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49-472: The Universal zoo was one of the earliest parts of the film operation that Carl Laemmle sent out to the west coast, and one of the first pieces developed within the Universal City he opened in 1915. According to one scholar, avoiding the oversight of east-coast animal welfare groups was one of the many motives for moving the film industry out west. The so-called Universal Oak Crest ranch zoo located at

98-642: A 230-acre (0.9-km ) converted farm in the San Fernando Valley , just over the Cahuenga Pass from Hollywood. Universal maintained two East Coast offices: The first was located at 1600 Broadway, New York City. This building, initially known as the Studebaker Building , was razed around 2004 or 2005. The second location to house Universal's executive offices was at 730 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Many years later, 445 Park Avenue

147-483: A ball of misery and alternately suffered from mal de mere [ sic ] and attacks of cramps. Since then, he has not molested Joe's belongings, and peace reigns in the house of Martin. Little Joe (alligator) was apparently purchased from a bankrupt circus. Diana Serra Cary was a child performer who appeared as "Baby Peggy" in dozens of short comedies produced by Century and distributed by Universal between 1921 and 1924. She mentioned Joe Martin, Charlie

196-526: A day in winter, and running water was put in all cages during the summer. The zoo supervisors and head trainers were often involved in conceiving and producing the studio's animal pictures. Most had a circus background. Paul Bourgeois both directed animal films and worked as an actor. The brothers Stecker and Charles B. Murphy worked together managing the animals on the Zane Grey film Golden Dreams . De Rosselli, Stecker and Murphy all had on-screen parts in

245-670: A film distribution service, the Laemmle Film Service, then into production as Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP) , later renamed Universal Film Manufacturing Company , and later still renamed Universal Pictures Company. Karl Lämmle was born in 1867 to Julius Baruch Lämmle and Rebekka Lämmle, a Jewish couple in the Radstrasse, a street in the Jewish quarter of Laupheim , in the Kingdom of Württemberg . His father

294-438: A habit—he had an idea. He puffed ecstatically for a moment, during which time Skipper chattered and cursed, seeing that Joe had something which he hadn't, and at last he snatched the lighted weed and started in on it. Those watching, say that Joe observed him with saturnine joy, and, by pretending to take the cigar away, bluffed Skipper into smoking all of it. What resulted was, of course, inevitable. The robber monkey curled up in

343-471: A handful of low-maintenance animals and/or kept the zoo infrastructure intact into the early 1930s. The studio stopped offering tours in the 1930s and would not revive the practice until 1964. Universal City Zoo assistant keeper Jose Alvarez was involved in what was described as a " revolver duel" in 1917; Alvarez was dying and the other man, Modesto Sylvas, was dead after an alleged attack by Sylvas on Alvarez's wife. In February 1927, one assistant trainer at

392-788: A naturalized American citizen. Laemmle worked a variety of jobs, but by 1894 he was the bookkeeper of the Continental Clothing Company in Oshkosh, Wisconsin , where he introduced a bolder advertising style. In 1906, at the age of 39, Laemmle quit his job. He initially wanted to open a network of cheap retail stores, but changed his mind after entering a nickelodeon . He started one of the first motion picture theaters in Chicago, The White Front on Milwaukee Avenue, and quickly branched out into film exchange services. He challenged Thomas Edison's monopoly on moving pictures,

441-451: A number of things to refute it…We saw Cary cited numerous times, but there are flaws in her account. It's important to remember that she 'witnessed' this event at a very young age. Cary then wrote her autobiography in 1996, at the age of 78, a full 73 years after the supposed incident occurred. We need to at least consider that Cary may be misremembering a moment from her youth, if not imagining an incident that never really took place…While this

490-673: A private conversation in the Universal barn that he's always had a tense relationship with Charlie the Elephant. "A week later" Cary and her father overheard Stecker and Charlie in battle, and with Cary as an eyewitness, Stecker was left "crushed and broken…the luckless trainer…lay in the bloodied dust" as a propman found "Stecker's big gun" and killed Charlie with "three blasts from the powerful weapon." A pair of reference librarians who used Joe Martin as an example of how to evaluate sources wrote, "We can find nothing to confirm Cary's story, and

