Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Clyde Beatty Collection #4


Hbeatty, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 4/23/2008 05:51:00 AM

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

With all this "rig-a-maroll" over the GREAT ONE, can someone say something nice about Harriett? I already know... she was not an animal trainer but a presenter who benefited from her husband's fame and talents, etc., etc. But there is nothing wrong with that.

25 April, 2008 22:20
Anonymous said...

From the background, you can tell that this shot was made at Rochester during the Beattys' Cole show days. That same car appears in some pix made of Mr Beatty during the same session, likely one of those Press Days they'd have early every spring.

Harriet is probably best remembered for working the tiger riding the elephant (which began as a lion and tiger both atop Anna Mae), but she also worked a lion act (sometimes with a few tigers) during this period. I believe this act debuted after Allen King left Cole in mid-season 1935.

Once during the Milwaukee Shrine date Mr Beatty was ill with the flu and unable to go on; Harriet's nine lion act was substituted for his to a good reception.

She also worked this act during their 1939 Million Dollar Pier engagement, alternating with her husband's big act.

I believe her last riding tiger was one "Singapore," who outlived Harriet by a number of years.

Harriet's daughter Albina performed under her mother's name for some years.

26 April, 2008 12:42
Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info Ole Whitey. I do recall reading that she worked the big act a few times. I think Buckles ran a picture of Albina a few years ago in a "Ladies of the Steel Arena" set.

26 April, 2008 15:49
henry edgar said...

from the accounts i've read, harriett was outstanding as a performer, very supporting as a wife and very brave and daring when it came to working with animals. yet we hear very little about her. i understand she lived in clyde's shadow, but it seems like she was an impressive presenter in her own right. has she been almost ignored simply because she didn't train her animals, or was it that during that pre-women's rights era that women in the big cage, with the exception of mabel stark, were not considered to be on the same level as men. by all accounts, it was a great marriage. does anyone know why harriett doesn't seem to have been given proper credit for her work?

26 April, 2008 16:56

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