This black & white educational film is about training lions and big cats for a performance. This was produced in cooperation with the World Jungle Compound in Thousand Oaks, CA. This was circa 1949 or 1950.
Opening: A Gene Blakely Featurette, BIG CATS (:06-:17). A lion is guided by a trainer onto a stool. A woman plays with a dog. The dog won’t do any tricks. The woman tries to train him but he remains unmoved. A lion is a movie star lion, Jackie. The trainer, Mel trains him. The Lion hugs the trainer and the two fall over. The lion seems very playful (:18-2:01). When Jackie was a little young lion cub, Mel fed him a bottle. Jackie eats from the bottle. Jackie is in a cage with other lions, tigers and leopards. The big cats all play together. A trainer waves a pole and the goal is to teach them not to like the pole. The big cats touch the pole. A tiger sniffs the trainer’s feet. A woman looks at a tiger in a cage, who climbs a tree. A trainer waves the pole as the lion waves his paws at it. A lion grabs the pole, puts it in his mouth (2:02-4:48). The trainer holds a pole and the large cats climb on one another and move around. A big lion. Two lions in a cage, one growls. An elephant picks up a woman. A four-year-old lion walks around a cage. A trainer enters with a pole and a chair.An audience watches. Lions sit on stools. The trainer waves the pole at the lion and he swats at it (4:49-6:57). Lions move around the cage, they group together. Lions play, a trainer waves the chair. Lions run and jump through a ring of fire. A trainer has a chair and a whip. He whips the lion and the lion swats at him. Lions growl and sit on stools. The Lions all stand up on stools and get near one another in formation (6:58-8:23). Jackie growls but eventually gets onto a stool. The trainer waves the whip and the lion moves. The trainer sits on Jackie to end the act (8:24-8:59). End credits (9:00-9:10).
The World Jungle Compound dates back to 1925, when Louis Goebel purchased land where the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza currently stands for $50. Goebel soon opened Goebel’s Lion Farm, where he trained lions and rented them to movie studios. The 170 acre site housed all sorts of animals including elephants, tigers, giraffes, hippos, chimpanzees and more. Many TV shows and movies were filmed there. The Farm was also home to Leo the Lion, of MGM Pictures fame. Goebel sold Jungleland in 1946 to Trader Horne and Billy Richards and the park was renamed the “World Jungle Compound.” Ten years later it was sold again to executives from 20th Century Fox and was renamed “Jungleland.” It closed forever in October 1969.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
