Celebrity Animals I Have Known

Hello again, this is Derek Derrick, from Celebrities R Us Network.  We have another great interview today, with a star from the entertainment galaxy.  Today we will be speaking to Bartwood Stillbottom, with an interesting twist to his Hollywood occupation.

“welcome, Mr. Stillbottom, glad to have you on board, do your friends call you Bart?”

BS “Yes they do.”

DD “Well Bart what is the story that you have for us today?”

BS “excuse me, but you can call me Mr. Stillbottom or Bartwood,”

DD”you DID say that your friends call you Bart, right?”

BS “Yes I did.  But we just met, and I would not consider you a friend a this point of our relationship.”

DD “Ok,. got it, well Bartwood what is your current occupation and relationship to Hollywood?”

BS  “well, I am retired now, but at one time, I was an important Theatrical Agent in Hollywood, films and television.”

DD  “ok, but a lot of people can make that claim, what was so special about you?”

BS “ I was one of the very few animal actor agents.”

DD “Animal actors?  You mean that you represented doggies and horses?”

BS  “You could say that, but in a little more professional way.”

DD  “ok – give me a couple for instances of the big names that you worked with.  Did you represent someone like Lassie?”

BS  “Funny you should mention that.  That was one of the first big jobs I was ever involved with.”

DD  “You mean that you represented the original Lassie?”

BS  “Not THEE Lassie, but one of the Lassies.”

DD  “You mean, there was more than one Lassie?  I know that over the years, the dogs probably died, so they hired new ones.  Is that what you are talking about?”

BS  “Oh no.  In each film, there was always more than one Lassie.  I represented a couple of them.”

DD  “You’re going to have to explain yourself, as I always thought there was only one dog in each movie.”

BS “well, you had your main Lassie.  That one was more or less just a show dog.  She would be there for the happy shots, sitting with the kid, or laying on the floor with the family or standing in profile in the start of end of the movie, kind of like a prima donna.  Her real name was Butterbean.  But for the other shots and stunts we had other Lassies.  My dog was the running and jumping and swimming Lassie.  She would do all the hard stuff that the other dog couldn’t do.  Then we had the barking Lassie.  This dog was the one that would come running up to Timmy’s mother or the sheriff or other kid and start barking to them.  She would bark and bark until they got the message that the kid had fallen down the mineshaft or was being held prisoner in the bad guy’s cabin.  She was a real good barker.  Then when they knew they had to follow Lassie to find the kid, then my dog would be the one to lead them to wherever they had to go.”

DD “Wow, I never knew that, three Lassies.  Were there any others?”

BS  “We did have one other, and that one was a speciality dog.  I also represented this dog.  His name was Bruno, and he only did the most dangerous stunts.  If they needed someone to grab the lit dynamite stick from the shack, or pull the girl out of the burning building, we would call on Bruno.  He was also the one that we used for the scenes where Lassie was wounded or almost dead.  He could really pull that scene off every time.  After he was shot or stabbed or attacked by the bad guys, he would lay by the fire and let the doctor and the kid bring him back to life.  Then when he was better, they would bring on Butterbean to be the cured Lassie.”

DD “Did you have any other celebrity animals?”

BS  “Sure.  I had one of the Rin Tin Tins.  The original dog was pretty good, but the whole fame thing went to his head.  He got lazy and put on a little weight.  So he could not be relied on to do any of the tough stuff.  When we needed the dog to jump up and fight some bad guys, they had to use my dog.  He got paid $100 bucks per fight and some films had four or five fights, so that helped.  They would wrap some steak meat inside the shirt of the bad guy and then let the dog go on him.  So when they rolled around on the ground, it looked like the dog was trying to kill the guy, but he really just wanted that meat.  They also had a very athletic dog called Beauregard, who was good with the horses.  When they had some of the scenes where the cavalry was chasing Indians or bad guys, he would run along with all the horses and would even be able to jump up and knock a guy off his saddle.  Unfortunately, we lost old Beau when one night after some pretty tough scenes, he ran off with one of the other extra dogs that were used and we never saw either again.”

DD “I guess he couldn’t take the pressure, any other animals?”

BS – “I was involved with the Lone Ranger and Tonto and some of their films.”

DD “ I suppose you didn’t represent Silver, right?”

BS “That is correct.  Here was another series that had a stand in or stunt double for the original Silver.  Old Silver had done a few too many “Hi yos” over the years.  He had a hard time doing that jumping up on his back legs and letting the Lone Ranger ride to the rescue.  He really let himself go after awhile and he could barely canter down the road.  They had to be careful with the filming, no closeups, as it would show his age and extra weight.  They needed a younger horse and I happened to have good old Jumping Jimmy.  JJ had to be touched up a little, as he wasn’t white all over like Silver.  So he had to go into makeup just like regular actors before his scenes.  He really played the part and got a little spoiled over the years.  I think even Silver resented him after awhile.  They could never be on the set together at the same time, as they would start acting up and try to get at each other.  Professional jealousy, just like real stars.”

DD “What did the Lone Ranger think about all of this?”

BS “If I may say, he really didn’t give a crap.  He just wanted them to bring on a horse that would get him through the scene.  It gets a little tough when you are on location and everyone is not on the same page.  He was professional and expected the horses to be the same.”

DD “Any others like Roy Rogers and Trigger?”

BS “Although there were rumors over the years, I believe there might have only been one Trigger.  Although I did hear that the horse that was stuffed, was not the real Trigger.  But I don’t want to get into that.”

DD  “Interesting, I guess we could save that story for another time.  Any others that were of interest?”

BS “At the end, I did try and cash in on the fish thing.  When they had the Flipper show and movies, I bought a semi-trained dolphin, that I hoped to make some cash off in those line of films.  But it never worked out, sadly for me and the Dolphin.”

DD “what happened there?”

BS “Well, I had just purchased Kevin the dolphin and was working on getting him an interview on the set of the latest film.  The location was four or five hours away in Florida.  I hired a kid to drive the tank truck that was filled with the special water and Kevin.  I should have done a little more of a background check on the kid.  He left with the truck and I flew to the location.  I did not know that shortly after leaving, he stopped at a truck stop to pick up his girlfriend.  It turned our some of his buddies were there and he had to show them Kevin and the truck an all the water gauges that were involved.  He might have had couple beers as well.  They eventually got back on the road.  He drove through the night and stopped at a rest stop right before his destination, to get a little shut eye, he said.  When he arrived on the set with the truck, we saw to our horror, that Kevin was no longer a swimmer as there was no water in the truck.  Apparently, while showing off to his buddies, the kid forgot to close one of the valves and on the road there, all the water leaked out.  I did try to get the kid indicted for murder or something, but I didn’t have a good animal lawyer available at the time, so he got off with a suspended sentence for criminal ignorance.  That was just about the end of my career.”

DD “Well Bartwood, that was a sad ending to a mostly interesting story.  Good luck to you in your forced retirement.”

BS “ Thank you.”

DD “That’s it from Celebrities R Us today.  Tune in next week for another completely thrilling story from the backlots of Hollywood.”

 

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