A dog goes to Hollywood is the story. His name is
Jake, the Wonder Dog. He first gained fame when his story of how he
learned to run the table playing pool with his nose & paw was
published in the Ripley's Believe it or Not cartoon column on 4-l0-97.
His story was read in 275 newspapers, in 50 countries, in l9 different
languages, and by l00 million people. Ripley's has been a popular
cartoon since the early l930's. Every year over a million people try
to get in and only 600 make the cut. To appear, you must do a thing
that is almost impossible, that nobody can believe. During the last
75 years, 25 pool players have got in Ripley's, and it's
been the who's who & the legends of the game. Taberski,
Greenleaf, Crane, Mosconi, they all got in once. The greatest player
of all time, Willie Hoppe held the pool record getting in twice.
In the mid l990's an artistic trick shot showman
named Fast Larry Guninger astounded the pool world by setting over
20 world records & performing dozens of impossible shots that
even today, no one can duplicate. When he broke a record that had
stood for l59 years by hitting the impossible l0 rail bank for the
first time, it caught Ripley's attention. When he then hit ll rails
one handed back to back, it got him in the cartoon. His feats were
ran 5 times, 5 years in a row, a new record for pool. It was also
a record for Ripley's, in their 75 year history, no other person had
appeared that many times. The Ripey's TV show that ran many years
ago was a big hit in it's time. Ripley's decided to bring the show
back, and the top 4 networks bid on it, with TBS, the super station
winning. They went to Ripley's international headquarters & asked
them to research who were the greatest acts they had ever seen &
published, that were still alive & around, and could still perform
their feat on a sound stage in front of a live audience. One of the
4 acts that were chosen to appear on the premier of the prime time
national TV show, and to appear in the press release & receive
l0 days of 24 hrs a day promotion for the new show, was Fast Larry
& his Wonder Dogs, Jake & Max. Max had been added to the act
as Jake was now getting on in years. Guninger said to be chosen by
Ripley's out of the 87,600 people they had featured, to be l of the
top 4, was the greatest honor ever presented to him. Guninger &
both dogs did a stunning knockout performance on the show, making
all of his 5 impossible pool shots that had been featured including
the ll rail bank, the 4 ball bottle shot and a 2 table 6 in 6 shot,
a spitball shot making l0 balls in 6 pockets blindfolded, and the
dogs running the table & making the railroad pool trick shot with
their nose.
Prime time appearances followed on other networks,
CBS, NBC, FOX, ESPN & ANIMAL PLANET.
Just as Ripley's had seen it all, and was in
a position of judge & select the top acts of all time, in both
humans & animals, the Animal Planet was in that same position
to select the top animal acts, they have seen it all. People have
been sending them tapes for years, they have tens of thousands on
file. They like Ripley's wanted to do a new show again on prime
time national TV. They wanted to attract the top animal acts in the
country & have them compete for a $25,000 first prize. Each round
would produce 3 winners, who would win $4000, then advance to the
finals.
They studied their files, then selected what they
thought were the top l0 acts in the country, they were invited to
Hollywood to fly out & appear on the premier of the new show to
be called Pet Star. The 2nd l0, would be brought out the following
week to film the 2nd show. Once the show airs in January, any one
with an amazing pet, can send in a tape, & if chosen, fly out
to California & go for the 25K.
Wonder Dog got the call to come out to appear on
the premier & appear in the top l0 acts. It was an honor, equal
to the Ripley's TV show. Wonder Dogs act was now considered
by Hollywood to be on the same plane with Guningers pool act, they
both had received prime time media recognition & respect. Wonder
Dog also was given the honor of being the grand finale act, they told
him when he went on, they always save the best for last. He was picked
to win, and he made the Chattanooga pool railroad shot with his nose
& the l-2-3-4 balls all in rotation in the side pocket on the
2nd snap. That's the good news, Jake did a great job. The bad
news for pool is he lost. The pig that bowled was also picked to be
a winner & he lost also. The way the contest ran, the curtains
open, Fast Larry walks on with Jake, he hops up on the table &
they talk to the MC about what they are going to try to do, then they
perform it in front of a large live TV audience that is up close to
the set.
