Most stage directors know that controlling a cast of actors requires a combination of affection and whip cracking. To Animal Trainer Gunther Gebel-Williams, the gaudy star of the Ringling Bros, and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the right mixture of toughness and tenderness means more than professional success; it means physical survival.
Gebel-Williams' ability to communicate with animals has made him reputedly the highest-paid performer in the circus world and, to the circus management, their most valuable box office draw. His life is insured for $2,000,000, though few who see him urging tigers to leap aboard elephants would care to have money hanging...
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