Saturday, January 14, 2012

Borzoi in a 1936 Ziegfield movie



 This video from a Ziegfield movie in 1936 caught my attention because it's got a team of Borzoi used as props to dance around.  They look fairly unimpressed and if you watch closely the one on your right goes out of position and turns to the side at one point (they apparently stop the camera and reposition him, and continue the dance).

Once the dogs move forward, you can see the taped off "mat" section which is meant to let each dog know his mark.

Think through the training that would have to happen to pull off this performance (I wonder how many takes it took, and how many trainers?). 

I live in a house that was built in the 20's, and I have a Borzoi with the same coloring as these, and actually, truth be told, I do in fact dance around like that every morning as I'm feeding the dogs and getting my coffee.  Yes, it's just another Ziegfield day in Los Angeles!



1 comment:

  1. I too recently saw this movie for the first time and noticed the dog on the right getting out of position. Noticed it after using the DVR to replay the dance sequence over and over. For some reason I really like the dance and wondered about the dogs. Did you also notice two of the dance girls mess ups? One nearly trips and the other slips a bit.

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