Curley Stecker
{{short description|American animal trainer (1892–1924)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=March 2023|cs1-dates=ly}}
{{use American English|date=March 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name =
| image = Curley Stecker Algernon Maltby 1923 Los Angeles Times.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Los Angeles Times, 1924
| birth_name = Algernon Maltby Stecker
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1892|07|10}}
| birth_place = Michigan
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1924|06|16|1892|07|10}}
| death_place = Hollywood, California
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation = Animal trainer, zoo director, stuntman, film producer
| years_active = 1903–1923
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Algernon Maltby "Curley" Stecker (July 10, 1892 – June 16, 1924) was an early Hollywood animal trainer, Universal City Zoo superintendent, animal-film producer, and occasional actor-stuntman.
Along with Charles Gay, Curley Stecker was one of the two main providers of lions for silent-era Hollywood films. Stecker was also the primary trainer of Joe Martin, Universal's star orangutan, eventually producing Joe Martin comedies alongside director Harry Burns. The near-fatal attack on him in 1923 by Charlie the Elephant, an animal he'd worked with for at least 10 years, made national headlines. In Natacha Rambova's 1926 memoir of her late ex-husband Rudolph Valentino, she wrote that one of their favorite activities was visiting with Curley Stecker at the Universal menagerie, where they would help care for the animals, and listen "for hours" to Stecker's "yarns and experiences. After a generous allowance of these tales of hairbreadth escapes, he would take us to visit our more particular animal friends."{{Cite book |last=Rambova |first=Natacha |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=dul1.ark:/13960/t3qv9r66v&view=1up&seq=46&q1=Lion |title=Rudy: an intimate portrait of Rudolph Valentino |date=1926 | page=36 |publisher=Hutchinson & Co. |location=London}}
Biography
Algernon Maltby Stecker was born in the Copper Country of Michigan to George W. and Maria Jane Oughten Stecker."California Deaths and Burials, 1776-2000", database, FamilySearch(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HGCB-3TT2 : 8 April 2022), Algernon M. Stecker, 1924.{{efn|Stecker used his legal given name Algernon rarely, and his legal middle name Maltby even less often. Stecker usually substituted C. or S. as a middle initial and was credited variously as Curly, A.C., A.S., Stecher, or even Daredevil Stecker. Curley with a E seems to be the name he used most commonly in his lifetime, but instances abound of Curly with no E.}} His mother died on Christmas Day when he was seven years old."Michigan Deaths and Burials, 1800-1995", database,
{{Blockquote|text=Mr. McRae and the party in his boat, comprising Allan Watt, assistant director of the Bison Company; Don Meaney; and Curley Stecker, were washed out of reach of the others and drifted to a coral reef about a half mile away where they were forced to land and bail out their boat. It was two days later before they were able to beat their way back against wind and waves to the wreck.}}
In July 1916, when Universal City Zoo director and animal trainer Rex De Rosselli, also an actor, was cast in the lead of "a series of mountain pictures directed by George Cochrane," Curley Stecker was put in charge of the zoo.{{Cite web |title=The Moving Picture Weekly (1916-1917) - Lantern |url=https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/movingpicturewee24movi_1_0369 |access-date=2022-11-28 |website=lantern.mediahist.org}} Stecker did stunt work in His Master's Wife (1917), directed by Harry McRae, wherein a lion jumped on his back.{{Cite web |title=The Fairmont West Virginian 21 Jul 1917, page 9 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/378787724/ |access-date=2022-12-31 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}} In October 1917 Stecker married a 25-year-old vaudeville"United States Census, 1910," database with images,
File:Curley_Stecker_lion_1917_His_Master's_Wife_McRae.jpg
In January 1919 it was reported that Stecker has been working on "aviation serials" recently "but after having two bad falls...he came back to the lions for a quiet life."{{Cite web |title=The Los Angeles Times 26 Jan 1919, page 52 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/380601296/ |access-date=2022-12-31 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}} Stecker lost part of a finger—the little finger of the left hand was off at the knuckle—in 1921 in an accident while shooting a lion scene on Terror Trail! with Eileen Sedgwick.{{Cite web |title=The Moving Picture Weekly (1920-1921) - Lantern |url=https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/movingpicturewe1014movi_1_2436 |access-date=2022-11-26 |website=lantern.mediahist.org}}{{Cite news |date=1922-03-10 |title=Joe Martin Welcomes Trainer With a Kiss |language=en |page=20 |newspaper=Los Angeles Evening Express |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/608119851/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=2022-12-03 |via=Newspapers.com}} Also in 1921 he had a credited on-screen part in the lion-tamer romance The Man Tamer (1921) starring Gladys Walton, alongside past and future Universal City Zoo superintendents Rex De Rosselli and Charles B. Murphy.{{Cite web |title=The Billboard 1921-04-16: Vol 33 Iss 16 - Lantern |url=https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/sim_billboard_1921-04-16_33_16_0062 |access-date=2022-11-24 |website=lantern.mediahist.org}} In 1922 he was mauled by a lioness named Ethel.{{Cite web |title=Universal Weekly (1922) - Lantern |url=https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/universal1516univ_0637 |access-date=2022-11-26 |website=lantern.mediahist.org}} It may have been on this occasion that "boy wonder" producer Irving Thalberg, who sometimes demonstrated a "lack of sensitivity to other people's problems...went to the hospital and lectured Stecker on the proper way to take care of wild animals."{{Cite book |last=Flamini |first=Roland |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/28336345 |title=Thalberg : the last tycoon and the world of M-G-M |date=1994 |publisher=Crown Publishers |isbn=0-517-58640-1 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=37–38 |oclc=28336345}}
File:Joe Martin Curley Stecker zoom.jpg
