"Death of the Horn"

Radio Record, 14 April 1938, Page 9

"Death of the Horn"

NCE they used to play at bull-fighting in every city or village plaza of Spain. One boy with horns attached to his head would act the bull, while others with sticks and coloured rags were the picadores and bandilleros. : And though we English races call bullfighting degrading, the hunting of and the slaughter of pheasants are not particularly ennobling.

By

WILL

GRAVE

DID not know before last week that the bullfighter of Spain has a passionate admiration and affection for the frank and fearless bull which he dispatches to his death-or which brings to himself the dreaded ‘‘death of the horn." When he was producing a Spanish concert in England last year to raise money towards the Children in Spain, Philip Cross, film producer, "Western" actor and ex-soldier of Spain, who has Fund for the Relief of Distressed Women and now returned to New Zealand after 10 years abroad, found

Himself Snort OL an artist. To fill in the gap, he made himself up as an Andalusian, and, taking the Spanish fighting cape, he made all the traditional passes of the bull-fighter, at the same time keeping his movements to the time of the tango. He was able to do this beeause, among his many adventurings abroad, he had served his apprenticeship to the bull-ring in Spain. And during his stay in New Zealand he will present radio pro-

grammes of a Spanish nature from beth National and Commercial stations. HE concert party for the Spanish relief, judging from Press reports, was a great success. He had brought over from Spain a film actress of striking looks, Maria Victoria Alvarez. The concert party’s season opened at Portsmouth, at what amounted to a command performance from the Queen of Spain and the Infanta Beatrice, and was engaged on long contract for the Mayfair Hotel. But before the season opened at the Mayfair Hotel Philip Cross himself was away on film business in South America. ‘The hotel, fegring that the dance of the bullfighter would not included in the programme, spoke of cancelling the contract. To overcome the difficulty his .

place had to be filled by an apprentice from Spain who had been injured in the Spanish war. THE father of this lad, said Mr. Cross, was an oid bull-fighter, a relic of the spacious days of the bull-ring. He had fought with Joselito and Belmonte, and had been an approved matador for 28 years. He lived for his bull-ighting and his bulls. But at the outbreak of the Spanish war the Communists had gone to his ganaderia and shot all his herd sires and

the bulls, young and old, that that were ready for fighting, so that the only thing left to the old bullfighter now was his son, weakened by a war wound, who could use his fighting eape only in the dance, without being able to give it the dignity of the approach of the bull. It was a bitter thought to the old man. The bull-fighter of Spain is a proud man. I learned something of his psychology from Myr. Cross that took away. part of the

cruelty of the sport. The bull-fighter loves and respects a frank and fearless bull. of UST before the Spanish Civil War began, Mr. Cross told me, bull-fighting reached a pitch previously unrivalled in Spain. This was due to the fact that the matadors, Joselito and El Gallio, had developed a style’ of working so close to the bull, a style so emotional and so extremely dangerous, that the bull-ring had taken a toll of life as great as that of a minor revolution, All thought of safety was abandoned, and the matador was concerned only with (Continued on page 40.)

~ "Death of the Horn" -----

The Moment Of Truth (Continued from page 8). killing the bull as well as he coulda, With a perfect bull, whose frankness and bravery made him charge straight at the cloth without looking sideways, the new technique enabled the mata‘dor to stand so close that the shou!ders of the bull brushed his trahi la luz, "his suit of light’-the Spanish name for the clothes all hung with beautiful gold and glass-leaving bloodstains on the suit from the hurts of the banderillas or barbs in the bull’s hide. "HE bulls had been bred even faster than in years gone by, and they were kept to a pitch of fitness by the fact that they had to travel sixteen miles every day from their feeding ground to their watering place and back, the greater part of the journey at a fast trot or a slow gallop. "They were most divine-looking animals when they entered the ring," said Mr. Cross. "They reminded one of beautiful racehorses." NLY a matador who had served a good apprenticeship, who was secule, confident and had good reflexes could hope to work these bulls and kill them securely in a manner acceptable te the public. The slightest mistake of the matador was punishable by his death-"the death of the horn." HE} person who loves the bull best, says Mr. Cross, is the matador. The bravery of the bull, its frankness, the speed with which it charges, and its bulldog tenacity make for the beauty of the fight, and the security of the matador on the sand of the arena as well as in the public’s affections. The proven matador would rather cut his throat than flick a charging bull in the face with his cloth so that he will stop short his run, jar his spine and lose his buoyancy and lightness, his suavity and frankness. The matador wants the bull to come to him on equal terms-with both their lives equally in danger -until the "Moment of Truth’the final moment when the matador has to make his pass over the horns of the bull to strike in to the heart. That moment is the one the people come to see. HE matador when he sees a brave bull enter the ring knows that he will please the people, that he may kill the bull with security and safety, and with a swift, clean stroke, and that his opponent will suffer very little in the fight.