See You Later!

alligator sheetmusic copy
Beim Alligator in Wien‘ by Erich Bertel, s.d., unknown illustrator.

The girl on her fierce-looking alligator seems oblivious to her perilous ride. Her garter belt is peeking out, but she only cares for her new handbags. ‘Beim Alligator in Wien’ is a publicity song issued by the Viennese Alligator workshops and stores, selling (alligator) handbags.

Beim Alligator in Wien, label on back cover of sheet music
Detail from the back of the cover Beim Alligator in Wien

We checked the addresses of the old ‘Beim Alligator‘ stores in Vienna. To our pleasant surprise we discovered that one of the shops still exists.

alligator vienna
Alligator shop, Rotenturmstrasse 19, Vienna

The sheet music dates from the late 20s or early 30s, a period at which the illustrator might have read about The California Alligator Farm.

Farm.h5This was a strange amusement park founded in 1906 near Los Angeles. With over a thousand alligators on exhibition the farm offered weird attractions. One could watch the alligators being fed with live chickens…,

Chicken_Dinner_California_Alligator_Farm_Los_Angeles_California_13691-600x382or admire Okeechobee, a 500 (ahem!) year old senior reptile.

Okeechobee_500_Years_Old_California_Alligator_Farm_Los_Angeles_CalThe children could enjoy the pleasure of a carriage ride…,

Children Joy Ride at the California Alligator Farmor a bareback ride on an alligator. Rather unsafe for small children, I guess.

Joy_Riding_California_Alligator_Farm_Los_Angeles_California
California Alligator Farm, Los Angeles, California, half-tone postcards with applied colour, ca. 1910s

The farm’s brochure boasted about its speciality: ‘Alligator Bags Ornamented with Genuine Alligator Heads and Claws’. A promotional photo shows a large alligator-skin bag on top of an incubator full of cute alligator babies. The caption reads: ‘From start to finish’. Gruesome!

An_incubator_on_an_alligator_farm_(possibly_the_California_Alligator_Farm,_Los_Angeles),_ca.1900_(CHS-6301)
An incubator ‘Made Especially for Hatching Alligator Eggs’. The caption on the photo reads ‘From start to finish, California Alligator Farm’. ca. 1910s.

Also sickening is the undercover documentary from the animal rights group PETA. Still today, alligators and crocodiles on farms in Texas and Africa are cruelly bred, skinned and slaughtered. It moved Jane Birkin to try to dissociate her name from the luxury ‘Birkin crocodile handbag‘ made by Hermès.

Well, I’m relieved that I never owned a ‘gator bag’. Probably couldn’t afford it either…

See you later.

2 thoughts on “See You Later!”

  1. I have just found this article and I am wondering where you have these pictures from?
    ( I am out of the familiy that founded and still runs the Alligator shop in Rotenturmstraße) 🙂

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