Tuesday, July 18, 2017

#14 H-W

Clyde Beatty.

2 comments:

Roger Smith said...

Already, at this stage of his career, Beatty was sought out for product endorsements. These cars we see him in were gifted to him, sometimes in lieu of real money, for his name and image with their brand.

His fame was hard won, born of the attack my Nero lion, in Peru, in 1932. The show's publicity boys hit a stroke of genius when they labeled his infections as "Jungle Fever". To establish their guy's value, they didn't say a lion trainer was attacked, they released the star-making words, "Clyde Beatty Attacked by Lion--Near Death from Jungle Fever". The wire services went wild. Beatty's 12-plus weeks in recovery added fuel to the news, and his name was made. As he recovered, Ernest Hemingway told him to write a book, while all this was hot. Edward Anthony had written the first books for Frank Buck, and he came aboard to co-write THE BIG CAGE. Universal Studio boss Carl Laemmle snatched up the movie rights, and we all know the rest. Talk about "a star is born", there it is.

Roger Smith said...

Error--not "my' Nero lion. Nero was before my time. Should read "attack BY Nero lion".