There were 3 celebrity judges from the daytime soaps,
2 young ladies & a guy. Jake scored 8's, but the winner
pulled 3 perfect l0's on him. The ladies did not play pool,
so they probably did not understand his trick, or they thought a poodle
jumping rope on his hind legs was cuter. It was hard to know what
would ring their bell & get their vote.
Larry had planned on flying out both dogs, Jake &
Max. He wanted to put Jake up first, and then if he froze up, let
Max have a shot. Jake has been retired now for 5 years & the reason
for that is he has a history of freezing up with he's tossed
in front of people cold. It takes him l to 2 hrs to calm down before
he can perform. This is why Max was brought on & has been the
only dog to perform at the main pool shows like the BCA trade shows,
the Allen Hopkins Expo & the Sports Super show in Vegas.
Time is money on a set, and every show begins with
this & that, and as time goes along, things get cut. Larry was
now told he could only fly out one dog, so he said I'll bring
Max, He can be depended upon to walk on a set cold & perform,
with Jake, you don't know what he's going to do, play
or faint. Max is part Great Dane, Bloodhound & German Shepherd.
The last time he was seen out was at the Hopkins Expo in Phil, Pa,
he was l20 lbs then. He is now l35 lbs, and would only fit into a
Great Dane travel cage, which would not fit on the MD11 Plane. It
would cost $3000 to ship Max out on separate cargo. Larry was told
to bring Jake. Max had 3 tricks that could have won, (l) he sings,
reads writes & talks, it takes 3 minutes, gong, to long, that
one was out. (2) He has a new trick Jake cant do, a phone rings, max
picks up the receiver in his mouth & talks to his girlfriend,
then sings her a love song, then hangs up the phone with his mouth.
(3) Max & Jake can both make the 2 ball bottle shot with their
nose, & both can make the railroad shot. With Jake now going,
Larry decided that the railroad shot was nice, cute, but not spectacular
enough to win, to win, he knew he had to make the bottle shot. He
made the mistake & explaining it to them ahead of time, the railroad
shot he could guarantee, the bottle shot, the dog will only make it
half of the time. Larry wanted to take the gamble and go for it, either
win, or look bad, which would mean getting edited out of the show.
Larry got to rehearse both shots, Jake made the RR shot on the lst
snap, he tried the bottle shot 5 times & missed, & set producer
would not let Larry do the bottle shot. He wanted a performance accomplished
& in the can, not fumbled. He convinced Larry that if he did the
RR shot, he would win. Larry went with his advice, made the shot &
lost.
The show was filmed in Burbank, at the massive CBS
Studios where most of their day time shows are filmed. The show was
on stage 56.
As is the case with most shoots, it took them 3 times
longer to film the l0 acts than they had planned for, so where Larry
could have done a entire pool act with the dog running the table &
doing several other neat things, now each act was forced to do one
single thing, period. Larry said the act we have isn't just
one thing, its 25 neat things ran together.
When I have to pull just one out, the only spectacular
thing we had was the bottle shot they would not let us do.
You can imagine the level of competition they faced,
a parrot who roller skated, rats who played basketball in a small
cage, a lobster than stands on his head, a pig who pushed a real bowling
ball to knock down real pins. A dog opened a cooler & brought
a guy a beer, then would take it back, open & place it back in,
then close the lid. A dog would pick up 4 tennis balls in her mouth,
then take one, and lie on her back & kick the ball up in the air
with her feet. It was the best of the best. The grand winner was a
herd dog from Texas, who followed human commands to move like a horse
does.
The other good news is Larry & Jake were told
they were picked to win & the producers were surprised that they
did not, They said that they were so nice, easy to work with, and
gracious in losing, they decided to invite them back out for a 2nd
chance, and this time Larry could bring Max, the main show dog . Larry
said I'd solve the transportation problem by doing the coast-to-coast
drive with the dog. Maybe Wonder Dog has not lost after all; he may
still win the $25,000. More as the story unfolds in the future.
