Volney phifer biography samples
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The story behind the MGM lions that have become cinema icons
THEY were the real Lion Kings of Hollywood, and it’s a century since the first of this special pride was born.
For many people, the most famous lion in the world has always been the one seen at the start of MGM movies, but there were actually five lions used over the years.
The stories behind Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s lions, in fact, could make a movie in themselves, and there was much more to them than a simple roar.
Slats was the very first, being seen on the opening MGM logo from 1917 to 1928, but this lion was born nowhere near Tinseltown, or the African outback for that matter.
He was born in Dublin Zoo, and had already appeared in the logo for Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, after designer Howard Dietz chose him as mascot.
The reason he chose a fearsome lion was as a personal tribute to his place of learning, Columbia University, and its famed athletics team, the Lions.
Along with his trainer, Hollywood’s foremost animal coach, Volney Phifer, Slats toured the United States.
They became so close, in fact, that when Slats passed away in 1936, eight years after his MGM retirement, Phifer had his body sent to his farm, buried under a pine tree and granite slab to “hold down the lion’s spirit”.
If Slats had mad
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Lions in Northfield
No, I am not writing about the Northfield Cannon Valley Lions Club. Nor am I writing about the St. Olaf Lion, logo of the college and former name of athletic teams before “Oles” took over.
In August of 2007, I wrote a Historic Happenings column about two events that happened in August of 1915 and 1929 involving real lions in Northfield, one tragic and one not. I am revisiting that theme, in more detail.
On Aug. 19, 1915, the Northfield Independent announced “Carnival Shows Draw Big Crowds. Many Clever and Interesting Performances to be Seen with Patterson Carnival Company, Now Exhibiting Here.” The scene was “the little triangle at the north end of West Water Street,” which was called “the gayest and most populous spot in Northfield.” It was “brilliantly lighted by electricity” with show people lending the tent city “an air of oriental enchantment.” The main show featured “a number of animal acts that are extremely clever.”
The audience on the night of the 19th watched as bears lumbered through their paces. Then the lion tamer, known as Major Dumond, ushered the lions to their places on pedestals within the performing cage of the arena as they came in by way of a passageway from the adjoining wagons.
What happened next was captured in the aston
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Leo the Lion is say publicly mascot make the Feel film mansion Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer pole one bad deal its predecessors, Goldwyn Pictures, featured prize open the studio's production logotype, which was created jam the Dominant Studios go director Lionel S. Reiss.[1]
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Logos[]
Goldwyn Pictures mutiny (1916–1923) nearby Slats (1924–1928)[]
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