Historically, the motion picture industry has been good at telling exciting tales that also reinforced cultural, ethnic, racial, and gender stereotypes. Some of the films mentioned in this blog post may fit that description.
But the horses working alongside the actors and film crews didn't know about stereotypes; they were just doing their jobs.
This story is about the horses.
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Some Arabian (and Not Really Arabian) Horses
in Silent Films, 1921-1926
Part Six
In this series, we've been looking at Arabian horses that worked in American (and a few foreign) silent films, and also at some horses who were simply playing the parts of "Arabians."
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| Anna, not an Arabian, with Rudolph Valentino in the 1921 silent classic "The Sheik" |
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| Valentino on Jadaan, an actual Arabian, in the 1926 sequel "The Son of the Sheik" |
Now we turn our attention to a silent classic that featured horses imported from Europe with Arabian blood, although they weren't purebred Arabians: the 1925 classic "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ."
As we did with the silent version of "The Ten Commandments" and its 1956 remake, we have to remember that we're not talking about the 1959 version of "Ben-Hur," with its gorgeous white horses:
We're talking about this one, from 1925, with its own gorgeous white horses:
At least one of the white horses that pulled Judah Ben-Hur's chariot in the 1925 silent version of the story was not a purebred Arabian, but it was closely related! Read on.
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)
When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer began filming its epic silent "Ben-Hur," the plan was to shoot the entire film in Rome. However, production problems and political instability in Italy sent stars Ramon Navarro (Judah Ben-Hur, the good guy, driving the white horses in the chariot race), Francis X. Bushman (Messala, the bad guy, with the black horses), and the rest of the cast and crew back to Southern California to complete the film.
Director Fred Niblo took the helm.
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| Chariot race from "Ben-Hur" (1923) |
An article in the Venice (California) Evening Vanguard reported that, when in Rome, MGM had bought "48 genuine Arabian stallions...from the Empress stable in Budapest, Austria, and 18 of them cost $800 apiece." But the 48 horses may or may not have been purebred Arabians.
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| Venice Evening Vanguard, 6 February 1925 |
*** Post-World War I history sidebar: Charles I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia, was the "Emperor Carl" mentioned in the news stories. He was the last of the monarchs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; his uncle was Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. The Archduke's assassination in 1914 was the most immediate cause of World War I. The "former Crown Prince of Germany" (see newspaper clipping below) was Wilhelm, the son of Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm; they both abdicated in 1918. Charles/Carl died suddenly in 1922, and the young Count Franz Esterhazy, "the wealthiest aristocrat in Hungary" (see newspaper clipping below) bought his horses. Esterhazy already had a huge stable full of expensive horses, including some Lipizzaners. Esterhazy got into financial difficulties and, in 1925, his horses were auctioned off. ***
During the auction, each horse's pedigree was read aloud. The Vatican reportedly bought six white horses for Pope Pius XI. And MGM bought 48, in assorted colors, for "Ben-Hur." One news article said that four black horses purchased by MGM had been the "royal coach horses" of Emperor Carl.
Other newspaper articles named two of the horses, and that's how we can verify the breed of at least one. The two horses were identified as "Schagya the Fourteenth, the favorite horse of the late Austrian Emperor, and Bascia, a gift from the emperor to the former crown prince of Germany."
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| San Francisco Examiner, 4 January 1925 |
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Grace Kingsley reported, "They have the most beautiful horses for the chariots I have ever laid eyes on.... They once belonged to the Emperor Carl of Austria and the former Crown Prince of Germany. The pure white horses, in addition to many brown and black steeds, were purchased in Budapest from members of royal families."
The Daily Oklahoman newspaper provided more details, identifying Schagya the Fourteenth and Bascia as two of the white horses that pulled Ramon Navarro's chariot in the epic chariot race scene.
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| The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City), 21 December 1924 |
"Following the world war, Schagya was sold to Count Esterhazy and is credited with having won the first prize in one of the recent horse shows in Vienna.
"The pure whites, in addition to the scores of browns and jet blacks, were all purchased in Budapest from members of royal families...
"Both Schagya and Bascia, with two other whites, also from the stud of the late emperor, will be attached to the chariot to be driven by Ramon Navarro, who enacts the part of Ben-Hur..."
Schagya the Fourteenth, at least, was not a purebred Arabian, but close. The mention of Austria, and the name "Schagya" (now spelled "Shagya" in the US), tell us the breed of the white horse used in the film.
The "Empress stable" was actually "the Emperor's stable." Shagya-Arabians (part-Arabians) were developed on the military stud farms of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, starting in the late 1700s. Arabian stallions from the desert were cross-bred with mares that already had a great deal of Arabian influence in their pedigrees. The goal was to develop a sturdy, elegant horse suitable for cavalry, harness, and parade use. The breed is named for its foundation sire, Shagya, an Arabian stallion foaled in 1810 that came to Babolna, Hungary in 1836. He was such an outstanding individual that he appears in virtually all Shagya-Arabian pedigrees.
