Dolphins & Such

Earlier this week, I was going through stacks of boxes from my childhood (everyone has done this at least once on their birthday so stop judging) when I stumbled upon a blue dolphin stuffy shoved inside a large Ziploc bag, it was from my best friend when I was 13/14 years old. And that’s how I lead into the Siegfried & Roy Secret Garden at the Mirage Las Vegas (they have dolphins their okay, that’s the connection with the story). The sanctuary was built for education, public awareness and when the show was still open, to house the endangered animals they used in the show. It was said that Siegfried himself had an apartment within the compound so he could be closer to the animals.Siegfried  Fischbacher and Roy Horn are German American exhibitionists who are best known for their wild animal and magic spectacle at the Mirage Las Vegas. After moving their show from a German cruise line to the Las Vegas stage in 1967, a record breaking 5 year, $57 million contract was presented to them by Steve Wynn to start a “Broadway-meets-Barnum & Bailey extravaganza” at his then under construction hotel – the Mirage. Breaking off from the usual crooner & topless dancer acts that graced the stages of Las Vegas, Seigfried & Roy would incorporate both their skills in illusion and animal manipulation.On the night of October 3, 2003, Siegfried and Roy’s reign over the Las Vegas entertainment industry came to an end after an incident inflicting one of Roy’s albino tigers, Montecore. It was 45 minutes into the show when something (terrorist) or someone (beehive hair lady) from the audience took Montecore’s attention, leading him to break his routine. Since there were no barriers between the audience and the stage Roy quickly jumped in front of the tiger and ordered him to lie down. Unfortunately the tiger did not stand down and at one point was able to grip Roy’s right wrist with his jaw. While struggling to grab Montecore’s leash and getting his hand free, Roy suddenly fell over and in a flash had the tiger on top of him, gripping him on the neck and dragging him off stage. Later Siegfried explained the tigers intention was to keep Roy away from whatever was in the audience (Beehive hair lady or Terrorist or Both?!) (I bet that lady had a steak on her hair) and picked him up like a mother would with her cub.I know it took me forever to finish this new feature but in my defense a few people have been hating on me and it dampened my spirit a little bit, so for my 1,700 “party peaps” out there, YOU GUYS RULE! Thank you for following! If you haven’t done so, then do it right now and FOLLOW ME!

Lago

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