Word: gebel
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DIED. GUNTHER GEBEL-WILLIAMS, 66, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus animal trainer; of cancer; in Venice, Fla. Gebel-Williams, the best-known animal trainer in the world, diminutive at 5 ft. 4 in., trained tigers and leopards to jump through flaming hoops and wrap their bodies around his neck. Though a gifted trainer, he lost teeth and bore deep scars from the huge animals, with whom he performed in 12,000 shows. When Kenny, one of his beloved panthers, died, his skin was preserved and displayed in Gebel-Williams' living room...
...every crunchy liberal concern they could dredge up from the recesses of their proto-yuppie minds. They preached about animal rights and the four food groups, anti-commercialism and sanitary concerns. Because they were bent on a mission of self-justification and shameless evasion, I missed out on Gunther Gebel Williams. Several times. And now he's retired...
...being led away by a security guard, but all around him were these sort of rightist goons...One of them was nicknamed Al-gebel, 'The Mountain.' Al-gebel saw me with my camera...I kept taking pictures and he kept getting closer, and finally he picked me up and moved me out of the way. There's a great sequence of photos in which you see him notice me, start advancing, and then the final frame is a blur...
...senior Feld threw out the freak shows, hired new acts, stepped up the pace of the show and started the world's first clown college. Determined to get the best performers, he bought an entire West German circus for $2 million in 1968 just to snare its star, Gebel-Williams. After the younger Feld graduated from Boston University in 1970, he didn't have to run away from home to join the business he wanted to pursue. He became the ringmaster when his father died...
...typical Feld circus unit is a major logistical production that travels in its own 45-car train, costs $600,000 a week to operate and employs some 140 performers, 120 stagehands and 90 animals. Each show has its own star attraction. Feld's biggest has been wild-animal trainer Gebel-Williams, 55, who is on a two-year farewell tour after a career of more than 11,000 performances and 500 stitches from mishaps with sharp-clawed cats. Gebel- Williams changed the nature of animal training by developing close bonds with his animals, which range from Bengal tigers to Lipizzaner...