Catherine Hanneford is the eldest
of George and Vicki's two children and has been performing since she was
a young girl. Though trained in the family tradition of horse riding, at
an early age she developed an almost uncanny ability to train animals.
She even trained a pet rat to come to her and do tricks. Then when the
first rat died she got another and trained it too.
While many kids own pets, Catherine had a collection that would
be the envy of any ordinary child. Apart from the usual cats and dogs,
she got to be around, and play with, horses, a lion, a tiger, a llama,
and, most importantly, three baby elephants. Unlike her brother, George
III who is the same age as the elephants, she was old enough to help with
their upbringing and training right from the start. The bond between them
is unlike any other human/animal relationship, being more like sisters
than a mere partnership of dominant versus subdominant species. This fortunate
harmonious relationship paid dividends when she was finally old enough
to perform with the elephants in the family show, eventually making Cathy
the leading woman elephant trainer and handler in the world.
Of course, being born a circus performer means more than just training
animals - important though that may be. She also learned all the skills
required by an acrobat, aerialist, trampolinist, dancer, and, later, vocalist
and announcer. As she grew up she was trained by her mother to have great
charm and poise which developed into a commanding presence in the ring.
When she is performing everybody watches.
All of these skills combined led Kenneth Feld
to hire her away from the family show to work, and star, in the 1998 edition
of the Barnum and Bailey & Ringling Brothers Circus, where she is second
on the bill only to Mark Oliver Gebel (son of the famous Gunther Gebel  Williams)
working her Liberty Horse act and Ringling's elephants (along with Mark
Gebel) and acting as understudy to ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson. She
indeed became the first woman to be ringmaster of the Ringling show for
a period of six weeks when Iverson had to take time off due to throat problems.
At that time she never left the ring for the entire show, announcing, singing
the complex score, and performing in center ring with both horses and elephants.
In the mid nineties she married Akos Feher,
a Hungarian born dancer/performer. Akos (pronounced "Ah-cosh") was trained
as a ballet and jazz dancer in Hungary and worked in many big productions
including a run with the Hungarian cast of "Cats". Later he secured a job
in the Bahama's at Paradise Island Casino show, produced by Tibor Rudas.
When the show  closed
in the early nineties, the Hannefords purchased some of the props and the
two big cats for their new magic production in the circus at the Fort Lauderdale
Swap Shop. Akos came over also and worked in the Swap Shop show for the
Hannefords. There he started dating Cathy and the two wed and combined
their careers. Akos now also works in the Ringling show both in the production
numbers and as assistant to Cathy (at one point sitting astride an elephant
as she first stands on her hind legs then goes down to a head stand; at
which point Akos slides down her neck and stands up with his legs behind
her ears - pretty spectacular)
Catherine Hanneford's career as a star performer could well lead her into
public prominence and she could become as well known as Gunther Gebel Williams
and Emmet Kelly. Most circus performers remain unknown to the public at
large in spite of their talents and incredible skills. Cathy has just the
right ingredients to make her not only a circus star, but an internationally
known performer (after all, Gunther and Emmet never sang and neither were
as glamorous), and make the name Hanneford more famous than her great
uncle Poodles. |