In 1923, Stecker was attacked and nearly killed by Charlie the elephant. The attack took place during a break in shooting the genie-in-a-bottle film The Brass Bottle, directed by Maurice Tourneur. Charlie had spent the day leading a parade of camels and donkeys down a London street set—"the elephant had been painted white and loaded with gorgeous East Indian trappings for the scene and it is believed this may have angered him."{{Cite web |title=The Los Angeles Times 24 Apr 1923, page 19 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/380367183/ |access-date=2023-01-07 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}} Charlie wrapped his trunk around Stecker, pulled Stecker's head in his mouth and was trying to kneel on him. Stecker's older brother Carl Stecker and another man, carpenter A. H. Kuhlman, together using some combination of pitchfork, spear, club or "a piece of concrete," fended off Charlie long enough for Curley to survive the initial attack.{{Cite book |last=Reeder |first=Thomas |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1273678339 |title=Time is money! : the Century, Rainbow, and Stern Brothers comedies of Julius and Abe Stern |date=2021 |isbn=978-1-62933-798-2 |location=Orlando, Florida |oclc=1273678339}}{{Cite web |title=The Tacoma Daily Ledger 06 May 1923, page 4 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/725345702/ |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}} The collapse of the elaborate howdah on his back also distracted and "hampered" Charlie as it crashed down around him. Stecker suffered lacerations, contusions, "three double-fractured ribs", and a concussion.{{cite web |date=2021-03-01 |title=Algernon M Stecker, 1924 |url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPQD-6TV6 |url-access=registration |access-date=2022-12-08 |work=California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994 |publisher=FamilySearch}}{{Cite news |date=1924-09-24 |title=Movie Mishaps and Tragedies Never on the Silver Screen |volume=LIX |pages=62 |work=San Antonio Express |issue=272 |location=San Antonio, Texas |url=http://www.newspaperarchive.com/us/texas/san-antonio/san-antonio-express/1924/09-28/page-62/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=2022-12-08 |via=NewspaperArchive.com}}{{Cite web |date=1923-05-03 |title=Trainer Injured When Mad Elephant Charges |url=https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpicturenew00moti_1_0060 |access-date=2022-11-24 |page=2152 |via=Internet Archive, Media History Digital Library |magazine=Motion Picture News |volume=XXVII |issue=18}}{{Cite web |title=The Los Angeles Times 27 Dec 1923, page 17 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/380433419/ |access-date=2022-12-31 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}}
Curly told the Associated Press he thought it was a case of "mistaken identity" in which Charlie thought he was Carl (whom Charlie hated), because Curly was wearing a business outfit instead of his usual animal-trainer outfit, and Carl was wearing an old outfit of Curly’s.{{Cite web |title=The Tribune 05 May 1923, page 1 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/809370386/ |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}} "Charlie started picking up rocks with his trunk and throwing them at the horses. I told him to stop. He paid no attention. I jumped at him with a sharp command—and he did the rest. He thought I, in my business clothes, was my brother, and my brother 50 feet away in the clothes familiar to Charlie was 'the master.'" Stecker seems to have been able to come back to work for a time, doing at least one interview at the zoo in July 1923. Charlie was executed for the "rampage”; Stecker was apparently "stubbornly opposed" to the death sentence.File:Curly_Stecker_wrestles_lion_01.jpg shared this photo of Stecker in a syndicated article about the history of Hollywood stunt work;Rose, Bob (1934, Sep 30). Walking with Death for a Living, Los Angeles Times {{ProQuest}}{{ProQuest|163246244}} Rose wrote that "a mean elephant trampled Curley Stecker to death out of revenge."|left]]
Stecker died a year later from leukemia with a contributing factor of "wild animal injury." An obituary in Exhibitors Herald related "The famous handler of beasts passed away at his home in Lankershim last week as the result of injuries received about a year ago when Charlie, a trained elephant owned by Universal, turned on his master and mauled him severely. As a result of this incident, Charlie was executed and Curley was persuaded to give up his hazardous work. Since that time he has been assisting his brother in the conduct of an animal ranch in Lankershim. Besides Charlie, Stecker trained Joe Martin, the famous ape, Ethel, the educated lioness and other four-footed screen stars. He is survived by a wife and three children."{{Cite web |title=Exhibitors Herald (Jun-Sep 1924) - Lantern |url=https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/exhibitorsherald19unse_0116 |access-date=2022-12-14 |website=lantern.mediahist.org}} The funeral was held at Leroy Bagley Chapel at Hollywood and Western on June 19, 1924.{{Cite web |title=Funeral Rites, The Los Angeles Times 19 Jun 1924, page 17 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/380614569/ |access-date=2022-12-31 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}} Curly's brother Carl Stecker continued as an animal trainer, working with camels{{Cite news |last=Humanities |first=National Endowment for the |date=1936-06-09 |title=The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, June 09, 1936, Image 6 |pages=6 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86063811/1936-06-09/ed-1/seq-6/ |access-date=2022-11-24 |issn=1042-2323}} and dogs,{{Cite news |last=Humanities |first=National Endowment for the |date=1936-01-09 |title=The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, January 09, 1936, Final Home Edition, Image 10 |pages=PAGE 10 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015313/1936-01-09/ed-1/seq-10/ |access-date=2022-11-24 |issn=2694-1872}} well into the 1930s. Stecker had named his daughter Marie, born in 1920, after actress Marie Walcamp, who had starred in several Universal animal pictures.{{Cite web |title=Los Angeles Herald 6 January 1920 — California Digital Newspaper Collection |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH19200106.2.687&srpos=20 |access-date=2022-12-01 |website=cdnc.ucr.edu}}
Notes
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References
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{{commons category|Curley Stecker}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stecker, Curley}}