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Brooksie's thread about "all animal" films reminded me of stumbling onto one Paul Bourgeois' IMDb page a few years ago http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0754823/" target="_blank" target="_blank . He apparently starred in about a dozen animal films in the early 1930's. Does anyone know if any of these survive? Was he something of a silent Clyde Beatty. Any more info about him or the movies?

The only films I know of his that survive are:

BEASTS OF THE JUNGLE - 1912 - at George Eastman House, New York

THE TIGER - 1913 - at National Film Archive, London

IMDb claims he also worked as a cinemaographer under the name Paul Sablon though I'm not sure how they concluded this given they have no biographical info about him beyond a birth year.

I've done quite a bit of research on M. Bourgeois/Sablon (6/11/1888 - 3/11/40) as he was the first "trainer" for the doomed ape, Joe Martin, and the man who poor Joe despised so much that he would fly into a rage whenever he would enter his presence.

In the early 'teens, after filming a number of animal pictures in Paris, Belgium, and the Netherlands for Pathe and Gaumont he came to the states and started a menagerie in Ft. Lee, NJ (later Ashville, NC) specifically for use in films. In 1915 he hooked up with Universal as both an animal producer and actor. He was associated with the films H. Oboe Rhodes - Wild Animal King, Hungry's Happy Dream, On the Trail of the TIgress, The Whole Jungle Was After Him, and certainly many others.

Not to smear the dead, but by current measures he was a despicable human being.

--Peter

This past July, at Mostly Lost 3, we saw NADINE OF NOWHERE (Universal 1916) with Edward Brown, Clara Horton and Mme. Bourgeois. I do not recall if the film was from LOC or a private collector.
Yes, there were animals.

oldposterho wrote:I've done quite a bit of research on M. Bourgeois/Sablon (6/11/1888 - 3/11/40) as he was the first "trainer" for the doomed ape, Joe Martin, and the man who poor Joe despised so much that he would fly into a rage whenever he would enter his presence.

In the early 'teens, after filming a number of animal pictures in Paris for Pathe and Gaumont he came to the states and started a menagerie in Ft. Lee, NJ (later Ashville, NC) specifically for use in films. In 1915 he hooked up with Universal as an animal producer. He was associated with the films H. Oboe Rhodes - Wild Animal King, Hungry's Happy Dream, On the Trail of the TIgris, The Whole Jungle Was After Him, and certainly many others.

Not to smear the dead, but by current measures he was a despicable human being.

--Peter

Unfortunately I fear this sort of thing probably happened deep into the sound era with movie animals. And certainly the producers and directors are as much to blame as anyone, the "trainers" are just giving them what they demand; somebody else would be doing the (dirty) job if not him. (I saw "Joe Martin" in the credits for this guy's films on IMDb and had no idea he was an ape. Unusual moniker for a animal star.)

I think you're right, as it just so happened I watched Sin of Nora Moran today and there's a pretty grim lion scene - although I suspect the lion wasn't too perturbed by it as it would seem like he could have easily seriously injured the 'wrestler' if he found it too annoying. (Great movie, btw, was really delightfully surprised at how good it was. One for the list).

Even back in the day, Bourgeois was considered an old school type of trainer - whips, pain, and absolute obedience, compared to Joe's second trainer who was a bit more tolerant. Not so tolerant that he wasn't the one who ultimately pulled Joe's teeth out and popped a cap in his dome after Joe bit his wife mind you, but a little less heavy handed in the day to day work.

Joe Martin is a fascinating story that I want to write up one day. Really an unjustly forgotten piece of cinema history.

--Peter

I grew up in New York city. Back in the early 1960s, I remember seeing brief films on the Chuck McCann children's show that were all-animal short films with funny dubbed dialogue, not sure if they were in color or not, we had only BW TV back then. All or most of the animals were chimps. Anyhow, I remember them showing a chimp in a costume with a "C" on the front as Super-Son, flying old airplanes, etc. I remember one bit of dialogue where the chimps were telling each other words to the effect that "ten thousand years ago, when we were human beings..."?? McCann introduced them as the "amazing" chimps. Does anybody know exactly what the title of this series of brief all-chimp films was, and who made them ? I don't believe that I have seen anything like them since the early 1960s.......

Started revisiting Mr. Sablon/Bourgeois and, if anybody is interested, the Great Eye has posted one of his early acting jobs (sans animals):



[Edit: Curses, followed the instructions and it still didn't show. Anyway, just copy and paste the YT link.]