Saturday, September 2, 2023

Southern California's Dancing White Horses, 1940s through 1950s

The Lipizzaner Pasha with his person, Cecelie "Cilly" Feindt

My research of horses in Southern California during the twentieth century often intersects with the work of artist Maureen May Love (1922-2004). A desire to try to discover the inspiration for Maureen's design for the California pottery Hagen-Renaker, Inc.'s B-653 "Lipizzan" (as the company described it) led me to some real Lipizzaners that lived in Southern California in the 1940s and '50s.

Here's the Hagen-Renaker Lipizzaner, first issued in 1957.  

(photo source: HR Online Museum)

It seemed a bit odd that a breed that was relatively obscure in the United States would be added to H-R's horse lineup in 1957.  I had always assumed that Maureen had read about Lipizzaners in newspapers or magazines, and used photos to create her design.

Then I was asked to do a presentation at a May 2023 model horse event in San Diego County, on the real horses that inspired Maureen's work. I had to move out of my comfort zone to do more in-depth research. I didn't come up with a conclusive answer, but I found out about several interesting Lipizzaner horses and their humans in the process.

Maureen Love often sketched real horses before creating
her three-dimensional designs for Hagen-Renaker, Inc.

Hagen-Renaker was based in Monrovia, in the San Gabriel Valley, during the 1950s. Maureen Love moved to that area in 1950. She first got a job as a decorator (painter) for H-R; by 1953 she was designing horses for the company. I knew that Maureen preferred to use living horses to inspire her art. 

So I wondered, were there any Lipizzaners within driving distance of Monrovia during that time? I looked in many sources, using every spelling and misspelling of “Lipizzan” and “Lipizzaner” I could think of.  I discovered several Lipizzaners were living in Southern California during the 1940s and ‘50s.

Robert Young and Florian

The 1940 film “Florian” starred Robert Young and a Lipizzaner stallion they called Florian, but whose registered name was *Pluto J-1. The movie, based on a Felix Salten novel, is set in 1910 and was mostly filmed at the MGM Studios in Culver City, California (about 30 miles from Monrovia). “Florian” lived about 40 miles from Monrovia.

Helen Gilbert and Robert Young were the lead (human)
actors in the film "Florian."

In November 1939, Hollywood columnist Harold Heffernan reported that Robert Young wanted to act in "Florian" because of his "inherent love for horseflesh, and [he] even owns a riding academy and breeding farm. But Young had no idea what he was getting into...."  Young, who had thought he could ride, ended up living for several weeks at the Ventura County Ranch of "Florian" producer Winfield Sheehan learning dressage. Sheehan (1883-1945) had imported four Lipizzaners (two stallions and two mares) from Austria to his ranch in 1935, and at least two foals had been born since then. 

Many of the "location" scenes for "Florian" were filmed at Sheehan's ranch in Ventura County. Columnist Heffernan said the Ventura County hills and pastures created a "strikingly realistic imitation of Austrian landscapes." 

The stables at the Spanish Riding School in Lipica (or Lipizza), Austria were re-created on the MGM sound stages. (See my notes on the performance with a link to a scene from the film, at the end of this post.)  

Robert Young's extra riding lessons paid off.

[Sidebar: Under the heading of "what did you think was going to happen?" Heffernan reported that Sheehan had sent MGM cameraman Richard Rossen to Vienna to gather 40,000 feet of background footage for "Florian." Other news reports said Rossen had filmed some Austrian Lipizzaners in action for use in "Florian." Rossen and his camera ended up in Nazi custody for about six weeks on suspicion of espionage, accused of filming "the wrong things." (Hello.) Fortunately Rossen did end up safely back in Hollywood with most of the footage he shot.] 

Towards the end of World War II, in 1945, the US Army famously liberated horses that had been captured by the Nazis and brought them from Western Europe to the United States. (I'll put some links at the end of this post on "Operation Cowboy.")

After the War, there were several Lipizzaners living at the Quartermaster Remount Depot in Pomona, only a few miles from Monrovia, along with several Arabians including *Witez II and *Lotnik, and some Shagya Arabians (also called "Arab-kind"), all liberated from the Nazis in 1945. 

Two of the Lipizzaners were stallions: *Pluto XX (originally from Hungary) and *Siglavy Virtuosa (originally from the famous Piber Stud in Austria).

*Pluto XX at the Pomona Remount. Photo in the collection
of the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, used with permission.

*Pluto XX's stall sign from his days at the Pomona Remount Depot
is part of the collection of the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library.


*Siglavy Virtuosa at the Pomona Remount.
Photo in the collection of the W. K. Kellogg
Arabian Horse Library, used with permission.

There were also five Lipizzaner mares and one foal at the Pomona Remount Depot. The mares were listed as *44 Favory, *48 Favory, *65 Maestoso XX, *89 Maestoso XX (their names came from their sires), and *Saffa. Her 1946 colt called *Saffan was foaled at the Pomona Remount. 

