Good News For A Horse

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 189, 12 August 1939, Page 7 (Supplement)

Good News For A Horse

FOR the first time in the history of motion pictures a horse has been given a lifetime contract by a motion picture studio. Until recently he was just one of many horses patiently catering to the whims and fancies of all types of equestrians at a San Francisco Valley riding academy. He was raised to be a racehorse in Montana, but he had an accident, and for a time he was entirely forgotten. Following his recovery he was sold, and hie three-quarter thoroughbred lineage and even his nam© were things of the past. It looked as though the horse without a name would just become one of thousands of riding-academy horses with nothing more to look forward to than to carry strange riders learning to ride. Then the studios started a search for a trained horse, one that knew all sorts of tricks, that had been on the vaudeville stage and had won a few races. The horse was needed to play a prominent part in "The Little Adventuress," starring little Editli Fellows. After visiting many ranches and stables Ralph McCutclieon who trains horses for the studio, happened across the unknown animal. He had taken the starlet with liim because the horse had to be friendly and talented and gentle enough to be handled by a little girl. In the picture one of the sequences calls for the horse accustomed to bowing to the applause of vaudeville audiences, to be running in a race, and as he passes the grandstand stops and bows to tJhe crowd. The scene is a. big, dramatic moment in little Edith's life. In the beginning MeCutcheon hired the horse by the week. The animal did not know how to perform any tricks. Hopefully, McCutcheon trained and pampered him by kindness. Soon the trainer discovered the horse had amazing intelligence. He began to respond to instructions, learned a variety of tricks, including a humorous manner of counting and answering questions asked by little Edith.

The little star and the horse became very fond of each other, and after the first day's filming of "The Little Adventuress," studio officials were overjoyed. So much so that they decided to purchase the animal. Thus to-ilav the horse, about four years old, not only has a lifetime contract as an animal star, but also a name. He is now known as '"Counto." the same name he characterises in the picture. When not working in films, he has been provided with a special trailer to carry him back and forth to his stable mansion on the Columbia ranch in San Fernando Valley. * * * ♦ THE "EXTRA" GIRL SAYS . . "Some girls won't go out with bank clerks because so many of them are tellers." + + + + "Money to burn makes a lot of flames."