COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL May 6, 2015
7A
Offbeat Oregon History
The Oregonians who fl ew with the
Doolittle raid over Tokyo
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
Animal Mew-vie Stars!
L
inda and Allen Anderson’s 17th ani-
mal book, “Animal Stars,” contains
dozens of photographs, quotes and endorse-
ments from Hollywood’s movie-star royalty
about their experiences while acting with
animal co-stars.
“The book took two years to write,” says
Allen Anderson, “and it is a joint effort with
Dr. Robin Ganzert, CEO of the American
Humane Association (AHA). The AHA is
the only organization offi cially sanctioned
by the fi lm industry to protect the safety of
animals in movies and TV.”
“During the writing of the book,” said
Linda Anderson, “we met many of the four-
legged movie stars and their trainers. Pre-
viously, human celebrities, such as Betty
White, have endorsed our Angel Animals Courtesy Photo from American Humane Association
books, but this new book is all about animal Richard Gere and his Akita co-star,
celebrities people love to watch on screen.” Chico, appeared together in “Hachi:
“Animal Stars” features training secrets
A Dog’s Tale”.
and behind the movie scenes told by pro-
fessional animal trainers, plus positive com- mark and they might ignore verbal cues and
ments from Steven Spielberg, Scarlett Jo- hand signals.
“Many animal actors,” explains animal
hansson, Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. A
portion of this captivating book’s proceeds trainer Dawn Barkan, “understand the word
benefi t the AHA, as they celebrate their 75th ‘action’. When a cat is called to be in a
year of protecting and keeping animals safe scene, he might not feel energetic. He’s a
during fi lming. Prior to the AHA’s manda- cat, after all. He only moves when he feels
tory participation, animals were sometimes like it. So I use cues, like buzzers or click-
ers, to raise his excitement level.”
hurt or died during fi lming.”
Also, the book tells about the diffi cul-
Robin Ganzert explains, “Each year our
certifi ed animal safety representatives pro- ties that ensued for the actors and fi lm crew
tect 100,000 animal actors with a 99.98 per- dealing with 600 slithering live snakes in
cent safety rate. It is our mission to protect “Snakes on a Plane”!
Animal trainers teach us what motivates a
animals such as Joey in ‘War Horse, the
wolves in ‘Game of Thrones,’ the penguins bunny or horse to purr-form to create a di-
in ‘Mr. Popper’s Penguins,’ Crookshanks in rector’s vision. Of course, Robin Williams’
the ‘Harry Potter fi lms and the werewolves monkey co-star, Crystal, had as many antics
in ‘True Blood.’ We work closely with the as he did. She has appeared in over 20 feature
directors, and they often have to change a fi lms including “Night at the Museum” and
scene to accommodate the safety of an ani- “We Bought A Zoo” and Disney’s “Treasure
Buddies.” Crystal has fl own to mew-vie sets
mal.’
Also featured is Mr. Jinx the Himalayan in Hawaii, Canada and Thailand.
“Animal Stars” explains how some horses
cat, who fl ushes a toilet in “Meet the Fo-
ckers.” This furry male actor was “discov- fl y half way around the world for their ap-
ered” on Petfi nder.com as a homeless kitty. pearances, and why fi lm crews had to drive
During fi lming, like any seasoned actor, he eighty miles to deliver a massive black bear
his favorite fast food meal. You also learn
had a double.
“Animal Stars” shares professional train- what becomes of the animals after the mov-
ing techniques for us to communicate with ie set is wrapped up or their TV series ends
and teach our pets. It is not always warm and where each one retires. All have happy
and fuzzy on the set. Some animals decide endings and good homes - often with their
they would rather play than focus on their trainer’s loving family.
Many silver screen animal actors went
from rags to riches because of their famous
appearances. Fur instance; Hermione’s cat
co-star in the “Harry Potter’” series spent
each night in a facility with indoor/outdoor
runs, sofas, televisions, toys, and playmates
to de-stress her for the next day’s fi lming.
She is now the trainer’s much loved house
pet.
Actor animals need rest and play time to
relax and regroup. They purr-form with un-
usual special effects: lights, loud noises, and
dust. The furry actors need to be comfort-
able around the 200-plus crew and extras on
set. And, they are often asked to do the same
thing ten or fi fteen times in a row.
The good news is that an animal’s ap-
pearance in a mew-vie or TV show encour-
ages new pet parents to consider adopting
from shelters. Not only do the animals act
for their directors, they are spokes-purrs-
ones, teaching viewers about precious and
loving pets! Some of the “Animal Stars”
furry actors have their own fan clubs, Face-
book pages and Twitter accounts. They are
so pup-ular; some can even sign their own
paw-digraphs but cannot text without the
help of their trainer/family.
TIPS
Many of us have pets with purrs-onalities
like Dennis the Menace and we wonder how
they can become actors in the fi lm and tele-
vision industry.
