When Man and Mortal Enemies Meet
When the Roman soldiers threw their slaves, criminals, and undesirables into the Coliseum then turned the savage man eating lions loose upon them, everyone knew what the gruesome outcome was going to be.
However dreadful it was, it was the basic beginning to the man vs. beast mythology that has followed for over two thousand years. Many a circus advertisement or circus poster from the mid to late eighteen hundreds showed a circus performer in a Roman Gladiator outfit as he wrestled a lion, or even stood with one foot on the lion as the marked conqueror of such a vicious beast.
As the development of a circus became an original idea, simple feats of bravery were considered to be exceptional behavior and held in awe and amazement by all that witnessed such a circus act. It is this form of bravery that allows us to document the beginning of man and the wild circus animals together in the same cage at the same time. Van Amburgh is given due credit as being the first animal subjugator in America as he entered a den of man eating circus Lions and returned unscathed. These were usually the cages the circus animals remained in. The circus performer then entered this den of dangerous denizens of the damp, dark jungle to stand or even sit in the same cage with these animals during a parade or as the main attraction. The attraction of circus animals and humans together was thrilling to say the least.
While lions and tigers were the most commonly used circus animals due to their size, colors, and availability to acquire, a wide variety of animals were used in the circus acts or caged displays including leopards, bears, and other feline creatures. By the late 1800's, a new turn of events was taking place with the evolution of this animal and man encounter moving to a huge portable animal cage that the animals could thus enter, move around, and return to their holding dens. This became know as the Steel Arena as these portable cages were made from all steel fabrication and weighed a ton creating a large arena to work in. The combining of the wild animal and the circus performer under the big circus tents was becoming an amazing attraction.
The European influence was new and spellbinding as visitors to the great shows at Coney Island or the Chicago and St. Louis World's Fairs saw these great circus animals entering this huge steel cage and actually doing something in a form of a performance by getting on pedestals and holding still in various formations to the circus performer reading a newspaper while sitting in front of them. People were gasping in terror as they witnessed these remarkable circus performers enter into a steel cage filled with five or six dangerous animals, work with them and a couple made actual hands on contact with the animals before returning to the relative safety associated with being outside of the caged arena.
By the early 1900's, American trainers were becoming involved in huge ways with the presentation of these wild animal acts. Some of the premier animals trainers like Louis Roth began by training their own act then moving on to train more acts that other people ended up performing. These performances were not confined to just lions and tigers. There were complete acts with as many as 15 Polar bears, Spotted and Black leopards, jaguars, and then the most incredible displays of all, the mixed acts.
Circus Animals were all captured in the wild as were all Zoo animals back at the turn of the century. So to have a jungle bred animal that is full grown and never been around a human before, then to have a person brave enough to work with them was purely amazing. The Circus performers who entered the great steel cage took their lives into their own hands every time they did. The lions and tigers were generally described as hating each other and kept the hair on everyone's neck standing straight up until the trainer was out and the last animal was securely put away again. People were standing in long lines to buy their circus tickets.
One such young man, named Clyde Beatty was a young kid from Bainbridge, Ohio working at cleaning up around the animals on a circus when he got the chance to go in the great steel cage. He never looked back. After over forty years of battling the deadly combination of lions and tigers together in a fast and thrilling journey that included as many as 40 animals at one time, Clyde also found the time to appear in Movies and commercials and owned his own Circus. His legacy was infamous and his name so well known that for 40 years after his death, his name was still on the title of the circus.
At the same time as Clyde Beatty was establishing himself as a true circus performer and master of the steel arena, another man, Terrell Jacobs, the Lion King, was already well established in the great cage filled with over 50 of these dangerous circus animals under the big circus tents. The ability of one man to go in with 50 mortal enemies, perform with them in manners we never thought of as possible, and return safely brought the crowds to their feet every time he had finished his circus act. The Circus Clowns always followed to bring joy and laughter to one and all and to give everyone a moment or two to slow their own hearts down again.
Men weren't the only circus performers entering the steel arena daily. Lucia Zora on Sells-Floto was in the cage before the 1920's with her hugely appreciated circus act as well as working her circus elephants. Other women followed but no one took more risks, and understood her animals more than the legendary tiger trainer, Mabel Stark. She knew her animals well and even raised a few of them herself. Standing in front of her massive circus animals is one thing but Mabel took her exciting circus acts to new heights when she started to wrestle a tiger daily. Two and three times a day. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus would have as many as three circus acts with wild animals all at the same time.
The greatest displays of animals working together were the mixed acts where more than one species was working at the same time. Many of the acts incorporated several species of animals. Alfred Court was instrumental in the utilization of mixed breeds by having Leopards and Dogs together or the large groups with lions, tigers, polar bears, great Danes, leopards, and cougars all together at one time. Making it even more interesting was a circus elephant, horse, or combination of both in the great cage with a lion or tiger riding on top of the elephant. The early 1960's saw a beautiful mixed act with Leopards, wolf hybrids, and a zebra.
In an effort to always make a presentation better than ever before, more exotic animals were introduced to the performances such as the amazing snow leopards or cheetahs. Just in the past 40 years, we have seen the arrival of a white tiger to US soil. This magnificent animal has reproduced many times through the ages to allow the genetics to now offer the White tigers with stripes, white tigers without stripes, the Golden Tabbies, a white tiger with gray stripes, the regular colored tigers, and reports from China of a bluish / grayish tiger. The Circus has offered circus acts with these white tigers and a mixed variety of these colors as these beautiful circus animals showed off the natural beauty.
The 1973 Endangered Species Act took note of the loss of animals in the wild and prohibited animals to be removed from the wild for commercial purposes any more. Zoos and Circuses could not obtain animals from the wild so captive breeding programs have supplied all the animals in the circus in the United States since then with most of the feline family or "Big Cats" generally only living 18 to 20 years. Sadly extinction is forever. Of the eight subspecies of tigers in the wild, The Bengal, Siberian, and Sumatran tigers still exist with the other five considered extinct now.
To read more about these incredible circus animals and the circus, look in our circus books and circus DVDs at http://www.thecircusworld.com
The Circus World LLC is dedicated to preserving the Circus for all to enjoy. We will carry a large array of Circus Posters both original and reproductions, Circus Movies in DVD and VHS, Circus books filled with photos, images, and Circus History and more at http://www.thecircusworld.com
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