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Wednesday, August 20, 2014
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4 comments:
Mable Stark on RBBB c. 1923. We see her big male black jaguar who was the star of her act at that time. Alas, he died from shock at Bridgeport Qtrs. in early 1924 after having been doused with water trying to fight the fire which consumed so many wagons.
His name was the "N" word which nobody thought much about back then but which is absolutely verboten nowadays.
"N" may have been the first black jaguar seen in the big cage, at least here in USA.
Alfred Court had two of them for his acts when he came here for RBBB in 1940. Jim Clubb told me they were very dangerous and almost impossible to handle.
This photo would seem to have been taken by Harry Atwell in Chicago where the show had enough time to allow for outside publicity shots like this.
Mabel's scrapbooks, carefully maintained here, have photos of the black jaguar, fully spelling out his name, which was, let's face it-- "Nigger". As Richard notes, not much thought was given the word then, and as a name for a melanistic animal, no special angst was attached to its use. The photos in this set of Mabel's are dated in white ink as "'23". Some have the raised lettering from a seal press, reading "Compliments of The Chicago Tribune - The World's Greatest Newspaper".
OK, OK I had a senior moment, Drat!
Mabel. . .Jaguar
Lilli. . .Leopard
And if I may concur with RJR I have spoken to a couple of zoo folks over the years and been told how dangerous/hard to handle they are.
I think it's nap time.
I'm sorry I didn't further ID this photo. We know who the jaguar is. The tiger at Center is King, the first tiger Mabel saw, and the very animal who provided her epiphany. Looking upon his face, she realized she had found the way of life from which she would never depart. This is why she never got over John Ringling holding her to his contract for those three years, 1925-1927, when he deleted cage acts. The tiger at Right is Sands, named for Al Sands, the manager for Al. G. Barnes, who hired Mabel on Sunday, October 22, 1911, for her First of May season.
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