“Interviewing professional movie animal
trainers for the book alerted us,” said Linda,
“to the many hidden dangers on a set. The
humans are all focused on their equipment
and parts to play and they are not paying at-
tention to animals underfoot. The AHA is
a blessing, as it provides professionals who
know what to look for to protect working
animals. Today, many of AHA’s certifi ed
animal safety reps are veterinarians and
they are acutely aware of the safety hazards
and medical needs for different kinds of ani-
mals.”
While you enjoy watching pets in fi lms,
your pets are the stars at home. Loving your
family IS their job.”
“LIKE” Pet Tips ‘n’ Tales on Face Book!
https://www.facebook.com/PetTipsand-
Tales
O
f the 80 American Army
aviators who fl ew the
Doolittle raid in April of 1942,
at least seven were former Ore-
gonians. Actually, with only one
or two exceptions, all of them
were former Oregonians, hav-
ing been stationed at the Pendle-
ton air base before preparations
for the raid commenced; but for
seven of them, the relationship
with the Beaver State ran deeper
than that.
This week, we’ll talk about
four of them, and next week
we’ll wrap up this topic with
the other three, along with some
fi nishing thoughts about the his-
toric raid.
Col. Henry A. Potter:
Col. “Hank” Potter was origi-
nally from South Dakota but at-
tended the University of Oregon
before entering the Army Air
Corps in 1940. On the mission
to bomb Japan, Potter was as-
signed to the lead plane — he
was the navigator on the crew of
Jimmy Doolittle himself.
Potter survived the raid; with
his air crew, he bailed out over
China and encountered a group
of Chinese nationalist guerillas,
who took them into custody at
gunpoint and were marching
them toward their camp when
they encountered a schoolteach-
er who could speak English.
“We were able to explain to
him who we were,” Potter told
the Minneapolis Star-Tribune
in 1992. “He convinced his
countrymen we were allies and
he took us home and gave us
breakfast.”
Potter went on to service
in North Africa, and was then
brought back to the U.S. to train
pilots in heavy bombers. He
retired at the rank of full colo-
nel in March 1970. His awards
and commendations include
the Distinguished Flying Cross,
Family Selection Orientation and Application Meeting
SATURDAY
May 16, 2015 at 2 pm
Cottage Grove Community Center
700 E Gibbs • Cottage Grove, OR
Please attend to see how you can become a Partner Family with Habitat for Humanity
Contact Cottage Grove Area Habitat for Humanity for more information
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Air Medal with three Oak Leaf
Clusters, Army commendation
medal, and the Chinese Army,
Navy and Air Corps Medal.
Lt. Robert Stevenson
Cleaver:
Clever was an Oregon native,
born in Portland in 1914 and
a graduate of Cleveland High
School. He attended the Uni-
versity of Oregon for two years
before leaving to go to aviation
school just before Pearl Harbor.
Clever was, by all accounts, a
cut-up, witty and fun to talk to.
In the Tokyo raid, he served as
bombardier on Crew 7. In an in-
terview for his home-town Port-
land Morning Oregonian later, in
August 1942, he told of watch-
ing as fi shermen on the coast of
Japan waved cheerfully at him
as the planes roared overhead.
“I looked at that guy, and I said
to myself: Why, the darned old
fool, he’s waving at us! It was
our welcome to Japan, and we
didn’t expect it, no sir. I didn’t
wave back, though.”
But roughly a month later,
Clever was killed in an airplane
crash in Ohio. His fl ying career
had lasted less than two years.
In that short time, though, he
earned the Distinguished Flying
Cross and the Chinese Army,
Navy, Air Corps Medal.
Colonel Robert G. Emmens
Emmens was born in Med-
ford, graduated from Medford
High and went on to the Univer-
sity of Oregon. Emmens was the
co-pilot on Plane 8, which was
the plane that made an emer-
gency landing in Russia.
The Russians were not at war
with Japan at the time, and al-
though they probably would
have liked to return the Ameri-
cans to the U.S., they couldn’t
do that without provoking war
with Japan — something they
could ill afford while fi ghting
off the Germans in the west.
So, ignoring the Japanese gov-
ernment’s strident demands that
Emmens and his colleagues be
turned over for trial, they kept
them in internment camps for
a year, after which time the
Americans escaped with the
help of an Afghan smuggler
and presented themselves at the
British embassy in Iran. (There
are rumors that this escape was
masterminded by the Russian
secret police, the NKVD.)
Col. Emmens went on to
serve in Europe and Japan dur-
ing and after the war. His mili-
tary awards include the Dis-
tinguished Flying Cross; the
Air Cops Medal (Class A); the
Chinese Army, Navy, Air Corps
medal; and even the Japanese
Order of the Sacred Treasure.
He retired in 1965 and returned
home to Medford, where he
worked as a stockbroker and
died in 1992. He’s buried in the
local Odd Fellows cemetery, and
you can visit his grave there.
Brigadier Gen. Everett W.
“Brick” Holstrom
“Brick” Holstrom was the pi-
lot of Plane 4. He was born in
Cottage Grove, graduated from
Pleasant Hill High School and
attended Oregon State College
(now OSU), majoring in For-
estry, before entering military
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