Dear colleagues:

As my class has been looking at some of Michael Curtiz's vintage 
action pictures, like "Charge of the Light Brigade" (Warners '36), 
I 've been trying to recall what I'd once read about a Hollywood 
stuntmen's technique or device which (if memory serves) was 
called "running W" (?).   Or am I mis-remembering that 
colloquialism?

That was the technique, supposedly banned in the US around 
1939, that had been used to trip horses racing forward at 
breakneck speed -- throwing head-first into the dirt both 
horse and rider, sometimes with rather painful results (to 
put it mildly).  Not surprising for a Curtiz film, I suppose.  
Curtiz was notorious for  his rough treatment of everybody 
-- cast, crew, animals.  I'd guess that "Charge of the Light 
Brigade" in the Curtiz oeuvre may have run second only to
 "Noah's Ark" (1928) in the number of casualties and even 
fatalities (to man and beast) that happened in the action 
scenes. Or did Killer Curtiz exceed even "Noah" and
"Brigade" in some other rough action picture of his?

To refresh my rusty memory on the matter of "horse tripping,"  
I did a web search, not very successfully.  There were many 
references to "running W," but if any referred to Curtiz and/or 
"Light Brigade," I must have missed them.  I did find an 
informative page (attached below) about the legislative 
turning point occurring in 1939, due to the killing of one 
horse in "Jesse James" (that equine was pitched over a cliff).
  
Given what must have been an enormous discrepancy between 
ONE dead horse in "Jesse James," and arguably DOZENS of dead 
horses in "Light Brigade,"  3 years earlier, I can only guess that 
some magazine must have published a colorful article about the 
spectacular technique that killed the one horse in "Jesse James."  
That would offer one possible explanation of what incurred 
the wrath of the American Humane Association (AHA) -- and 
led to the new rules of 1939.  I can only speculate that if a 
similar article had been published about all the dead horses 
in "Light Brigade" (and the "running W," or whatever was used 
to trip them up),  the AHA crackdown might well  have occurred 
a few years earlier...

What follows is a slightly one-sided, but still informative, 
excerpt from the web-site site of the International Fund for 
Horses, which I did find in my web search. -- Steven P Hill, 
University of Illinois.
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The International Fund 4 Horses : 
http://www.fund4horses.org/print.php?id=129  

Horses in Film: Abused for Entertainment? 
By Kelly Chase 

[ .... ] Animal Rights have not always been in existence; therefore, many animals 
have been abused, injured, and killed during the making of movies. Some of the 
most heinous cases of animal abuse and neglect noted in filmmaking involve 
horses.  [ .... ] Their presence in period films is necessary to make the productions 
historically accurate. Nearly two hundred horses were used during the filming of 
the chariot race scene in the 1925 Fred Niblo film, "Ben-Hur" [MGM]. Fortunately, it 
was reported that not a single horse was injured. This would probably relate more 
to luck than a deliberate attempt by anyone to ensure the safety of the animals. 
Many of the horses used in Westerns were not so lucky. 

It is not surprising that so many horses were injured or killed during the making of 
Westerns, considering what horses were subjected to. In her book "West of 
Everything," Jane Tompkins discusses what horses endured, in Western films, for 
the sake of entertainment [ .... ]    What horses endured in Westerns is similar to 
that which the heroes themselves endured, with one exception; the horses were 
not acting voluntarily. 

The American Humane Association (AHA) has fought for animal rights since 1877, 
but it was not until the tragic death of a horse, during the filming of the 1939 
Henry King film, " Jesse James" [20th-Cen. Fox]. that the AHA was given legal 
rights to monitor the treatment of animals in films. The horse in question was 
forced to jump off a cliff into a raging river. The device used to make the horse fall 
was a slippery platform called a ‘tilt shute,’ which when tilted up forced the horse 
to slip off the cliff. This is just one of the many cruel methods utilized in the 
movies to force animals to fall against their will. 

The public was outraged and demanded action. This prompted the Motion Picture 
Association of America (MPAA) to grant the AHA legal rights to set guidelines and 
to monitor the treatment of animals on movie sets. The contract fell under the 
administration of the Hayes Office, which had the responsibility of setting the 
standards and practices of film making during that time. Unfortunately, in 1966 
the Supreme Court dissolved the Hayes Office, ruling that their practices 
constituted censorship. This meant that film companies no longer had to abide by 
the regulations protecting animals that had been set by the AHA. 

From 1966 to 1980 the American Humane Association tried to monitor the 
treatment of movie animals, but since film companies were no longer legally 
bound to have them there, they often refused to allow the AHA on their production 
sets. Gina Barrett, former Director of the Western Regional Office of the American 
Humane Association, stated, "During that period of time, frankly, animal abuse in 
film making grew again." 

Unfortunately, it took the death of another horse before reform was finally brought 
about, and animal rights were reinstated. During the filming of the 1979 Michael 
Cimino film, Heaven’s Gate, a horse was severely injured when explosives were 
placed underneath its saddle, and the animal had to be euthanized. So, in 1980, 
the entertainment industry granted the AHA sole authority to protect animals used 
in film through a contract with the Screen Actors Guild. [ .... ] 
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