539-436: A producer (1909–1934), is remembered for The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), The Phantom of The Opera (1925), both with Lon Chaney Sr. in the title role, and The Man Who Laughs (1928) and most of the early sound horror films, such as Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931), with his son, Carl Jr. Laemmle remained connected to his home town of Laupheim throughout his life, providing financial support to it. In

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588-432: A stable with 500 horses, along with a studio blacksmith and saddlery . The 400-acre (1.6 km) studio was wild even without the addition of African lions and leopards—" jackrabbits and mountain lions still roamed it." In 1916, someone brought a black diamond rattlesnake to the zoo; De Rosselli supposedly "performed the operation of removing the poison sack from its mouth and now it is destined to be an actor." During

637-467: A winding road from Universal City. She described it as "surrounded by a tall whitewashed fence with everything looking about neat as a pin…laid out with white walks, a large wire-enclosed bird house being the centerpiece of the place, [which contains] everything from canary-birds to a huge elephant." The zoo also had a "big barn-like building with concrete floors" that housed an elephant and six camels. The cages were said to be within 100 ft (30 m) of

686-401: A zoo baby boom in 1917, an entertainment writer made a reference that pointed to the fraught social politics of the nadir of American race relations era: "There is no race suicide evidence about Universal City Zoo. The troop of youngsters there include a leopard, three lions, four huskies, seven wolves, camel, cinnamon bear , and three goats, all under four weeks of age." Circa summer 1919,

735-515: A zoo in San Diego . According to one source the end of the silent era doomed the zoo because it was no longer possible for a trainer to stand behind the camera and verbally cue the animals through their moves. Using hand signals, that the animal needed to perceive from 30 ft (9.1 m) away was "so arduous a task that until now wild animals have not been used in talkies , save in one or two synchronized sequences." The studio may have held onto

784-486: Is a trivial exercise in chasing down materials, it does point to a larger problem. Baby Peggy's account has been cited a number of times, even though it seems not to be true. Repetition does not always equate to authority." Cary’s memoir has led to confusion about whether or not Joe Martin comedies were associated with the Stern brothers comedy operation. Thomas Reeder, author of the major Stern brothers filmography, concluded

833-495: Is debate about how Charlie was dispatched, and the preponderance of evidence points to garroting—although some sources do say the studio settled upon gunshot— no sources assert summary execution of an elephant worth thousands of dollars. As for Curley Stecker, multiple newspaper accounts relate that he was not killed immediately. He succumbed to his injuries after being hospitalized or suffering at his home in Lankershim for

882-492: The Los Angeles River , a location that put the zoo in danger of intermittent flooding. In 1921, Betsy, one of apparently multiple mountain lions at the zoo, gave birth to a litter of four kittens. Carl Laemmle's brothers-in-law Julius and Abe Stern had a film operation across town that produced comedy shorts. Sometimes their animals, such as the so-called Century Lions, were boarded at the zoo. In April 1921, all of

931-619: The Motion Picture Patents Company , under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 . As part of his offensive against Edison's company, Laemmle began advertising individual "stars," such as Mary Pickford and Florence Lawrence , thus increasing their individual earning power, and thus their willingness to side with the "Independents." After moving to New York, Carl Laemmle became involved in producing movies, forming Independent Moving Pictures (IMP);

980-576: The "Universal Film Manufacturing Company", with Laemmle assuming the role of president. They founded the Company with studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey , where at the beginning of the 20th century many early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based. On March 15, 1915, Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility, Universal Studios Hollywood , on

1029-589: The 1930s he sponsored hundreds of Jews from Laupheim and Württemberg to emigrate from Nazi Germany to the United States, paying both emigration and immigration fees, thus saving them from the Holocaust . To ensure and facilitate their immigration, Laemmle contacted American authorities, members of the House of Representatives and Secretary of State Cordell Hull . He also intervened to try to secure entry for

