all the rage), Circus [[The Schumann Dynasty|Albert Schumann]], [[Cirkus Orlando]] in Sweden, Cirkus Norbeck and Cirkus Globus in Norway, and [[Cirkus Miehe]] in Denmark, among others.
 ===Scandinavia===

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 Henricksen was put in charge of this imposing group. It was not an easy task: It soon became evident that Tammany had to be presented separately, at the end of the act; furthermore, not all animals could be successfully included in the presentation. After two months of hard work, trials and errors, the act was ready with a group of fourteen animals, plus the formidable Tammany, who fought alone with his trainer as a final after-piece. In 1905, Henricksen went on tour with Bostock to the Americas: Buenos Aires, San Francisco, and New York, where Bostock installed his menagerie at Coney Island’s newly-built Dreamland park.
-Billed as "The Tiger King," Henricksen obtained a huge success with his tiger act. So much so that he decided to purchase ten of his tigers from Bostock, including Tammany (which he would later rename "Cæsar"), and went to work on his own. His presentation of Cæsar became Henricksen’s trademark. His spectacular fights with the huge tiger inside as well as outside the ring made him a star attraction, and he relished showing journalists his arms and legs covered by the scars left by hazardous encounters with Cæsar’s claws. (After the death of the original Cæsar, Henricksen replaced him with another large tiger that he named ''Cæsar II''.)
+Billed as "The Tiger King," Henricksen obtained a huge success with his tiger act. So much so that he decided to purchase ten of his tigers from Bostock, including Tammany (which he would later rename "Cæsar"), and went to work on his own. His presentation of Cæsar became Henricksen’s trademark. His spectacular fights with the huge tiger inside as well as outside the ring made him a star attraction, and he relished showing journalists his arms and legs covered by the scars left by hazardous encounters with Cæsar’s claws. (After the death of the original Cæsar, Henricksen replaced him with another large tiger, purchased from the French Ménagerie Laurent,  which he named ''Cæsar II''.)
 ===Tiger-Henricksen===

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 ===Tiger-Henricksen===
-Henricksen had become a true showman, loved and admired by his audiences, and he lived up to his dompteur (tamer) reputation. His style, however, didn’t please everybody; in his memoirs, the Swedish circus owner [[Henning Orlando]], who had hired him in 1908 for a Scandinavian tour, said that he found Henricksen, who, in a cowboy costume, stressed his animals with blank pistol shots and an iron fork, "too theatrical."
+Henricksen had become a true showman, loved and admired by his audiences, and he lived up to his ''dompteur'' (tamer) reputation. His style, however, didn’t please everybody; in his memoirs, the Swedish circus owner [[Henning Orlando]], who had hired him in 1908 for a Scandinavian tour, said that he found Henricksen, who, in a cowboy costume, stressed his animals with blank pistol shots and an iron fork, "too theatrical."
 [[File:Henricksen_and_Tigers.jpeg|thumb|left|400px|Henricksen in a typical stance (c.1910)]]Nonetheless, Henricksen admittedly managed to fill the house every night in practically all the circuses where he worked in Europe and Russia. In Spain and Portugal, he appeared before the royal families and received medals and gifts. A costly embroidered matador costume presented to him by the Spanish King Alfonso XIII is still in his family’s possession. Seeing a ''dompteur'' (i.e. an animal "tamer") work with wild animals may appeal to the audience’s subconscious wish to see blood. In that respect Henricksen gave them full value for their money, creating much media exposure that attracted more spectators to see him.

