Saturday, March 16, 2013

From James S. Cole #9

Posted by Buckles at 3/16/2013 05:46:00 AM

3 comments:

Bob Cline said...

It appears that this photo of Clyde beatty working was taken inside the huge cat barn at the Peru winter quarters of the American Circus Corporation. I find it interesting to see the heads which seemingly indicate an audience of sorts.

Would there have been some bleachers inside? The photographer is obviously up off the ground.
Bob

16 March, 2013 09:08
Ole Whitey said...

This is a still from his first movie The Big Cage and that set was a soundstage made to look like the cat barn in Peru.

16 March, 2013 10:53
Roger Smith said...

Beatty was just coming back to working condition after his "Jungle Fever" attack by Nero, in January of '32. John Ringling delayed the Garden opening by a week,so Beatty had more time to recover,and to practice. I have the telegram Mr.John sent Jess Adkins, asking if Beatty had been released to resume work, and if he was practicing the animals. He concluded by saying, "We absolutely must have Beatty" for the Garden.

The Jungle Fever angle was a goldmine for the publicists. They shot it to the wire services, and the story went worldwide, not as some "lion tamer" was bitten, but as "Clyde Beatty Near Death from Jungle Fever." This wise promotion of his name helped ascend his stardom, which compelled both the book and the movie THE BIG CAGE to find an audience in 1933.

16 March, 2013 17:51

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