"Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Bischoff's But Were Afraid To Ask."

by Kathe Klopp

Recently, I interviewed the folks at Bischoff's Taxidermy in Burbank. Now maybe you've rented from Bischoff's. Maybe you've had them make something for your show. But have you ever taken the time to find out exactly how it's all done? And you sorta always wanted to know, didn't you?

Err, ah, well... Oh come on now.

I spoke with current owner Gary Robbins, as well as Rose Wooldridge who does such a capable job of managing the front office, fielding calls from all of us plus showing folks the available stock, and with Larry Greissinger, the taxidermy wizard in the back room.

Gary, a big friendly guy formerly in the construction industry, purchased the business in 1996. He filled me in on Bischoff's history.

The company was started in 1922 by Al Bischoff. Located out on old Sunset close to Silverlake, Bischoff's was a key supplier for studio people who hunted for sport. The likes of C.B. DeMille and friends on safari began bringing their animal trophies to Mr. Bischoff for trophy mounting, and thus the contact was made. By the 1930's, Bischoff was doing custom taxidermy for the motion picture industry.

In the 1960's, Mr. Bischoff retired and sold the business to Wayne and Ingy Dougherty. The new owners continued to serve the trophy hunter but with the advent of television, gradually became even more involved in the entertainment business. In the 1990's, the decline of sport hunting led the company further into the movie/TV/advertising industry. With an existing inventory of over 400 mounted animals, this became the largest collection serving the industry on the West Coast. In 1996, Gary bought the business. He knew the former owners well, and observing the direction the entertainment industry was going, Gary wisely expanded the business, working with many different effects shops that create the mechanics of animal-tronics. Bischoff's supplies and/or installs the fur or feathers on the forms and robotics. With digital images, many commercial companies are now using Bischoff's animals for 3D composites and CGI. Some examples are the flying goose on the Pepsi commercial, the leopard on the Mountain Dew commercial, and the tabby cat that covers ifs eyes on the Cheez-lts commercial. Bischoff's animal props and animal-tronics have appeared in many films including Alfred Hitchcock's classic The Birds, Born Free, Interview with a Vampire, and Hope Floats. On TV we've seen their work on Law and Order, Seinfeld, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mad TV, General Hospital, E.R., Profiler, JAG, Charmed, That '70's Show, and many others. They have supplied stunt doubles for Mouse Hunt, Rocky & Bullwinkel, Hannibal, Austin Powers, George of the Jungle, Coyote Ugly, Mars Attacks, Mighty Joe Young, Psycho, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Addams Family, Ace Ventura, Astronaut's Wife, and Dr. Doolittle.

"We did some fun work on the latest Stuart Little", Gary notes. "We supplied various heads, did the scene in the car, the mechanical falcon and the little bird. All the animals had to be created in different scales."

I quizzed Gary further about today's world of taxidermy.

K: What percent of your business now is movie and TV?

G: "About 80 percent It's taken over the trophy business. I've seen the movie part of the market evolve from lngy's ownership and it's my preference as well. Hunters still account for about 10 percent, plus the photo and art studios."

K: What is most often requested?

G: "It goes in runs. First it will be rats. Then everyone wants pigeons. You never know what they'll ask for. Cave man pelts were big for awhile."

K: Any other markets?

G: "Pets. People bring in their dead pets to be mounted. This is always difficult since you can't put the personality back into the pet. No matter how good a job you do, it still isn't going to cuddle up. You have to put much more time into it to get it to a state where the owners like it. But they're happy when they leave. It's mostly cats. Recently, however, we also did a pet rabbit and two bulldogs. Students come in as well, looking for eyeballs or stuff to make weird creature parts."

K: Do you ever get hassled by animal rights groups?

G: "No, we don't. We do what we do; we're professional and keep a pretty low profile, even though we're pretty visible within the industry. You need to keep your sense of humor and stay objective."

K: Best/coolest/most famous mounted piece?

G: "Probably Trigger. Bischoff's was responsible for the taxidermy of Roy Rogers' famous horse and later his dog. Bullet. Both are still on display at the Rogers' Museum in Apple Valley. But my personal favorite was a puppet made from a real chicken for a movie called 'Hate'". K: Most unreasonable request? G: "Sixteen greyhounds within two weeks."

K: Weirdest request?

G: "Two rats mating. No comment."

In the back work area I watched artist Larry Greissinger work on a mounted deer head, carefully gluing the hide over a foam shape and fastening it with pins to dry. Larry's been doing this for a while. He worked for original owner Al Bischoff and other taxidermy shops and for many years was a hair stylist in Beverly Hills.

I was surprised at the degree of artistry and sculpture that go into taxidermy. Bischoffs has sources that sell Styrofoam forms of any animal imaginable. Generally, Gary buys one or more foam shapes closest to the client's requested animal, and then takes them apart and reassembles them to achieve the final position or stance requested. The hide is then applied over this form. The process can involve quite a bit of sculpture and knowledge of animal anatomy.

Gary gave me a tour of the place.