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 ===Tiger-Henricksen===
-Henricksen had become a true showman, loved and admired by his audiences, and he lived up to his ''dompteur'' (tamer) reputation. His style, however, didn’t please everybody; in his memoirs, the Swedish circus owner [[Henning Orlando]], who had hired him in 1908 for a Scandinavian tour, said that he found Henricksen, who, in a cowboy costume, stressed his animals with blank pistol shots and an iron fork, "too theatrical."
+Henricksen had become a true showman, loved and admired by his audiences, and he lived up to his dompteur (tamer) reputation. His style, however, didn’t please everybody; in his memoirs, the Swedish circus owner [[Henning Orlando]], who had hired him in 1908 for a Scandinavian tour, said that he found Henricksen, who, in a cowboy costume, stressed his animals with blank pistol shots and an iron fork, "too theatrical."
 [[File:Henricksen_and_Tigers.jpeg|thumb|left|400px|Henricksen in a typical stance (c.1910)]]Nonetheless, Henricksen admittedly managed to fill the house every night in practically all the circuses where he worked in Europe and Russia. In Spain and Portugal, he appeared before the royal families and received medals and gifts. A costly embroidered matador costume presented to him by the Spanish King Alfonso XIII is still in his family’s possession. Seeing a ''dompteur'' (i.e. an animal "tamer") work with wild animals may appeal to the audience’s subconscious wish to see blood. In that respect Henricksen gave them full value for their money, creating much media exposure that attracted more spectators to see him.

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 He was born Hans Heinrich Lühr in Hamburg, Germany, on January 21, 1880. His father was a carpenter and his mother, who was French-born, a piano teacher. Very early, Hans showed a great interest in animals and, as a kid, enjoyed training mice and rats. At the age of twelve he asked the well-known cat trainer [[Julius Seeth]] to take him as an apprentice; a little nonplussed, Seeth responded that he would consider it once Lühr had finished school!
-[[File:Henricksen_Bear_Pyramid.jpeg|thumb|left|400px|Henricksen and Hagenbeck's bears]]Eventually, Hans became a carpenter like his father. Then opportunity stroke: he landed a job at the famous Hagenbeck’s Tiergarten (zoo) at Stellingen in Hamburg. He was seventeen and soon became an apprentice to [[The Hagenbeck Family|Wilhelm Hagenbeck]]. After a couple of years, he was given to present a group of fifteen polar bears trained by Hagenbeck&mdash;who was the leading specialist of these animals. (Henricksen later claimed in interviews that he was involved in expeditions to the Spitsbergen archipelago, in the Arctic, to capture some of the bears.)
+[[File:Henricksen_Bear_Pyramid.jpeg|thumb|left|400px|Henricksen and Hagenbeck's bears]]Eventually, Hans became a carpenter like his father. Then opportunity stroke: he landed a job at the famous Hagenbeck’s Tiergarten (zoo) at Stellingen in Hamburg. He was seventeen and soon became an apprentice to [[The Hagenbeck Family|Wilhelm Hagenbeck]] (1850-1910). After a couple of years, he was given to present a group of fifteen polar bears trained by Hagenbeck&mdash;who was the leading specialist of these animals. (Henricksen later claimed in interviews that he was involved in expeditions to the Spitsbergen archipelago, in the Arctic, to capture some of the bears.)
 Hans made his performing debut with Hagenbeck’s bear act in 1899 at [[Zirkus Bauer]], billed as Henriksen&mdash;a Nordic-sounding stage name adapted from his middle name, Heinrich. (It will be later spelled Henricksen, and his first name would be Heinrich, Henrik, or Henry, according to various advertizings.) The following year, he appeared at the ''Exposition Universelle'' (World Fair) in Paris, where Hagenbeck’s spectacular group of polar bears was a huge success. Henricksen and the Hagenbeck bears then toured all over Europe: [[Circus Corty-Althoff]] in 1901 and 1902, Circus Krembser 1902, [[Circus Nikulin|Circus Salamonsky]] in Moscow in 1903, Cirque Devigne in Odessa and [[Circus Beketow]] at the [[Cirkusbygningen (Copenhagen)| Cirkusbygningen]] of Copenhagen in 1904.