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1078-708: The Century Comedy Zoo (aka L-KO ) animals were moved to the Universal Zoo. In the mid-1920s, Carl Laemmle personally managed the studio's response to animal cruelty allegations by the American Animal Defense League in the wake of the killing of Charlie the Elephant . In 1926, the zoo auctioned off a number of animals, including 10 lions, two tigers, six monkeys and some "less interesting" animals to local zoos, circuses and private owners. (The lions auctioned in 1926 may have become

1127-572: The Elephant, and Curley Stecker in her 1996 memoir, Whatever Happened to Baby Peggy? According to historian of silent-era comedy films Steve Massa , although her books are for the most part "a very accurate retelling of her time in Hollywood," she "goes off the rails in her retelling of the deaths of Joe Martin and Charlie." He argues that Cary's account is likely from "stories that Cary was told instead of things she experienced herself." In Cary's Whatever Happened to Baby Peggy? , she claims that she

1176-573: The Joe Martin comedies were not Stern-affiliated and suggests, "[Cary] may have misremembered Mrs. Joe Martin as Joe." Cary was often directed by Fred Fishback ; Fishback was in charge of the Mrs. Joe Martin (chimpanzee) films. Cary places Julius Stern on the scene of Stecker killing Joe Martin, but the history of the Stern brothers comedy operation states "the Sterns had no direct involvement with any of

1225-582: The US for a better life, also following his thirteen-year-older brother Joseph. For his 17th birthday, his father had given him the tickets for an Atlantic crossing on the steamboat SS Neckar plus fifty dollars. He left Bremerhaven on January 28, 1884, and arrived in New York on February 14, 1884. He settled in Chicago . Here he lived for about twenty years as a bookkeeper and office manager. In 1889, he became

1274-496: The [Joe Martin films].” Of course, the Stern brothers could possibly have had indirect involvement in the Joe Martin films in that Carl Laemmle was their brother-in-law and Carl Laemmle Jr. their nephew. As mentioned by the library research team, primary sources and film history books largely fail to validate Cary's narrative. According to one newspaper report in 1921, Joe Martin may very well have bitten Curly Stecker's wife Ethel, while shooting A Monkey Bellhop. According to

1323-424: The article, Curly Stecker volunteered to remove Joe Martin's "tusks," rather than kill Joe Martin, which was the legally prescribed penalty. Stecker apparently would do the operation himself; a dental chair is mentioned in the article. This report or similar is likely the origin of Cary's version. However, Universal, Al G. Barnes , Frank Buck , film history books, and multiple press outlets all agree that Joe Martin

1372-463: The better part of the year. Stecker's death certificate says that he died June 17, 1924, at Hollywood Hospital of myelogenous leukemia complicated by wild animal injury. 34°08′28″N 118°20′54″W  /  34.1410°N 118.3484°W  / 34.1410; -118.3484 Carl Laemmle Carl Laemmle ( / ˈ l ɛ m l i / ; born Karl Lämmle German: [ˈlɛmlə] ; January 17, 1867 – September 24, 1939)

1421-504: The city was the site of many new movie-related businesses. On April 30, 1912, in New York, Laemmle brought together Pat Powers of Powers Motion Picture Company, Mark Dintenfass of Champion Film Company , William Swanson of Rex Motion Picture Company , David Horsley of Nestor Film Company , as well as Charles Baumann and Adam Kessel of the New York Motion Picture Company , to merge their companies with IMP as

1470-571: The core of the Goebel's Lion Farm collection in Thousand Oaks, California .) The zoo closed in 1930. One article in 1939 stated, "When the talkies came…the menagerie proved too expensive to keep up…it represented an investment of $ 600,000." Sometime before May 1930, the 26 lions were sold to a circus in Macon, Georgia , Brownie the bear was sent to Kansas City, and Jiggs the orangutan went to

