According to IMDB, Niedermeyer’s ROTC horse (who meets an unfortunate end in Dean Wormer’s office) was played by a horse named Junior, who also played the part of Napoleon in “The Black Stallion”. (and isn’t that cool?) And that’s all the info I could find.
Anyone know anything else about this horsey actor? Breed? Is that coat color technically referred to as a cremello?
as is typical of equine actors, there were at least two, one of which was an upper level Lipizzan from Washington State, owned by a lady (Suzanne?) whose name escapes me. If you still have the back issues of Classic Magazine, she’s the one whose farm was flooded. She lost a number of horses, including a pony stallion, who drowned in his stall, but saved others by riding this horse into the floodwaters and guiding them to safety. It wasn’t easy, due to submerged fences and other obstacles. I remember that there might have been a mention of her horse appearing briefly in the movie in that Classic article. Certainly IMDB is no help there, but when Neidermeyer first appears on the horse, it looks like a horse with more dressage schooling than Junior is likely to have had.
Having watched “Animal House” many times, I saw Trooper as a gray gone to white. I can see where you could get the cremello shade, at least on Junior. It’s really neat that you found the info about Junior, who I’ve never heard of by name. I did not succeed in finding it when I looked just now, so you get the blue ribbon for research.
Guess it’s time to watch “Animal House” again…after I finish my favorite Christmas movies.
[QUOTE=Pat9;8454556]
as is typical of equine actors, there were at least two, one of which was an upper level Lipizzan from Washington State, owned by a lady (Suzanne?) whose name escapes me. If you still have the back issues of Classic Magazine, she’s the one whose farm was flooded. She lost a number of horses, including a pony stallion, who drowned in his stall, but saved others by riding this horse into the floodwaters and guiding them to safety. It wasn’t easy, due to submerged fences and other obstacles. I remember that there might have been a mention of her horse appearing briefly in the movie in that Classic article. Certainly IMDB is no help there, but when Neidermeyer first appears on the horse, it looks like a horse with more dressage schooling than Junior is likely to have had.
Having watched “Animal House” many times, I saw Trooper as a gray gone to white. I can see where you could get the cremello shade, at least on Junior. It’s really neat that you found the info about Junior, who I’ve never heard of by name. I did not succeed in finding it when I looked just now, so you get the blue ribbon for research.
Guess it’s time to watch “Animal House” again…after I finish my favorite Christmas movies.[/QUOTE]
Wow, more info than I had before, thanks! The reason I thought cremello rather than “gray to white” was because during the scene in the stable the horse looks to have very pink skin around his eyes. Almost like an Appy, but no spots. And he definitely has a pink muzzle.
But, yeah, during the parade scene, that’s a dressage horse.
I found the “Junior” name buried in an Animal House trivia section somewhere . No guarantees of the veracity of the source, but it claims that the second-highest paid actors were John Belushi and Junior. Both of whom earned 40K for their work in the film. (Donald Sutherland accepted 50K for his role).
Hmmm… I remember his muzzle being dark in The Black Stallion. Yeah, just looked, the muzzle is dark gray.
[QUOTE=Jenerationx;8454935]
Hmmm… I remember his muzzle being dark in The Black Stallion. Yeah, just looked, the muzzle is dark gray.[/QUOTE]
<GASPS> You mean someone on the internet is wrong???
May well be two different horses. Check out this scene - at 2:03 - definitely a pink muzzle.
Google also brings up plenty of stills showing a pink-muzzled, roman-nosed horse, but I didn’t find any views of the dressage horse. That one should have a gray muzzle. It’s amazing if the movie people paid $40k for the use of Junior, as they were pretty cheap on a lot of the other peripheral details, including paying the bands from the parade scene a whole $100 each. The only thing that Junior did that required special training was the bolting scene. The flinch from the gunshot would have been easy to generate.
Hmmm… definitely a dark muzzle in The Black Stallion. He’s at about 1:13 here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQXZV1W7cq0
Junior, aka Baby Flash, belonged to Stevie Myers - of the famous (but now-defunct) motion picture livestock company, Myers & Wills (High Chaparral, Lady in Red, etc.). Junior was Stevie’s favorite stunt horse - if you pointed a finger at him & said “BANG”, he would go down onto the ground - like in the Animal House scene. Stevie acquired Junior in the late 1960s as a young gelding. He was very special - and between Stevie’s legendary training and his inquisitive personality - he could do anything on a movie set. Nothing bothered him.
He wasn’t any breed in particular - likely QH & TB - but was selected because he was born white - AND had brown eyes - a very rare combination - because blue-eyed horses don’t film well - they look like they don’t have eyes. He also walked up a staircase for the Animal House shooting. The horse used for distance shots was Pinky - who had blue eyes, a fuzzy forelock and didn’t photograph well close-up. How do I know? I worked at Myers & Wills in the late 60s. Leslie, Stevie’s daughter shared this info with me after Stevie passed away.
He was purchased to replace a previous white horse, Harvey (Granny Goose & Shasta commercials, remember him?). Harvey went blind and was retired to a life of pampered care - which is what eventually happened to each of the 150 horses. One of them was Pie, memorialized by James Stewart via a poem on the Tonight Show, who died of a heart attack while I was walking him with colic in his 30s.
I know old thread but you mentioned one favorite of all times horses Pie… here Stewart talking about Pie
Pie was very intelligent, Stewart recalled, and would often “act for the cameras when they were rolling. He was a ham of a horse.” When shooting the climax of “The Far Country,” the script called for Stewart’s horse to walk down a dark street alone, with no rider in the saddle, to fool the bad guys who were waiting to ambush Stewart. Assistant Director John Sherwood asked Stewart if Pie would be able to do the scene. Stewart replied, “I’ll talk to him.” Just before the cameras rolled, Stewart took Pie aside and whispered to the horse for several minutes, giving him instructions for the scene. When Stewart let the horse go, Pie walked perfectly down the middle of the street, to his trainer who was waiting with a sugar cube just out of camera range. He did the scene in one take. When Pie died in 1970, Stewart arranged to have the horse buried at his California ranch
https://fiftiesweb.com/tv/pie-the-horse/
by the way we have a horse that if you pointed your finger at and said bang, he would say you missed
I often wonder how new people find these old posts to bump up.
LOL.
Horse movie trivia, the Bo Derek (“10”) or was it Linda Evans, loved their movie horse and bought him from the horses trainer. I bet it happens more often than we know.
When you Google a horse subject, more often than not your search returns a number of old COTH threads. We are a font of knowledge.:yes:
Me, too! :lol:
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