Once the production was moved back to Southern California, producer Irving Thalberg scrapped much of the Italian footage, and director Niblo went to work. MGM built a massive replica of a Roman circus on 45 acres near the intersection of what is now Venice Boulevard and La Cienega Boulevard in Culver City.
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| The chariot race, in part of the massive set for the 1925 film "Ben-Hur," in Culver City, California. (Public domain.) |
The call went out for ten thousand (yes) extras to participate in shooting the chariot race. Several sub-directors worked with different sections of the extras in the stands, including William Wyler, who directed the 1959 version of "Ben-Hur." MGM employed 42 camera operators to film the race from various angles.
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| Cameras mounted on a car were used to film scenes from the chariot race in "Ben-Hur." San Francisco Examiner, 22 November 1925. |
The Baltimore Sun and other newspapers published special reports on the filming. Niblo overcame the ambient human, mechanical, and equine noise on the set by having his assistant, Charles P. Stallings, repeat his directions to cast, crew, and 10,000 extras using new technology developed by Western Electric: a microphone, vacuum tubes, and loudspeakers.
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| Baltimore Sun, 27 December 1925 |
MGM was so pleased with the sound system, it built a special shed on wheels to house the equipment for future productions.
Back to the horses: Perhaps Schagya the Fourteenth and Bascia are in this still from the film.
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| (Public domain.) |
I also took a couple of screen grabs from a copy of "Ben-Hur" on YouTube, so we can see what they looked like.
I wonder what happened to Schagya XIV and Bascia, and the other horses from Europe, after "Ben-Hur" wrapped? Did MGM sell them, or did they live at the studio's stables in Culver City and appear, unnamed, in other films?
Perhaps we'll never know.
Or perhaps their stories are still out there, waiting for us to find them.
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Unless someone who is a Shagya-Arabian expert reads this and enlightens me, it's going to be problematic to learn whether our new friend Schagya the Fourteenth was a stallion, mare, or gelding, because the Shagya-Arabian naming system is complicated. Suffice it to say, there have been several stallions whose names were listed as "Shagya XIV" over the years.
And a Shagya-Arabian mare can carry her sire's name. For example, after World War II, several Shagya-Arabians, also known then as "Arab-Kind," ended up at the US Army Quartermaster Depot in Pomona, site of the former Kellogg Ranch. Two of the mares were called *41 Gazal II and *52 Gazal II -- after their sire, Gazal II. Four other imported Shagya-Arabian mares at the Pomona Remount Depot were named *95 Shagya XXVI, *98 Shagya XXVI, *113 Shagya XXVI, and *283 Shagya XXVI -- all after their sire, Shagya the Twenty-Sixth.
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Thanks
Many thanks to Carol Woodbridge Mulder, Tobi Lopez Taylor, Dolores "Dee" Adkins, and Shay Canfield for their invaluable assistance in preparing this series. Information in this post came, in part, from the wonderful W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library at Cal Poly Pomona.
Ben-Hur (1925)
Here's a short documentary on the making of the chariot race scene in the 1925 silent. You can see the white horses pulling the title character's chariot very clearly. And yes, the shots in this silent version are virtually identical to those in the 1959 version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G2QG1Rh7TI
The Internet Movie Database lists the cast of "Ben-Hur," credited and uncredited. You can see the names of the celebrities who became anonymous members of the crowd, and the names of some of the chariot drivers more famous for their work in cowboy movies.
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival website has a good summary of the film's history: https://silentfilm.org/ben-hur-a-tale-of-the-christ-2/
Here's the Motion Picture Academy's map of the site of the "Circus" in "Ben-Hur":
Shagya-Arabian horses
The North American Shagya-Arabian Society website
offers background information on the breed:
The Shagya-Arabian horse was developed in the Austro-Hungarian Empire over 200 years ago. The breed originated from the need for a horse with the endurance, intelligence and character of an Arabian but with larger size and carrying capacity required by the Imperial Hussars. Over time, Shagya-Arabians were utilized both as carriage and light riding horses....
The Shagya-Arabian was originally developed at the Imperial Stud at Babolna, Hungary. Failed experiments with Spanish and Thoroughbred blood eventually led the breeders at Babolna to a cross of native Hungarian mares with stallions of pure Desert Arabian blood. Shagya-Arabian bloodlines were also developed at the stud farms at Radautz (Hungary), Topolcianky (Czechoslovakia), Mangalia (Rumania), and Kabijuk (Bulgaria).
The breed takes its name from the dapple-grey stallion Shagya, born in 1810. The Bani Saher tribe of Bedouins, who lived in what is now Syria, bred Shagya and sold him to agents of the Habsburg monarchy. In 1836, he became the breeding stallion at Babolna. Shagya was prepotent and appears in almost all Shagya-Arabian pedigrees.
You can find more detailed information on Shagya-Arabians in Bonnie L. Hendricks' book International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds.
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