1519-528: The dedicated zoo and arena for filming were a major attraction for the thousands of invited guests. Admission to the studio tour, including the zoo, cost 25¢ in 1915. The tour included a box lunch and attracted an average of 500 visitors a day. Visiting dignitaries, such as Henry Ford or the chairman of the Canadian Censor Board , were frequently given tours and photo opportunities with the famous animals. Universal City in 1915 also reportedly had

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1568-566: The film industry included his cousins Max Laemmle , Kurt Laemmle , and William Wyler ; his nephews Ernst Laemmle and Edward Laemmle ; his niece Carla Laemmle ; and his brothers-in-law Isadore Bernstein , Joseph Stern , and Abe Stern . His great-nephew Michael Laemmle is a noterd resident of Darwin, California , and was featured in the 2011 documentary Darwin: No Services Ahead . His great-grandniece, Antonia Carlotta, talks about him at length in Universally Me , her web series about

1617-507: The final construction was a one-story restaurant, the original plans thwarted by the Great Depression . In 1936, Laemmle and his son were removed from the company he founded by a hostile takeover. He briefly resumed distribution with a partner, Michael Mindlin, specializing in foreign films as CL Imports, in the mid-1930s, but for the most part remained in secluded retirement until his death. In 1898, Laemmle married Recha Stern,

1666-414: The first meal of the day was rich fare.) The camels were each given half a bale of hay a day. The lions got 25 lb (11 kg) of meat a day, while the leopards and pumas got 12 lb (5.4 kg) each. Bears received bread and vegetables, and had 5 ft (1.5 m)-deep pits filled with running water. "Eskimo dogs" were served bread, vegetables and a meat stew. Animals were given water three times

1715-557: The former home of film pioneer Thomas Ince on Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills, which was razed in the early 1940s; he also maintained a large apartment for himself and his two children at 465 West End Avenue in New York City. Asked how to pronounce his surname, Laemmle told The Literary Digest in 1936, "The name means 'little lamb' and is pronounced as if it were spelled 'lem-lee'." Laemmle's relatives in

1764-614: The history of Universal Studios. Poet Ogden Nash observed the following about Laemmle's habit of giving his son and nephews top executive positions in his studios: Uncle Carl Laemmle Has a very large faemmle. Laemmle died from cardiovascular disease on September 24, 1939, in Beverly Hills, California , at the age of 72. Laemmle was entombed in the Chapel Mausoleum at Home of Peace Cemetery . Laemmle, although having made hundreds of films in his active years as

1813-415: The index of animals on the back ranch was "one tigress, 4 lionesses, 7 lions, 4 lion cubs, 6 leopards, 2 leopard cubs, 2 pumas, 2 bears, 10 wolves, 3 newborn wolf-puppies, 12 Malamute sledge dogs, 3 weaning puppies, 1 elephant, 4 camels, 1 baby camel, 4 monkeys, 1 orangutan (the world-famous Joe Martin ), 1 hoot-owl, 1 cockatoo, 2 ducks, 40 pigeons, 24 chickens, 16 domestic dogs." At the zoo's peak in 1920, it

1862-436: The lion-tamer romance The Man Tamer (1921) starring Gladys Walton . In an animal comedy, called " Monkey Stuff ," in which Joe took the lead, he had to smoke a cigar, and he got away with it, but was green-eyed for an hour afterward. When he went into his cage that night, he begged another lighted cigar from a studio carpenter, who gave it to him, observing that Joe had " got the habit ." But Joe had something different from

1911-444: The lionnesses was severely injured. In July 1914, shaving the camels for "sanitary reasons" yielded camel hair that was sold for $ 350. As Carol Weld put it in 1939, “Among the oak trees, desert scenes, and other natural beauties to be found on the far outskirts of Los Angeles was established a good-sized zoo." When Universal City held its grand opening at the current location (at what was then called Lankershim ) on March 15, 1915,

