Big Otto

Otto F. Breitkreutz (April 16, 1866 – December 25, 1928), universally known as Big Otto, was an American circus man and film producer during the early 20th century. He was called Big Otto because he weighed somewhere between 350–480 lb (160–220 kg)^[1][2] and was "big in heart and policy."^[3]

Biography

He came to fame with Big Otto's Trained Wild Animals, a circus that exhibited around the Midwest and the east coast of the U.S., including at Eau Claire's Annual Agricultural Street Fair and Carnival in 1904,^[4] Chicago's White City Amusement Park in 1906,^[5] and Tennessee's Appalachian Exposition in 1910.^[6] In 1908 Big Otto's Circus wintered in Chicago and among the staffmembers was a Little Otto, more formally named Gust Breitkreutz.^[7][8] Big Otto's Animals eventually became the Big Otto Combined Shows, wherein the wild animals were but one part of a larger traveling carnival, along with a Ferris wheel, Turner's World Wonder, Mets the Scientific Wonder, and Millie Christine the Carolina Twin.^[9] For the Appalachian Exposition at Knoxville in 1910, Big Otto traveled with 100 animals in 21 wagons, 30 employees, and a press agent.^[10]

According to one report, due to his failure to pay a debt, Breitkruetz's animal collection was transferred to ownership of film producer

The Selig series of films in which wild animals played their parts created great interest and equally as great surprise at the time of their releases, nearly two years ago...Although his name does not appear in the cast of characters, nor he himself in the pictures, "Big Otto," Selig's wild animal expert, may well be termed the mainspring of action, so far as the acting of the majestic lions and the big cat-like leopards are concerned. Otto's wonderful handling of these savage animals, out in the open, is truly a marvel of skillful training and control.

In 1913, Breitkreutz directed at least two films for Selig Polyscope, one called The Artist and the Brute,[18] and the other called The Wise Old Elephant, starring Kathlyn Williams.^[19] Big Otto is credited with the scenario (screenplay) for Selig's Alone in the Jungle.^[20] In 1914 Big Otto Pictures released The Mysterious Man of the Jungle, a four-reel feature.^[21] Around 1915, Big Otto bought land between Los Angeles and Pasadena where he kept an animal collection sometimes called Big Otto Zoo.^[22]

In 1918 Breitkreutz was indicted by a grand jury for mail fraud due to his involvement in a shady plan to sell horse meat to the U.S. government to feed prisoners of war.^[2][23] The charges were dropped for insufficient evidence.^[24] Breitkreutz was also involved in some kind of gold mining syndicate or scheme that was called, naturally, Big Otto Mines.^[25][26]

In May 1928, famous film cowboy

Otto F. Breitkreutz died in Los Angeles in December 1928.[28]

Personal life

Breitkruetz was born in 1866 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His parents Ferdinand and Marie (Kehl) Breitkreutz were both natives of Prussia and had at least 11 children, of which Otto was the sixth by birth order.^{[29][30][31][32]} In 1890, Breitkreutz married Laura Larson in Milwaukee County.^[33] At the time of the 1910 U.S. census, Breitkreutz was living in Wisconsin with his wife Laura,^[34] and two teenage daughters, Ruth and Laurine.^[30] According to Motography, Big Otto also had an adopted daughter, Olga, known professionally as Princess Cecelia.^[3][a]

Gallery

See also

• Curley Stecker, animal trainer
• Olga Celeste, animal trainer

Notes

References

Further reading

• Lury, Karen; Lawrence, Michael, eds. (2016). The Zoo and Screen Media: Images of Exhibition and Encounter. United States: Palgrave Macmillan US.
  ISBN 9781137535610
  .

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