Thursday, September 01, 2011

Gay's Lion Farm #5

This appears to be an early stage in the training of a tightrope-walking lion.
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Posted by Buckles at 9/01/2011 05:36:00 AM

1 comments:

Roger Smith said...

As Mabel Stark demonstated, the two boards (hers were 2x12s, 20 feet long) were laid one foot apart, on pedestals as seen here. Then a rope, the thickness of a web, was secured along the length with--you guessed it--bailing wire. Next, the boards were turned on edge, the ends and middle held steady with boards bolted across. The ropes were attached along the edges with the same bailing wire. Time was taken here, as Mabel pointed out, as you were toughening the webs between their toes, as well as letting the cat become accustomed to the strange footing. At the right time, you elevate the boards and prompt the walk slowly at the new height. When you rig the cables, the boarded walk is slung underneath for the added sense of security, and is gradually lowered until you have your wire-walker confident without it. Mabel's rigging was two cables 20' long, one foot apart, held together in the center with a flat-strap clasp, and rigged at 6' above the ring. In Thousand Oaks, her wire cats were Bill, Whitey, and in my era, Tiba.

The first wire-walker featured in America was Bob Matthews's King Tuffy, in 1925. Second was Big Johnny, trained by Swede Johnson. Both these lions were giants, at 800 pounds, as discussed here long ago. Terrell Jacobs wire lion worked with Jacobs doing a "skin the cat" underneath.

Mabel Stark's last training was done on her week off at Jungleland, in 1967, and was the wire-walking lion, Juneau. She didn't like it being a lion, but she did it. Juneau went to a guy on his last legs at Jungleland. Upon his firing, the lion was absorbed into the act of another woman, who both claimed the training and declared this the first wire-walking lion.

02 September, 2011 05:07

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