1960-457: The niece of Sam Stern, his employer at the Continental Clothing Company. Together, they had a daughter named Rosabelle (born 1903) and a son named Julius (born 1908). Rosabelle later married Stanley Bergerman , while Julius became known as Carl Laemmle Jr. On January 13, 1919, at the age of 43, Recha died from pneumonia caused by the Spanish flu . After moving to California, Laemmle purchased

2009-432: The old Providencia Ranch began with what would today be called a petting zoo of domestic animals (goats, sheep, a pig and horses) and rapidly expanded to include a menagerie of wild animals, supposedly including "lions, tigers, bears, pumas, leopards, jaguars and other wild denizens of the tropical forests." In May 1914, two lionesses and leopard got in a half-hour-long fight when a chute was left open between cages; one of

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2058-669: The refugees on board the SS ; St. Louis , who were ultimately sent back from Havana to Europe in 1939, where many were murdered in the Holocaust. Abe Stern Abe Stern (March 8, 1888 – July 12, 1951) was an American film producer . He produced 542 films between 1917 and 1929. He was a co-founder of Universal Studios . He was born in Fulda , Germany, and died in Los Angeles County , California . He

2107-464: The zoo, Scotty Wonderle, shot another assistant trainer, George Emerson, as part of some long-standing personal feud. The proximate issue was whose job it was to put a mat in a tiger’s cage. Emerson survived and worked as a film-industry animal trainer for another 20 years. During the Curley Stecker era, feeding time was 8 a.m. daily except Sundays. (Sunday was a fast day; on Monday mornings

2156-463: Was a German-American film producer and the co-founder and, until 1934, owner of Universal Pictures . He produced or worked on over 400 films. Regarded as one of the most important of the early film pioneers, Laemmle was born in what is now Germany . He immigrated to the United States in 1884 and worked in Chicago for 20 years before he began buying nickelodeons , eventually expanding into

2205-560: Was a cattle merchant, also involved in land transactions. The family struggled financially and lived in poverty: Of his eleven siblings only 3 reached adulthood. He was one of the youngest children, and close to his mother, who enrolled him in a Jewish school. When he was 13, she arranged a three-year apprenticeship for him in Ichenhausen , a nearby village, where he learned accounting and sales, and worked to support his family. After his mother died in 1883, Laemmle decided to emigrate to

2254-442: Was home to some 30 lions. The zoo also periodically housed somewhat less familiar animals such as armadillos and anteaters . Harry Carey found two bear cubs on his ranch that year and took them to Curly Stecker, "knowing that they would be well-cared for at Universal City." In 1921, the zoo bought eight kangaroos. Circa 1921, a newspaper reporter wrote that the zoo was on the Universal back ranch about 2 mi (3.2 km) down

2303-526: Was in the midst of filming with "Joe Martin the chimpanzee" when, somewhere backstage, Joe Martin bit Curly Stecker's wife. Despite the helpless pleadings of producer Julius Stern , Stecker knocked out Joe Martin with a crowbar , strapped him to a dental chair on set, pulled out all of his teeth with pliers and then, when he came to his senses, killed Joe Martin with a single shot to the brain. Later in Cary's telling, Curly Stecker confessed to Cary and her father in

2352-475: Was sold to the circus, and he appears to have both toured the country and been exhibited for several years in "Monkeyville" (a local derisive description of Barnes City, California ). Multiple newspaper articles from the second half of 1923 report on the studio's deliberations about Charlie the Elephant's fate—whether or not he would be euthanized was a decision reportedly made by Carl Laemmle himself, and multiple methods of execution were considered. While there

2401-564: Was the location of Universal's executive offices. In 1916, Laemmle sponsored the $ 3,000 three-foot-tall solid silver Universal Trophy for the winner of the annual Universal race at the Uniontown Speedway board track in southwestern Pennsylvania. Universal filmed each race from 1916 to 1922. In 1932, Laemmle opened the Laemmle Building on Hollywood and Vine . Originally planned as a 900-seat theater and office tower,

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