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This is an original 1941 circus souvenir magazineon the lowland Gorillas Gargantua and Toto.This magazine is 12 pages including the covers measuring about 8.5” x 11”. The front cover is titled:
The Strange Stories of GARGANTUA and TOTO
This magazine has lots of photos and as the titlesuggests, tells the strange story of Gargantua and Toto which were lowland Gorillasowned by Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus. The inside front cover has a 1941 copyrightso thus the date. Overall is verygood. Email any questions. Thanks for looking.
The following is some background from Gargantua’sWikipedia page:
Gargantua (1929 - November 1949) was a captive lowland gorillawho was famous in his lifetime and has been credited with saving the RinglingBrothers circus from bankruptcy. An acid scar on his face gave Gargantua asnarling, menacing expression, and the circus management attracted attention tohim by emphasizing, in their publicity, his alleged hatred of humans. He wasalso claimed to be the largest gorilla in captivity.
Gargantua was captured as a baby in Africa, and was known as\"Buddy\" for years. After he was sold to Ringling Brothers by hisprevious owner, Gertrude Lintz, he was renamed, after François Rabelais\'s thegiant character, to sound more frightening.
He had a \"mate\" named Toto, but apparently nevershowed any interest in her.[1] She was nevertheless advertised by the circus as\"Mrs Gargantua\".
The film Buddy, starring Rene Russo, is very loosely based onthe early life of Gargantua/Buddy and another of Mrs Lintz\'s gorillas, Massa.
Early life of Gargantua
Gargantua was born wild in the Belgian Congo in approximately1929. In the early-1930s, the gorilla was given to a Captain Arthur Phillips asa gift from missionaries in Africa. The captain was fond of him and called him\"Buddy\".[2] He was kept aboard his freighter and became popular withmost of the crew. One sailor, however, drunk and seeking revenge on thecaptain\'s strictness, threw nitric acid in Buddy\'s face. This did not kill thegorilla but the attack almost blinded him and left both mental and physicalscars - leading to much more aggressive behaviour.
Unable to deal with this aggression, the captain gave Buddy toGertrude Lintz, a wealthy eccentric who looked after sick animals in Brooklyn.Her husband, Dr Bill Lintz, diagnosed Buddy with double pneumonia.[3] Mrs Lintztreated the little gorilla back to health, including chewing his food for him,and along with her kennel-man, Richard \"Dick\" Kroener, trained andraised Buddy.[4][5] She cared for Buddy, and other apes, as her children andeven arranged for plastic surgery on the scar, leaving Buddy with a permanentsneer. She was known to drive around Brooklyn with Buddy, dressed in clothes,in the passenger seat. The arrangement came to an end one night in 1937 whenthe 460 lb (210 kg) Buddy, frightened by thunder, broke out of his cage andclimbed into bed with his \"mother\" for comfort; Mrs Lintz contactedJohn Ringling shortly thereafter.[6]
Circus attraction
Ringling bought Buddy from Mr Lintz (for less than $10,000[7])and renamed him \"Gargantua\" at his wife\'s suggestion. The RinglingBros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, in financial problems after the GreatDepression, heavily advertised their newest attraction. Their extravagantclaims included:
\"The Largest Gorilla Ever Exhibited!\"
\"The World\'s Most Terrifying Living Creature!\"
\"The Largest and Fiercest Gorilla Ever Brought Before theEyes of Civilised Man!\"
\"The Only Full-Grown Gorilla Ever Seen On ThisContinent!\"
Regardless of the truth of these slogans, Gargantua attractedmillions and single-handedly saved the circus.[6]
A special cage was built for Gargantua by The Crane Company. Itwas air-tight and air conditioned, designed to keep Gargantua in and thespectators\' diseases out.[8]
His first public appearance was in April 1938 and was recordedby Time magazine:
Appearing as Display No. 14 on the 26-item program, Gargantuawas hauled round & round the Garden in a heavily barred, thickly glassed,air-conditioned wagon drawn by six white horses. Stocky & truculent, hestared menacingly out of his cage, was characterized by Frank Buck as \"themost ferocious, most terrifying and most dangerous of all livingcreatures.\"[7]
Gargantua stole the show.
Gargantua\'s supposed aggression and violence were emphasized inthe Circus\' publicity. For example, Time magazine also wrote this earlier inthe same year:
\"Gargantua the Great, wrote Gargantuan Columnist HeywoodBroun three weeks ago, \"is the fiercest looking thing I have ever seen ontwo legs. And probably his power and truculence were all the more impressivebecause he did look a good deal like a distant relative. No one was allowed togo close to his cage, because Gargantua can reach about five feet through thebars and get a toe hold on a visitor whom he dislikes.\" Gargantua may notbe the world\'s biggest captive gorilla—since the death of Berlin Zoo\'s monster,many zoos have claimed that honor for their gorillas—but he is one of the mostvindictive. Last week the circus\' executive vice president, young John RinglingNorth, nephew of the late John (\"Three-Ring\") Ringling, was inspectingthe circus\' Sarasota, Fla. winter quarters. Imprudently disregarding warningsigns, he leaned against the bars of Gargantua\'s cage to rest. Gargantuareached through, got no toe hold but wrenched Circusman North\'s left arm intothe cage, bit & wrung it until Trainer Richard Kroner, pounding the gorillawith an iron stake, distracted its slow attention.[9]
In 1941, he was paired with another gorilla, Toto (short forMitoto or M\'Toto), who was advertised as \"Mrs Gargantua\". Nothingever came of the relationship, however, and both lived in separate cages.
Death
Gargantua died in November 1949 of double pneumonia. A necropsyperformed at Johns Hopkins Hospital revealed that Gargantua had been sufferingfrom several conditions at the time of his death, including skin disease andfour impacted and rotten wisdom teeth.[10]
His skeleton was donated to the Peabody Museum in 1950[6][11]but is now only displayed on special occasions.[12]
Physical characteristics
Sources report Gargantua\'s weight variously as 550-600 lb.[1][6]The seven-year-old Gargantua was described as 460 lb (210 kg) when firstdisplayed.[7] His standing height was said to be 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in). LowlandGorillas usually only reach 440 lb (200 kg) in the wild.
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