From the Vault Dept.: From 1871 to 2017, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus toured the world, an ever-changing spectacle that weathered the many changes in travel, venue, and audience expectation until animal-rights controveries helped shutter it five years ago. Gunther Gebel-Williams was the star animal trainer there for over 20 years. After he retired, he became the organization’s Vice President of Animal Care. He died in Florida in 2001. I interviewed during that final tour in 1990.
IT’S THE LAST TOUR for Gunther Gebel-Williams. The 119th edition of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus has been designed to showcase the man who has been the star attraction for 20 years – with a career that went back another 20 years in Europe.
A lot of eyes are turning to Mark Gebel, 18-year-old son of the star. Gunther isn’t sure about completely turning over his mantle to the boy. Mark will take over the elephant and horse training when his father leaves the circus, but the tigers go back with Gunther to Florida. “(He) still has to get the trust to train tigers. He is still too young to do it himself,” Gunther says about his son. He’s worried, of course, about comparisons putting one or the other in an unjust light.
This retirement party began in late 1988 and will take in 92 cities before finishing in Pittsburgh in November. It adds one more city to the number racked up by Sarah Bernhardt during her two-year farewell tour in 1916.
The local legs of the journey are Albany and Glens Falls, with performances at 4 and 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at the Glens Falls Civic Center, and, when they pull into the Knickerbocker Arena, at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 11 and 12, 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
The circus has always been a family event for Gunther, who travels either by private railroad car or 40-foot customized motor coach with wife, Sigrid, daughter Tina and Mark Oliver. Until last year, Sigrid was a performer; now she does the books and handles scheduling. Tina, who has spent half of her life performing, will be seen working with a pack of Russian wolfhounds.
And Gunther doesn’t allow his animals to get too far from him. This is a menagerie that includes 21 elephants, 22 horses, 22 tigers, three camels, two llamas, three Shetland ponies and twelve Russian wolfhounds. And he has 30 employees, the aggregate costing the circus $2 million a year to feed, clothe and otherwise accommodate.
You may notice a lack of lions. Gunther doesn’t work with lions. He explains that he’s a trainer, not a tamer – and the lion is all noise. “Tigers are much better – more open, more honest.” This is a departure from the well-known image of Clyde Beatty wielding chairs and whips to keep his beasts snarling.
But Gunther works instead by beginning training with kids and cubs, developing a close, life-long relationship with the animals. He usually starts his day at 8 a.m., and doesn’t finish much before midnight, during which time he moves hay, washes animals, rehearses them, checks the integrity of the equipment – and even cleans cages.
You’ll see the result as he frolics in the ring with his elephants. “We are all close friends together. The elephants understand much more than we know. I can give them commands with just my voice. But that would absolutely not work with a tiger.”
Gunther Gebel-Williams is now 54 and has done over 11,000 shows in America. “I hope at the final show ... I won’t have to go to the microphones and say all these thank yous,” he says, “Because I’ll cry. For sure.”
His acts, taken together, make up about 45 minutes of the two-and-a-half hour show, which gives him a more exhausting schedule than just about any other participant. “For sure, I could do it another 10 years,” he says, but he confesses that he doesn’t want people to see him show any signs of slowing.
Mind you, he’s bested on-the-job injuries you and I don’t share that have resulted in over 500 stitches, which he shows like a sort of travel map. “This was from a Zebra in Sweden ... this chew on the elbow came in Los Angeles ... this is from Knoxville.”
There was a little skirmish with the leopard, Kenny, who was draped over his neck for an American Express commercial. A restive Kenny began gnawing on his trainer, who roared a warning: “This is my hand ... I don’t want to leave here without it!”
He was born in the Silesian village of Schweidnitz in 1934. His father was killed during the Second World War, and he travelled to Cologne with his sister and mother. There his mother found a job as a seamstress with the Circus Williams, a one-ring troupe, but his mother abandoned both the circus and her son, leaving him in the care of Harry and Carola Williams. Harry became Gunther’s mentor, introducing him to circus life as an acrobat and stunt rider. The boy filled in for the teacher in 1949 doing an animal act solo, which turned him in that direction once and for all.
While he and Harry were performing a chariot race during a trip through England in 1951, the older man was thrown. He died from the injuries, and his widow asked Gunther to help manage the circus.
The only way Ringling Brothers could get him to come to America was by buying the entire Circus Williams, a move shrewdly made by producer Irvin Feld. Gunther has remained a headliner with them ever since. It’s estimated that about 12 million people will have seen him perform by the time he retires.
He plans to get into circus management and oversee the Ringling Brothers’ animal acts. And help current producer Kenneth Feld take on the challenging task of hiring a “cat act” to replace his.
How can they replace him? Says daughter Tina, “It’s probably one of the hardest things any managing person like Mr. Feld has to do.” On some shows, there are separate trainers for tigers, elephants and horses. “Here, my dad is everything. You’d have to find five new people.”
“For so many years my father has been performing and working,” says Mark, “always having that pressure. But at some point he’s going to have to take it easy.” Nevertheless, the prospect of taking on a similar schedule hasn’t daunted Mark a bit.
The theme of this edition of the circus is “Hollywood’s Golden Years,” celebrated within the bounds of what the circus requires. In addition to Gunther Gebel-Williams you’ll see the Flying Lunas and the Flying Alejandros, the high-wire-dancing Carillo Brothers and the Royal Canadian Aerial Ski Squadron. There will be motorcycle-riding bears and juggling sea lions.
And then, the finale. Gebel-Williams’s name in lights. And the star rushes out amidst his menagerie and is tossed from a teeterboard onto an elephant’s back. And that’s just the beginning.
Tickets are $9.50 and $11.50 for the Glens Falls performances; in Albany they’re priced at $7.50, $9.50 and $11.50.
– Schenectady Gazette, 4 May 1990
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