"Without Flipper I Would Be Dead"
By Ingrid Gallmeister, Bild am Sonntag Magazine ("Bild am Sonntag" - Sunday edition of Bild Magazine) (NOTE: This article contains informational errors; corrections are noted in brackets [].) ROME, Sept 8, 1968 - Luke Halpin alias "Sandy" does not kiss the wise dolphin anymore. But instead of the dolphin, he kisses pretty girls. In his exclusive interview with Bild am Sonntag, he tells not only about his kisses but also about his dangerous adventures with the famous fish, which were not part of the movie script. Luke Halpin says about the so well loved television star of our children: "Without Flipper I would be dead". Then he gave me a rose and finally he brought his guitar and played a few short, sweet songs, which he had composed himself. If I didn't know it was Luke, I would not have recognized him. I brought him an adventure book as a present, and now I stood in front of the man who was much taller than me. I thought about the young Sandy who was on TV every Sunday around two, with Flipper, the great dolphin and his handsome young father. But Luke Halpin, the more reasonable brother of the wild Bud, is 21 years old today and he has gotten out of his child shoes (German phrase). I meet a naive young guy at the start off his "adult" film career, tanned and very charming, not a teenager and not a man yet who likes to flirt, without worries and full of thought - he is everything but not a boy anymore. "I think it is quite sad," the young man says, and he combs his blond hair with his hand. "The years with Flipper were my best time. It was like a being on vacation forever. The sea, the sun, our boat and Flipper, the best partner you can have!" The Flipper years, from 1961 to 1965 with more than 102 movies [NOTE: 88 episodes were filmed 1964-1966], are still in his blood. He plays with his ring, on which a dolphin is carved in and he shows me his armband. "From Flipper, for Luke" it reads on the golden chain. "I would leave any woman for Flipper," Luke Halpin remembers. "What we had together was even better than what you watched on your TV screen. Whenever we were separated, I was sick - and Flipper too." It was not only one dolphin - it was five Flippers who were Luke's partners. "The caretakers wanted to avoid that the dolphins would become to close to me," Luke explains."We lived together for months. It was easy for both of us to get used to each other, and saying goodbye was always very painful".
Jealousy Luke has learned that dolphins need to be treated even more carefully than humans. As long as he was alone or with his film brother Tommy Norden (17), everything was fine. But one time Luke brought a girl with him. Luke laughs when he tells that Flipper started to act like a jealous diva. "At first, he ignored me. Then he started to splash water at the girl, to spit at her and to jump around. The girl ran away crying and I never saw her again". "Their mood swings, and they can be quite egoistic - it happened quite often that we had to start to shoot at some other time since the dolphin did not like something. There was something smelling, a tree was there or whatever. He refused to act until the team went to another location". Luke whistles: "This is how we called Flipper. Not like with an instrument [the car horn] like in this idiotic movie. With the instruments, the dolphins never came out of the water. We never worked with tricks. We never needed that," Luke says and he is very proud. Dolphins get their act together very fast and shooting with them is fun. And Flipper saved lives not only in the movie script. Tommy and Luke found on old car wreck on the bottom of the ocean. That was their place where no cameras were allowed. Luke has glancing eyes and when he talks you might think he talks of a former lover and not an animal. His voice is now soft. "We played around there with Flipper like father, mother and child, cops and robbers or doctor and patient. Whenever sharks came close, Flipper started to hit me with his fins and we knew. Danger! He was always behind us when we swam away to protect us until were in safety". One time the boys did not pay attention to Flipper's warning. They stayed at the car, they were curious to see the sharks. Luke: "We did not think about the danger. We were stupid kids out to experience something. Flipper started to dance around. He was furious and continued to dance around. We saw the shadow of the shark and Flipper went right after him like a robber. We do not know what happened next". Luke is somehow ashamed. "We just left. We do not think there was a fight since Flipper did not get hurt. But he scared the shark away. Otherwise we would not be here today". After this incident Tommy and Luke always paid attention to the signs of the shark. Flipper refused to go back to the car wreck. And the boys did not go back either. Shy We are sitting in the garden of his hotel in Rome where Luke Halpin just finished his first movie in Europe: If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium, the story of American tourists traveling through Europe in 15 days through eight countries. Luke plays a young hippie who chases his girl who is traveling with the group. At the moment, he is planning to sail around the world. "I will buy a big sailboat," he tells me. "For one or two years I want to sail across the oceans and it does not matter where I go. I would have loved to live in the 17th century as a pirate and servant of a beautiful queen." He smiles, and I do not know if this is a joke. "I know one thing for sure: at age 30, I will have a house on the ocean with a big garden and a swimming pool - one for Flipper." |