Sunday, February 18, 2007

No. 44- Jim Clubb at Great Yarmouth Hippodrome 1985

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Posted by Buckles at 2/18/2007 05:57:00 AM

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This picture of me was actually taken at Blackpool Tower Circus 1976 after Luis Palacio's accident. The lion is Leo and the two behind are Clarence and Nero. Leo originally came from Cromer Zoo in Norfolk, UK, and was bred by Alex Kerr, the ex-Bertram Mills lion trainer. The cage I am working in is the gold scrolled cage identical to the picture previously seen on this blog of Harry Belli. I was too late to reply to Larry's question regarding this act. I liked the Harry Belli cage so much I made a complete replica of it, even though I could have bought the original that was still available in Holland at that time. My one was made of tubula steel and therefore quite light compared with the original Belli one. At Blackpool we had overhanging spikes at the top instead of a net. These we later removed because the packing was so difficult. John Campalongo had the cage when he presented my lions and the cage is still here at our zoo today. Harry Belli's act of 7 male lions was originally trained by Harder Johnson - half-brother to Trevor Bail - for Albert Jessuit for his circus in Ireland. The act originally consisted of 12 animals - five of which were sold to Billy Smart in 1953. I saw that particular act which was enlarged to 10 animals on Smart's in 1960, which gave me the inspiration to train a male lion act. When I saw it, there were only 6 lions left. They were always troublesome. Charles Illeneb, the trainer, was nearly killed by Caesar the top mounter on the pyramid on October 13th 1955. I must stop here, as I will digress even more.

19 February, 2007 10:52
Anonymous said...

Thanks for your comments Jim. Are these some of the lions that Larry worked on RBBB?

19 February, 2007 14:30
Anonymous said...

Mr Clubb, You should have seen what the tornado did to all my Tubula Steel props here. I had to use a saw to cut the pieces apart. Those that I found. I rebuilt with 6 X 6 treated lumber. Of course even I can not move them as I inbedded them in two feet of concrete. The wind sure made a believer out of me.

19 February, 2007 18:16
Anonymous said...

I think it is in 1986 and not in 1976 isn't it ?

23 September, 2008 16:11

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