Pallenberg bears
The Pallenberg bears were a well-known group of trained bears in the first half of the 20th century and the Pallenbergs were sometimes considered to be the best bear dressers ever.
Feats
The Russian brown bears and - allegedly - Siberian grizzlies rode bicycles, scooters and roller skates, rode hobby horses, walked on stilts and performed other balancing acts. A lithographic poster from the 1920s shows the bears in action. In addition to the tricks already mentioned, bears dancing and making music can also be seen here; the caption reads: Pallenberg's Wonder Bears. Bruins that dance, skate, walk tight ropes and ride bicycles like humans . According to Sonora Carver , the bears at Steel Pier also rode in row boats in the basin that the horses on the dive show used to jump into, which Carver worked for.
According to a newspaper article from 1946, the bears always wore muzzles during the performances in order to prevent accidents, but on the poster mentioned above they are still without muzzles. There are also reports of various accidents. For example, during a performance in 1917, the bear Milukoff attacked the trainer Max Heinrich and in 1932 the artist Tommy Kao was attacked on Steel Pier by one of the Pallenberg bears who had escaped from his enclosure.
The beginnings
The five brothers Josef , Johannes, Franz, Emil and Christian Pallenberg came from Cologne , where they kept numerous exotic animals, including alligators , as pets. Josef Pallenberg became a well-known animal sculptor and designed not only the figure decorations for Hagenbeck's zoo , but also fence-free cages that allowed an unobstructed view of the animals. Later he also equipped zoos in the USA with such cages, for example the Royal Oak Park in Detroit .
At Hagenbeck Josef Pallenberg observed dressage acts, which he reported to his younger brothers Emil and Christian. They gained their first experience with the animals that Josef used as models in his studio in Cologne Zoo . After initial attempts with a large number of different wild animals, they limited themselves to three bears, two baboons , a guanaco and two dogs. Her first engagement was to take her to Nancy . However, she had her Guanaco due to risk of at the border foot-and-mouth disease in quarantine enter, after which their counter-parties Gage shortened by half. This experience led Emil and Christian Pallenberg to the decision to only work with bears from now on.
Performances in the USA
After completing his military service in 1910, Emil and Christian began to accept engagements in circuses and theaters. Three years later, Christian turned to engineering. The Dutch organizer, for whom the Pallenberg brothers were working at the time, saw this as a breach of contract. He then confiscated the bears, which Emil Pallenberg only got back three months later with the help of a German broker. During this time he became engaged to Catherine Wouts. The couple first went on a tour to Russia . Emil Pallenberg received two offers of equal value there. One came from Russia, the other from the USA. Emil Pallenberg had the decision to toss a coin, and so the troops came to the USA in May 1914.
Initially, she had a 25-week engagement that included two appearances a day. However, the outbreak of World War I led to a deterioration in the working conditions of Germans in the USA. John Ringling took advantage of this, hired numerous German artists for the Barnum & Bailey Circus , including the Pallenbergs with their bears. Within three years they became the company's highest paying attraction, and they stayed with Barnum & Bailey for thirteen years. During her time at Barnum & Bailey, the son Emil junior was born, daughter Dibirma followed towards the end of the engagement.
After his time at Barnum & Bailey, Emil Pallenberg tried to lead the Western Vaudeville Association. However, he suffered heavy losses during the economic depression and had to sell three of his four different bear groups. However, he was soon able to compensate for this through successful engagements. This included 62 weeks on Broadway at Music in the Air , two years in Australia , appearances in Madison Square Garden , European tours and appearances at Steel Pier amusement park in Atlantic City , Ringling's summer show for New York , Spangles , and the Christmas stage show The Nativity in the New York Music Hall in 1948.
The Pallenbergs also appeared with their bears in various films, including The Eagle with Rudolph Valentino and Buck Benny Rides Again with Jack Benny . In the winter of 1953/54 Emil Pallenberg senior withdrew into private life, while his son continued the family tradition.
Afterlife
In 1969, Emil and Catherine Pallenberg were inducted into the Sarasota Circus Hall of Fame . Emil Pallenberg senior died in 1963, but his widow was able to attend the ceremony.
In 2007, the Pallenberg bears were commemorated with an exhibition at the Clinton, Connecticut , History Museum , where the Pallenbergs lived. Dibirma Burnham, the daughter of Emil Pallenberg senior, was present at the opening. As part of the exhibition, historical film recordings of the training of the bears could be seen.
Individual evidence
- ^ Earl Chapin May, When the White Tops are Laid Away , in: Popular Mechanics , December 1926, pp. 898-904, here p. 899
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Sonora Carver, A Girl and Five Brave Horses , Mansfield Center 2009, ISBN 978-1-57898-732-0 , p. 131
- ^ The Pallenberg Bears. A Hamid Morton Act , in: The Gazette , Montreal, March 30, 1946, p. 17
- ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9E0CE2DE153AE433A25752C1A9629C946696D6CF
- ↑ Sonora Carver, A Girl and Five Brave Horses , Mansfield Center 2009, ISBN 978-1-57898-732-0 , pp. 194 f.
- ↑ http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/ancestorsearchresults.asp?last_name=Pallenberg
- ↑ Sonora Carver, A Girl and Five Brave Horses , Mansfield Center 2009, ISBN 978-1-57898-732-0 , p. 131 and ö.
- ↑ http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F04E0DC153FE33BBC4852DFB4678383659EDE
- ^ Pallenberg Makes Name Mean Best in Bear Acts , in: The Billboard , June 25, 1955, p. 86
- ^ Seventeen Circus 'Greats' Elected to Hall of Fame , in: The Herald Tribune , January 7, 1969, p. 19
- ↑ http://www.clintoncthistory.org/chs_winter_2007.pdf ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
