(USA) Mark Oliver Gebel leaving Ringling Bros Circus

[molly]

Hi-
Mark Oliver Gebel from Ringling Bros is leaving the Ringling Bros
Circus. He say it's to "settle down" but one must wonder if this is really
the case. His father was the legendary Gunther Gebel Williams. Both him and
his father have been caught beating the elephants.

Last Updated: 11:56 pm, Monday, August 30th, 2004

A circus star finally will have a ZIP code
By Bill Wundram

..
AS life goes, there's a mystique in living with a circus. It's a spangled
life of red-nosed clowns, snarling tigers and elephants all around. In their
sleep, performers must hear the cue of the circus band and vendors shouting,
"Cotton candy, get your circus cotton candy here."
..
All this gaudy bedlam has gone on 34 years for Mark Oliver Gebel. He's never
kept count, but it tallies to about 20,000 performances since he began
working elephants as a little kid.
..
He's been a nomad without a ZIP code all his life.
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Now, it's time to call it quits. Mark Oliver Gebel - the most celebrated
animal trainer of his generation - is leaving the Ringling Bros. and Barnum
& Bailey Circus. When the show opens Thursday at The Mark of the
Quad-Cities, it will be the last time Mark will be in Moline facing tigers
in the big steel arena or coaxing those ponderous pachyderms into tricks.
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"After I leave, it's likely I'll never see Moline again," the star says.
"Too bad; The Mark was always one of my favorite places to play. I'm leaving
when the show goes off the road in November," he said in a phone visit from
Jackson, Miss., where the circus has been playing before Moline. "It's time.
I've been performing since I was 5."
..
As son of the legendary Gunther Gebel-Williams, he was successor to the
"Lord of the Rings," star of TV and cover-guy on People and Sports
Illustrated magazines. Mark, who was born on the Ringling show, took over
the starring spot after dad's retirement. Gunther died three years ago and
his son says, "No one could ever fill his shoes. He was the circus."
..
Life with the Greatest Show on Earth is exciting, but a wild grind. Mark and
his wife, Cristin, and their sons, Hunter, 6, and Adam, 4, live in their own
car on the circus train. A rumbling circus train coach is hardly a home with
a front porch and a swing in the backyard for the kids to play on.
..
He loves the circus, but says the family needs something beside life under
the big top. Example: "For years, I wore a simulated tiger's tooth around my
neck. I don't wear the tiger tooth anymore because it bonked on the heads of
my kids when I tucked them into bed at night on a moving circus train. Our
kids are backstage with us in arenas where we perform. All circus kids are
like that. There can be three performances on some days, and I felt my
family needed a permanent home. That's why I'm leaving. My wife agrees."
..
That will be a traumatic change, he admits, after being the godfather for
tigers and a dozen elephants and horses and all creatures associated with
the circus.
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After all those years on the road, traveling hundreds of thousand of miles,
Mark has no immediate plans. He wants to try a real life.
..
"I'm just going to relax in Venice, Fla., a circus city. That's where
they're erecting a life-size bronze statue of my dad. Some suggest that I
open a restaurant there. The Crow's Nest in Venice already has a sandwich
named after my father. Lots of Quad-City folks winter in Venice and
Sarasota"
..
Mark, a shy fellow, lacks the bombast of many entertainment world people. He
is sentimental, soft spoken, remembering his visits to Niabi to renew
acquaintances with two elephants given to the zoo by the Ringling show. Two
years ago the Ringlings dedicated a tree and bronze plaque at The Mark
because it was his father's favorite arena, with grass and nearby river.
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It doesn't make much sense that he will be giving up life with the animals
and the mad mélange of circusdom for a sedentary life. Staying put, in one
place, doesn't sound like Mark Oliver Gebel.
..
I sense a smile over the phone when he says, "We'll see . but it's time to
settle down."
..
"See you down the road," I say, which is what circus people offer instead of
"farewell.' It is a salutation of good luck. They may take the man out of
the circus, but can they take the circus out of the man? We'll see.
..
Bill Wundram can be contacted at (563) 383-2249 or bwun...@qctimes.com.

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