A large foam gorilla head sat on a bench in the next workroom, ready to have fake fur applied." The gorilla will be a rental piece," Gary said. "Obviously you can't get real gorillas. That's the same with rhinos and other endangered animals. We have some prized pieces that are quite old and in very good shape - several tiger rugs, for example. That's why it is so important to really care for these pieces when you rent them. The real ones simply can't be replaced."

"Most of our work uses real skins, but we also use quite a bit of artificial fur, especially for background orders. For a scene with 50 dead birds, 4 or 5 are real and the rest are great fakes."

OK. So I'm gonna ask the Big Question: Where do these dead animal parts and pieces come from? Rose had been careful to tell me when I first arrived that no animal is killed to fill somebody's request.

"Mainly they come from rendering plants," Gary explained. "That's the company that picks up, grinds up and disposes of dead animals. The animals at the rendering plants come from laboratories, veterinary offices, zoos, dead animal pick up services (serving residences, ranches and farms), the occasional coyote or bobcat that has to be shot by a ranger in the wild and yes - - road kill. I asked Gary if he accepts donations. He replied "It's hard. We don't want to be working with an animal someone had an emotional attachment to. However, I do get a call once in awhile that there's something dead on the 405..."

Gary will ask the rendering plant save "this or that" as his client request list dictates. Rats and mice are usually former lab "employees" that are acquired from the plant. "There is a constant demand for rats, mice and birds. Things seem to go in cycles. We keep a freezer stocked with about 20 rats. The movies love them."

"The rendering plant is just a whole pile of stuff. It's a little like the auto parts store and is a better way to acquire the animal parts you need since there's no association with any owner. Acquiring them directly from vets and friends makes it a little harder as people are attached. Buying from the renderer keeps it cleaner. We do occasionally acquire pelts through furriers as well."

The rendering plants really sound like something I'd rather delegate than go to, but Gary says he's the one to go do the picking. "Obviously some of these are going to be in pretty bad shape so you have to take several animals as similar as possible to get the pieces and parts you need to assemble one complete mounted animal."

More lessons in taxidermy:

After Bischoff's acquires the carcass, it is then skinned out. The delicate skin around the eyes, ears and nose are salted and rolled to protect them. In 3-4 days this will dry hard and then is sent to the tanner, who treats it with chemicals to preserve the hide and fur. At the end of the process it is put into a fleshing machine. This works sort of like a big planer to cut the hide as thin as possible to make it pliable. Finally, it is placed in a tumbler with weights to make it as soft as possible before arriving back at Bischoff's for mounting and finishing.

"We use commercial tanners so the hide is thin and it moves easily for the animal-tronic work. It creates a real problem sometimes with the industry demand for things 'right now' ('I need a dog on Friday'). Commercial tanning takes 30 days and they usually have a 6-month backlog. We do quick tanning for the movie and TV trade here on site, but less time produces a much stiffer pelt."

Larry also stresses that time is the most important factor in creating a truly good mounted piece. "The 'We need a dog by Friday' thing can be accomplished, but quick tanning methods simply produce a different result than traditional longer tanning methods. Hides shrink as they dry and the finished animals can change shape if they are not cured properly". "It just means more upkeep and attention needed later on", Gary explains. "Like much else in the movie/TV industry, if they'd just had the time to do it right in the first place…!

However, we can tan it in-house if we have to. Movies and TV just need it for the specific shot and that is now much of what we do. Stand-in animal dummies can be stuffed with the same batting used in cushions so the limbs are floppy and wires and cables can be inserted easily. Recently we had a coyote that had to sink, so we weighted the body especially for that shot. Two weeks is about the fastest turnaround on a real animal."

We looked through the existing mounted stock in Bischoff's rental room. The items in their inventory are very well maintained. Most are in pristine condition. They carry reptiles, large and small mammals, fish, birds, hides, paws, feet, skulls, horns and even safari photos. The inventory includes domestic animals as well as wild exotic ones. You will also find some African artifacts - shields, spears, masks and drums. And - oh yes, the AFLAC duck.

What's the oldest piece?

"There are some 70 yr. olds from Al's original collection. Some of the zebras are 30 plus."

Gary also has connections and locations available for filming with many prize mounted pieces as well as many older pristine trophy pieces. In addition, Bischoff's does in-house cleaning and refurbishing privately and for other prop houses.

Gary mentions he is currently building their website that is about 80 percent complete. This is a great way to pre-check your rental needs with their stock. But don't miss a chance to go there yourself, take the tour and meet these friendly folks!

For a feature I just finished for Disney called "The Country Bears", I had asked Bischoff's to make up a big mounted fish I could hang over the cash register in a roadhouse dive called "The Honey Bar" where the biker bears hang out. I wanted it to look like some redneck bear had just taken a big bite out of it. They used an older mounted fish that had just the right age on it and then carved in big bear teeth marks and some cool red stringy stuff hanging down. Yup. We Set Decorators just never know what we're going to need. But if it's in their power, I'll bet Bischoff's can build it for you.