Big Otto

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Big Otto
Moving Picture World, 1914
Born
Otto Ferdinand Breitkreutz

(1866-04-12)April 12, 1866
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
DiedDecember 25, 1928(1928-12-25) (aged 62)
Glendale, California
Occupation(s)Animal trainer, circus owner, zoo director, filmmaker
Years active1900–1920

Otto F. Breitkreutz (April 16, 1866 – December 25, 1928), universally known as Big Otto, was an American circus man and film producer during the early 20th century. He was called Big Otto because he weighed somewhere between 350–480 lb (160–220 kg)[1][2] and was "big in heart and policy."[3]

Biography[edit]

He came to fame with Big Otto's Trained Wild Animals, a circus that exhibited around the Midwest and the east coast of the U.S., including at Eau Claire's Annual Agricultural Street Fair and Carnival in 1904,[4] Chicago's White City Amusement Park in 1906,[5] and Tennessee's Appalachian Exposition in 1910.[6] In 1908 Big Otto's Circus wintered in Chicago and among the staffmembers was a Little Otto, more formally named Gust Breitkreutz.[7][8] Big Otto's Animals eventually became the Big Otto Combined Shows, wherein the wild animals were but one part of a larger traveling carnival, along with a Ferris wheel, Turner's World Wonder, Mets the Scientific Wonder, and Millie Christine the Carolina Twin.[9] For the Appalachian Exposition at Knoxville in 1910, Big Otto traveled with 100 animals in 21 wagons, 30 employees, and a press agent.[10]

According to one report, due to his failure to pay a debt, Breitkruetz's animal collection was transferred to ownership of film producer William Selig; Big Otto's wild animals became the core of the Selig Zoo.[11] According to an interview with William Selig published in 1928, "I chanced to meet Al Ringling on the street; he told me of an itinerant showman named Big Otto, who had a small menagerie in Milwaukee. The next day I traveled to Milwaukee and engaged the outfit to come to Chicago."[12] They began making animal films in Chicago,[13] including The Lion Tamer (1909), which may have featured Big Otto in the title role.[14] Meanwhile a "White City [amusement park] had failed at Jacksonville, Florida."[12] Selig bought that land and the Big Otto/Selig combined menagerie[15][13] filmed several movies there during the winter of 1911–12.[11] Selig eventually purchased all of Big Otto's animals[16] and hired Breitkreutz to manage Selig's Wild Animal Farm in Santa Monica.[3] (A new zoo director was installed in 1915 when the operation moved to the site near Los Angeles' Eastlake Park.) In 1912 a reviewer of Selig Polyscope's film Kings of the Forest made a point to connect the success of Selig's animal movies to Breitkreutz's skill as a trainer:[17]

The Selig series of films in which wild animals played their parts created great interest and equally as great surprise at the time of their releases, nearly two years ago...Although his name does not appear in the cast of characters, nor he himself in the pictures, "Big Otto," Selig's wild animal expert, may well be termed the mainspring of action, so far as the acting of the majestic lions and the big cat-like leopards are concerned. Otto's wonderful handling of these savage animals, out in the open, is truly a marvel of skillful training and control.

In 1913, Breitkreutz directed at least two films for Selig Polyscope, one called The Artist and the Brute,[18] and the other called The Wise Old Elephant, starring Kathlyn Williams.[19] Big Otto is credited with the scenario (screenplay) for Selig's Alone in the Jungle.[20] In 1914 Big Otto Pictures released The Mysterious Man of the Jungle, a four-reel feature.[21] Around 1915, Big Otto bought land between Los Angeles and Pasadena where he kept an animal collection sometimes called Big Otto Zoo.[22]

In 1918 Breitkreutz was indicted by a grand jury for mail fraud due to his involvement in a shady plan to sell horse meat to the U.S. government to feed prisoners of war.[2][23] The charges were dropped for insufficient evidence.[24] Breitkreutz was also involved in some kind of gold mining syndicate or scheme that was called, naturally, Big Otto Mines.[25][26]

In May 1928, famous film cowboy Tom Mix mentioned Breitkreutz in Photoplay magazine, "Big Otto, I may say, is still a-livin' an' still got an animal show. His good lookin' daughter is married to a young feller named Furness, one of the owners of the Continental an' a lot of other hotels 'round Los Angeles an' San Francisco."[27]

Otto F. Breitkreutz died in Los Angeles in December 1928.[28]

Personal life[edit]

Breitkruetz was born in 1866 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His parents Ferdinand and Marie (Kehl) Breitkreutz were both natives of Prussia and had at least 11 children, of which Otto was the sixth by birth order.[29][30][31][32] In 1890, Breitkreutz married Laura Larson in Milwaukee County.[33] At the time of the 1910 U.S. census, Breitkreutz was living in Wisconsin with his wife Laura,[34] and two teenage daughters, Ruth and Laurine.[30] According to Motography, Big Otto also had an adopted daughter, Olga, known professionally as Princess Cecelia.[3][a]

Gallery[edit]

