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| *King John AHR 739 with Stella Smith. She is wearing the costume worn by Marlene Dietrich, who famously rode *King John in the 1934 film The Scarlet Empress. |
Arabian horse historian Mary Jane Parkinson tells us that the 1939 Sunday Horse Shows at the W. K. Kellogg Institute of Animal Husbandry featured a refurbished arena with new bleachers, as well as performances by many of the famous Kellogg Arabians.
Someone -- I don't know who -- took their camera to the Sunday Show on August 20, 1939, and captured this image of the desert-bred Kellogg Arabian stallion *KING JOHN in action. A friend of a colleague unearthed the photograph recently, and I was given permission to share it with you here.
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| The Kellogg Arabian stallion *KING JOHN AHR 739 |
Seeing *King John in person would have been a treat for the photographer. He was well-known in his era, not only for his popular appearances in the Sunday Shows, but also in blockbuster Hollywood films.
*King John starred with Marlene Dietrich in The Scarlet Empress in 1934, and with Gary Cooper in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer in 1935. In 1936 he was ridden by Basil Rathbone in The Garden of Allah, and in 1937 Walt Disney's animators used him to inspire the Prince's horse in the animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
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| *King John appears to be the horse ridden by Basil Rathbone (right and above) in the 1936 film The Garden of Allah, filmed in Yuma, Arizona. |
*King John was more than just photogenic; he was also athletic, graceful, and kind. Arabian horse authority Carol Woodbridge Mulder remembered:
During all his time at the Kellogg Ranch - even well into his old age - he exhibited a proud, stylish carriage and caught the eyes of all who saw him. He had a look of elegance. He also had a wonderful disposition... At the Kellogg Ranch he was considered one of the most easily handled and agreeable of all the stallions.
Apparently the photograph my colleague shared with me had been sitting, forgotten, in a box in someone's Southern California house for many years. What a privilege to be able to share it and remember *King John.(And if you come across old photographs of horses from "back in the day," let me know. You may have found a treasure like this one!)
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Thanks to Pat LoPresti and Carol Woodbridge Mulder for their assistance on this post.
Nothing I could write about *King John could match the words of Carol Woodbridge Mulder, who knew him personally. Her full article on *King John 739 and *Malouma 738 is archived on the Crabbet.com website:
That being said, several years ago I found a copy of a printed program from the premiere of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and wrote about *King John as the inspiration for art:
Wearing his signature white bridle, *King John is the second horse seen in this old film from Huntley Archives on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5OLUAm-vJw
We can see *King John in action in this longer Huntley film, starting at about 5:05 into the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7zYHLpRces&t=268s
