Friday, August 19, 2011

Ring Of Fear Performance #9


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Posted by Buckles at 8/19/2011 05:44:00 AM

3 comments:

William Shoop said...

How many cats were in the cage?Secondly what was the record number of cats Beatty once had in the cage?

19 August, 2011 09:16
Ole Whitey said...

Excuse me, I think I heard the phone ring...

19 August, 2011 17:43
Roger Smith said...

This has been addressed more than once here.

In 1925, Beatty took over the big Pete Taylor act on Hagenbeck-Wallace, and built it to industry and public acclaim with his first Big Act of plus or minus 40 cats. All pros know that the count on any kind of animal act will fluctuate for any reason at any time.

The legendary animal man, Bill Johnston, a devoted student of his profession and his industry, and an exacting circus writer, told me this: In Chicago, in 1937, Bill's father took him to the Cole-Beatty show, and there were 43 mixed lions and tigers in Beatty's act, making him the only man to achieve the Big Act twice.

I do not have the exact count of the animals he worked in RING OF FEAR, although I do recognize several of them, but obviously it was damned respectable and his stock gleamed in prime condition.

When I was with him in 1964, he worked 17. The lions were Pharoah, Duke, King, Leo, Simba, Caesar, Sultan, Congo, Henry, and Brutus. The tigers were Prince, Princess, Duke, Frisco, Rajah, Tiny, and Judy. It was spoken of then as the largest wild animal act working. If a cat act approached Beatty's in terms of number and quality in that era, you would certainly have been looking at Pat Anthony.

20 August, 2011 03:06

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