The Untold Truth Of Siegfried And Roy

Siegfried and Roy took Las Vegas by storm with their magic-meets-tamed-tigers act. What many fans might not realize is that the duo had a long history together, well before they hit the strip with their menagerie of exotic animals. Here's the untold truth of Siegfried and Roy.

Born Siegfried Fischbacher and Uwe Ludwig Horn in World War II-era Germany, Siegfried and Roy overcame bleak childhoods to bring wonder and joy to countless kids the world over.

Siegfried and Roy's fathers fought on the Russian front during World War II, and both returned home broken. In the 2008 biography of the pair, The Secret Life of Siegfried and Roy: How the Tiger Kings Tamed Las Vegas, the authors chronicle the boys' love-starved youths in post-Nazi Germany.

Siegfried's father was a prisoner of war and quickly succumbed to alcoholism after peace was declared, and Roy, born in the middle of an air-raid, likewise watched with dread and sadness as his father, another traumatized vet, drank himself out of a family. When Roy's mother married another man, a short period of bliss and prosperity followed, but that man also eventually became a slave to the sauce.

Young Siegfried, depressed and often hungry, taught himself how to do card tricks and other illusions as a way to distract and entertain himself. There was another bonus to Siegfried's talents for sleight-of-hand: performing the tricks was the only way he could command his father's sparse attention. Meanwhile, Roy was happy only when in the company of his dog, Hexe, who was half wolf and saved Roy's life once when Roy, an adventurous kid, found himself stuck in quicksand. Hexe ran off and alerted a nearby farmer, Lassie-style, and Roy was pulled to safety.

The two boys' futures seemed predestined, Siegfried would be a magician and Roy would surround himself with animals, the wilder the better.

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War-torn origins | 0:00
Cruising toward a team-up | 1:35
The Siegfried and Roy Show | 2:45
A near-death experience | 4:11
White lies | 5:16
Siegfried among the monks | 6:22
Coming out | 7:07
They bought a zoo | 8:13
Him too? | 9:06
A tragic end | 10:10

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