Big Otto Projects
  • Big Otto Shows advertisement (Valdosta Times, Georgia, 1910)
    Big Otto Shows advertisement (Valdosta Times, Georgia, 1910)
  • Big Otto managed Selig's Wild Animal Farm in Santa Monica
    Big Otto managed Selig's Wild Animal Farm in Santa Monica
  • The Mysterious Man of the Jungle advertisement (Moving Picture World, 1914)
    The Mysterious Man of the Jungle advertisement (Moving Picture World, 1914)

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Princess "Cecelia" is almost certainly Olga Celeste, a big-cat trainer who prepared the animals for Bringing Up Baby, et al. She joined Big Otto's operation in her teens but was probably not legally adopted by him.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Los Angeles Evening Post-Record 14 Jun 1918, page 3". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  2. ^ a b "Forest City Press 05 Sep 1918, page 5". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  3. ^ a b c "Maintaining a Wild Animal Jungle for Pictures, The Diamond S Farm, Motography (Jan-Dec 1912) - Lantern". lantern.mediahist.org. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  4. ^ "The Weekly Telegram 16 Sep 1904, page Page 5". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  5. ^ "Muscatine News-Tribune 04 May 1906, page 7". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  6. ^ "Photo Copy Project 2011-012-097 [Princess Bonita, Queen of the leopards. "Big Otto's" Trained Wild Animals]. Appalachian Exposition, Sept. 12-Oct. 12, 1910. No. 254. Stereo by C.A. Wayland, So. Knoxville, Tenn". C.M. McClung Historical Collection, Knox County Public Library. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  7. ^ "Show World (August 15, 1908) - Lantern". lantern.mediahist.org. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  8. ^ "The Billboard 1908-12-05: Vol 20 Iss 49 - Lantern". lantern.mediahist.org. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  9. ^ "The Clarksburg Telegram 02 Jun 1910, page 3". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  10. ^ "The Billboard 1910-09-24: Vol 22 Iss 39 - Lantern". lantern.mediahist.org. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  11. ^ a b Haenni, Sabine (2016). "Animal Empire: Thrill and Legitimation at William Selig's Zoo and Jungle Pictures". In Lawrence, Michael; Lury, Karen (eds.). The Zoo and Screen Media. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US. pp. 87–110. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-53561-0_5. ISBN 978-1-137-54342-4. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
  12. ^ a b "Picture-Play Magazine - Lantern". lantern.mediahist.org. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  13. ^ a b "back to Pioneer Days, Picture-Play Magazine - Lantern". lantern.mediahist.org. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  14. ^ Erish, Andrew A. (March 1, 2012). Col. William N. Selig, the Man Who Invented Hollywood. University of Texas Press. pp. 106–108. ISBN 978-0-292-74269-7.
  15. ^ "Hollywood rajah : the life and times of Louis B. Mayer - Lantern". lantern.mediahist.org. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  16. ^ "Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1915) - Lantern". lantern.mediahist.org. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  17. ^ "Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1912) - Lantern". lantern.mediahist.org. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  18. ^ Stoddart, Helen (2015). "The Circus and Early Cinema: Gravity, Narrative, and Machines". Studies in Popular Culture. 38 (1): 1–17. ISSN 0888-5753. JSTOR 44259582.
  19. ^ "Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1913) - Lantern". lantern.mediahist.org. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  20. ^ "Motography (Jan-Jun 1913) - Lantern". lantern.mediahist.org. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  21. ^ "Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1914) - Lantern". lantern.mediahist.org. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  22. ^ "The Billboard 1915-01-09: Vol 27 Iss 2 - Lantern". lantern.mediahist.org. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  23. ^ "Capper's Weekly 29 Dec 1917, page 8". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  24. ^ "Los Angeles Evening Express 14 Jun 1918, page 16". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  25. ^ "The Commercial Appeal 09 Sep 1917, page 46". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  26. ^ "The Los Angeles Times 25 Nov 1916, page 19". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  27. ^ ""Making a Million" by Tom Mix, Photoplay - Lantern". lantern.mediahist.org. May 1928. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  28. ^ Otto F Breitkreutz in California, U.S., Death Index, 1905-1939, Ancestry.com.
  29. ^ "California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGLF-9KX8  : 1 March 2021), Otto F Breitkreutz, 1928.
  30. ^ a b "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MPKB-G5T  : accessed 17 February 2023), Otto F Breitkreutz, Wauwatosa, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 288, sheet 15A, family 108, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1721; FHL microfilm 1,375,734.
  31. ^ "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MN9Z-86P  : 29 May 2021), Otto Breitkretiz in entry for Ferdinand Breitkretiz, 1870.
  32. ^ "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MN46-FYJ  : 15 January 2022), Otto Breitkrenitz in household of Fred Breitkrentz, Oak Grove, Dodge, Wisconsin, United States; citing enumeration district , sheet , NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm .
  33. ^ "Wisconsin Marriages, 1836-1930", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XRN4-75B  : 30 January 2020), Otto F. Breitkrentz, 1890.
  34. ^ "California, County Marriages, 1850-1952", database with images, FamilySearch(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XL4W-K7Y  : 17 August 2022), Otto F Breitkreutz in entry for Bert Wells and Ruth Frances Breitkreutz, 1913.

Further reading[edit]

  • Lury, Karen; Lawrence, Michael, eds. (2016). The Zoo and Screen Media: Images of Exhibition and Encounter. United States: Palgrave Macmillan US. ISBN 9781137535610.
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