least two films for Selig Polyscope, one called The Artist and the Brute, and the other called The Wise Old Elephant, starring Kathlyn Williams. Big Otto is credited with the scenario (screenplay) for Selig's Alone in the Jungle. In 1914 Big Otto Pictures released The Mysterious Man of the Jungle, a four-reel feature. Around 1915, Big Otto bought land between Los Angeles and Pasadena where he kept an animal collection sometimes called Big Otto Zoo. In 1918 Breitkreutz was indicted by a grand jury for mail fraud due to his involvement in a shady plan to sell horse meat to the U.S. government to feed prisoners of war. The charges were dropped for insufficient evidence. Breitkreutz was also involved in some kind of gold mining syndicate or scheme that was called, naturally, Big Otto Mines. In May 1928, famous film cowboy Tom Mix mentioned Breitkreutz in Photoplay magazine, "Big Otto, I may say, is still a-livin' an' still got an animal show. His good lookin' daughter is married to a young feller named Furness, one of the owners of the Continental an' a lot of other hotels 'round Los Angeles an' San Francisco." Otto F. Breitkreutz died in Los Angeles in December 1928. Personal life Breitkruetz was born in 1866 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His parents Ferdinand and Marie (Kehl) Breitkreutz were both natives of Prussia and had at least 11 children, of which Otto was the sixth by birth order. In 1890, Breitkreutz married Laura Larson in Milwaukee County. At the time of the 1910 U.S. census, Breitkreutz was living in Wisconsin with his wife Laura, and two teenage daughters, Ruth and Laurine. According to Motography, Big Otto also had an adopted daughter, Olga, known professionally as Princess Cecelia. Gallery See also Curley Stecker, animal trainer Notes References 1860s births 1928 deaths American film directors Circus owners