Captain Phifer(1898-1974)
Volney Phifer, (1898-1974) otherwise known in the movie industry as
Captain Phifer, came from a background of Vaudeville and circuses, and
was most renowned for being the chief wrangler of most of the animals
used on a vast array of MGM productions from the mid teens to the late
1950s, including the most famous of them all, Leo The Lion, Cheetah the
Tarzan Ape and Toto The Wizard of Oz Dog. He traveled widely touring
Leo the Lion around in a caravan to trumpet the latest MGM production,
and was dispatched by MGM to remote locations to manage animals
appearing in films such as Trader Horn (Africa 1930), where wild
creatures took the life of some crew members. For the movie Eskimo
(1931) he took up residence in yet another remote and wild location in
the Arctic. He helped construct a vast Chinese farm set in California
for the 1937 production The Good Earth. His work on Gone With The Wind,
working with the many horses and other animals was essential to the
safe and integrated nature of how those animals finally appear in that
seminal film and all the other movies of the Golden Age of MGM. Phifer
trained the first Goldwyn lion, Slats, who first appeared in the 1917
Goldwyn production and was used throughout the merger into MGM and on
until 1928. From 1929 a new Leo, Jackie, also from Phifer's stable,
(there were a few Leos through the decades) recorded the first MGM logo
with a roar, playfully destroying a few microphones until the final
successful take. Jackie died in 1938, age 23, and was buried at
Phifer's animal farm in Gillette NJ. This animal farm was home to many
animals that were used both in movies and on Broadway shows. Phifer
grew up around animals; his mother was a circus animal wrangler, and
Phifer himself had strong circus connections during his working life.
Phifer died in 1974, aged 76. All these years later his vast collection
of circus and movie posters, memorabilia and other rare and personal
artifacts are being auctioned off. (October 2012). The collection had
been bequeathed to Phifer's sister in law Alma McCutcheon who died
recently aged around 96.