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 Hans made his performing debut with Hagenbeck’s bear act in 1899 at [[Zirkus Bauer]], billed as Henriksen&mdash;a Nordic-sounding stage name adapted from his middle name, Heinrich. (It will be later spelled Henricksen, and his first name would be Heinrich, Henrik, or Henry, according to various advertizings.) The following year, he appeared at the ''Exposition Universelle'' (World Fair) in Paris, where Hagenbeck’s spectacular group of polar bears was a huge success. Henricksen and the Hagenbeck bears then toured all over Europe: [[Circus Corty-Althoff]] in 1901 and 1902, Circus Krembser 1902, [[Circus Nikulin|Circus Salamonsky]] in Moscow in 1903, Cirque Devigne in Odessa and [[Circus Beketow]] at the [[Cirkusbygningen (Copenhagen)| Cirkusbygningen]] of Copenhagen in 1904.
-Henricksen was employed on a fixed salary, and it was the owner of the act, Wilhelm Hagenbeck, who got the profits of what was a very successful attraction. So Henricksen sought better financial opportunities and, after his 1904 engagement with Beketow, he left Hagenbeck to work for [[Frank Bostock]], whose famous menagerie and animal exhibitions had taken residence from 1902 to 1904 at the [[Hippodrome de la Place Clichy]] in Paris&mdash;renamed ''Hippodrome Bostock'' for the occasion.
+Henricksen was employed on a fixed salary, and it was the owner of the act, Wilhelm Hagenbeck, who got the profits of what was a very successful attraction. So Henricksen sought better financial opportunities and, after his 1904 engagement with Beketow, he left Hagenbeck to work for [[Frank Bostock]] (1866-1912), whose famous menagerie and animal exhibitions had taken residence from 1902 to 1904 at the [[Hippodrome de la Place Clichy]] in Paris&mdash;renamed ''Hippodrome Bostock'' for the occasion.
 ===Bostock’s Tigers===

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 <Gallery>
-File:Young_Henricksen.jpeg|Hans Heinrich Lühr (c.1892)
+File:Young_Henricksen.jpeg|Hans Heinrich Lühr as a carpenter apprentice (c.1893)
 File:Henrik_Henricksen_Portrait.jpeg|Henrik Henricksen (c.1900)
 File:Henricksen_-_Bear_and_Poney.jpeg|Henricksen with Hagenbeck's bears (c.1900)

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 ===Scandinavia===
-At the outbreak of WWI, Henricksen, fearing a shortage of food for his tigers in Germany, took refuge in Norway. The following years he toured mostly with Scandinavian circuses: Cirkus Empress in Norway, Cirkus Hoffmann and Circus Smädicke in Sweden, Cirkus Miehe in Denmark, among others. His last tour was in 1923 with the Swedish circus [[Cirkus Schreiber|Schreiber]]. A circus star and headliner for many years, Henricksen had been a highly paid performer, but he lost most of his earnings during the Postwar’s currency collapse in Germany. Time had come for him to retire, and he accepted an offer of 100,000 Swedish crowns for his tigers from [[Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey]] Circus in the United States.
+[[File:Henricksen_and_Caesar_II.jpeg|thumb|right|400px|Henricksen and Cæsar II (c.1920)]]At the outbreak of WWI, Henricksen, fearing a shortage of food for his tigers in Germany, took refuge in Norway. The following years he toured mostly with Scandinavian circuses: Cirkus Empress in Norway, Cirkus Hoffmann and Circus Smädicke in Sweden, Cirkus Miehe in Denmark, among others. His last tour was in 1923 with the Swedish circus [[Cirkus Schreiber|Schreiber]]. A circus star and headliner for many years, Henricksen had been a highly paid performer, but he lost most of his earnings during the Postwar’s currency collapse in Germany. Time had come for him to retire, and he accepted an offer of 100,000 Swedish crowns for his tigers from [[Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey]] Circus in the United States.
 In January 1924, he travelled to America to deliver his tigers. He cried like a child when the moment came to part with his four-legged friends and he patted them farewell. In order to get his money safely back home he signed on as a galley boy on a ship for his return home. The money, in large notes, were sown into his overall, and he literally sat on his fortune while peeling potatoes across the Atlantic. Back home, he had to ask his bank for help, as it turned out that many bills had stuck together under the pressure of his weight.