We know that the Army used to exhibit some of the Lipizzaners, along with Arabians and Shagyas, between the time the war ended in 1945 and the end of the Remount's stay in Pomona in 1949. Gladys Brown (Edwards) illustrated one of the 1946 show programs.


The "Preview of Blood Horses recently imported from European Government Nurseries by the U.S. Army Remount Service" program is in the collection at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library at Cal Poly Pomona.

These Lipizzaners were sold by the Remount in the late 1940s. The stallions went to new owners in Kansas and Washington State. 

Since she apparently didn't arrive in Monrovia until 1950, it’s unlikely the artist Maureen Love ever saw the film star Florian or the Pomona Remount Lipizzaners in person. 

But there were at least two, possibly three, Lipizzaners performing in Southern California during the 1950s, closer to the time when Maureen would have designed the Hagen-Renaker Lipizzaner.

The legendary dressage rider Albert Ostermaier (1925-1994) performed at circuses and horse shows around the US and Canada from the 1940s through 1980s. A native of Munich, Germany, Ostermaier came to the US as a very young man, before World War II broke out. He owned and showed at least two Lipizzaners in Southern California during the early to mid-1950s.

Albert Ostermaier and a Lipizzaner, probably
Emperor Conversano Neapolitano, circa 1949.

Two of Ostermaier's Lipizzaners came from the estate of Winfield Sheehan. The North Hollywood Valley Times' 26 November 1948 edition reported that Florian himself was "owned now by Tim Holt, the screen actor. Two others are owned and trained by Albert Ostermaier in North Hollywood. The stallion is Emperor Conversano Neapolitano, now 10 years old. The colt, sired by Florian, is Maestoso Pluto Conversano, four years old and unbroken..." The article says Ostermeier trained his horses at the Fat Jones Ranch in North Hollywood.

I found one reference in print of Ostermaier performing with a Lipizzaner in Southern California during the time Maureen Love might have sketched and/or sculpted her Lipizzaner for Hagen-Renaker. That was at a 1954 horse show in Santa Barbara, about 110 miles from Monrovia. 

So I kept looking for other Lipizzaners that Maureen might have seen, closer to the time of the release of the Hagen-Renaker Lipizzaner.

Col. Alois Podhajsky and one of the Lipizzaners that toured
the East Coast of the United States.
Mount Vernon, NY Argus, 10 November 1950.

Actually, Maureen Love and H-R were ahead of their time, issuing a Lipizzaner in 1957. While the Spanish Riding School horses and riders from Vienna, led by Col. Alois Podhajsky, were performing on the East Coast of the US during the 1950s, I couldn't find any evidence they made it as far west as California. 

Col. Podhajsky’s popular book, and the popular Disney film “Miracle of the White Stallions,” didn’t come out until 1963. Robert Taylor played the part of Podhajsky in the film. He and co-star Eddie Albert were trained in dressage -- by Albert Ostermaier. 


Still image from the ending of Disney's 1963 feature film
"Miracle of the White Stallions."

I found another Lipizzaner performing in Southern California around the time of the release of the H-R Lipizzaner, that Maureen Love might have seen. His name was Pasha. He was owned by German-born actress, circus performer, and equestrian Cecilie “Cilly” Feindt (1909-1999). 

Cilly came to the United States in 1948, reportedly the first German artist allowed into the country after World War II. Accompanying Cilly were her mother, Pasha the Lipizzaner, and a groom. Cilly ended up living in Burbank, about 25 miles from Monrovia. Pasha and Cilly performed at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles (25 miles from Monrovia) in 1955, and at the San Fernando Valley Fair at Devonshire Downs in Northridge (40 miles from Monrovia) in August 1956. And, as we’ve noted, the H-R Lipizzaner was issued in Spring 1957.

Cilly Feindt and Pasha perform the levade. 

Even though we may never know for sure, it is at least possible that Maureen saw Cilly Feindt and Pasha, and/or Albert Ostermaier and his Lipizzaners perform, inspiring her design of the Hagen-Renaker Lipizzaner, issued in 1957.

_______

Used copies of Felix Salten's book Florian, the Emperor's Stallion are usually available on eBay and Abe Books. You can read a summary of it here:  

There's a short video of a segment of the 1940 film "Florian" on YouTube. It shows Robert Young riding the Lipizzaner stallion at the re-created Spanish Riding School in Vienna at MGM, interspersed with film of the Lipizzaners in Austria mentioned above. MGM was using a lot of white Not Lipizzaners for those long shots filmed on the sound stage.


"Operation Cowboy," that resulted in the rescue of horses from the hands of the Nazis at the end of World War II, is well-documented here and elsewhere:


____


Thanks to Melanie Teller for reminding me that the book Florian was written by Felix Salten.

And thanks, as always, to the staff at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, for allowing me to peruse their Army Remount archival collection.


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