SABU IN FILMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 January 1941, Page 9

SABU IN FILMS

INDIAN BOY'S CAREER. I ELEPHANTS TO PICTURES. I Sabu. the little Indian boy. has used ! some very fancy modes of transporta-, lion in the pictures in which he has appeared, Jn his first film he rode. an elephant, and in his second a pure- |

blooded Arabian charger, but these are very mundane compared with the me- i thods he uses to get about in his role J in "The Thief of Bagdad." He uses! first a dying horse, then the Magic Carpet of Arabian Nights fame, and finally when these lose their novelty he employs a 200-foot-tal! djinni as a beast of burden to take him from place to place! Sabu was born in 1923 in the Karapur Jungle, 45 miles from the city of .Mysore, in Southern India. His father. Sheik Ibrahim, a Mohammedan, was a mahout in the service of the Maharajah of Mysore. The boy was literally born and brought up among the elephants, and on the death of his father he continued tn spend most, of his time around the elephant stables, living with his elder brother, who drove a taxi in the streets of Mysore, At this time Sabu was but six years •old, and as tin orphan he received his father's pension of two rupees (about three shillings in English money) a month. It was while the lad was riding I through the streets uf a village astride i one of the MrdiarejMTs big pachyderms that he was discovered by Ro-1 bert Flaherty, then on location for scenes for the production of "Elephant Boy.” and was immediately tested and • signed for the lending rule in that production. hi. first appeanmee on lite screen. At that time Sabu was unable to speak a word of English and imdcr-r-tood but little, but the services of a [ Brahmin teacher were secured and the | boy's quick wit ami intelligence m -He; it pom.ibk l for him, in an incredibly! short time, to speak with only a .Hight ! trace of n-Cent the lines of diulcmue re- ■ quired. He astonished everyone by hi•. ; facility for h arnieg. By the time he j appeared in "Drums" lie spoke Eng-1 , ' i lish fluently, and his tutor had startea i to teach Him French and German. ; Sabu has a great capacity for nb-, sorbing knowledge. No amount -fi repetition, n-> phy- iea! work cm dull | his enthusiasm !•<: ~ tmk on '