Maybe I will lay down with the cats like this today for an instant portrait of history. I have no idea where I will find a sheep though,,,HAHA. This painting was painted for the Queen after she gave audience to Mr. Van Amburgh. It is still owned by the royal family.
7 comments:
I'll lend you my sheep for the night. I better get it back though!
HA! No way Steve, I know where that thing has been!
Somehow I just can't see you recreating the famed Van Amberg lion/lamb scene. On the other hand Isaac had no hind leg cats.
On another hand Ben,
I am pretty sure this exact scene didn't really take place. Even with expendable cats and sheep.
The great Ringling press agent of the mid-20th century, Roland Butler, liked to send out a photo of a lion and lamb stretched out peacefully together.
"Wow, Roland, that's a great shot," said a newspaperman. "Yeah," Roland replied. "It took us about seven lambs. But we finally got it right."
In reality I think Van Am performed in a pretty small rectangular cage with mixed cats who did little beyond sit, lay down, and slink away. I know he beat the hell out of them with iron pipe, because even in 1840 there were protests. (Good thikng the guy didn;t work elephants.) The lion/lamb thing was the big trick. Most days he probably fed the lamb to the cats after the show. I believe he had a tea party trick too. Beat the hell out of the cats then invite audience members into the cage to drink tea while cats dared not so much as flinch. Must have lived in Connersville later. I think he started in the Hudson River valley with the other zoological institute show owners -- the flatfooters.
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Slight correction: it was the Van Amburgh SHOW (in the 1860s-70s) that often wintered in Connersville. The man himself died of natural causes in 1865 in Philadelphia, several years after last entering the den though he continued to travel with the show bearing his name. Don't know that he ever resided in Connersville.
Dick Flint
Baltimore
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