He hated the movie

We here at the Bakelite Radio Machine remember fondly that day in 1998 we spent on the back lot of the Clyde Beatty Cole Brothers Circus. We were especially fond of the Elephants "Conti" and "Pete" who were nice enough to let us stand right next to them. "Pete" a few years previous had killed a man in the town of Fishkill, NY who, after a night of drinking, had stumbled upon the elephant pen and reportedly threw beer bottles and cigarettes. When the interloper got close enough, Pete (actually Petunia, a female) dispatched him with dispatch. Both of those elephants have since passed. Another circus employee I met that day has also passed away, just this week, Dave Hoover. Hoover was a protege of Clyde Beatty and was by all accounts the last of the adversarial style of big cat trainers. By the time I met him, while he had had a moment of noteriety as one of the subjects of Errol Morris' film Fast, Cheap, & Out of Control ("Dave says it's the worst film he's ever seen" one of his collegues told me), he no longer performed on the show. Hoover held the honorific "Chief of Security" and wore a gun on his belt. The Big Cat Man on the show at that time was Khris Allen, a self styled "Tiger Choreographer." Hoover hated the very idea of Big Cat "Choreography," he was strictly chair and whip. Today that show has dropped the Clyde Beatty portion of its name and has gotten rid of animal acts altogether, save for a display of performing house cats.