Friday, August 17, 2018

CATS #9


Posted by Chic Silber at 8/17/2018 12:06:00 AM

1 comments:

Roger Smith said...

Mabel Stark and Goldie on the barrel. This is how Mabel dressed for most shows during my 3.5 years with her. She had long since retired her lash whip. On September 21, 1935, on the Barnes show, in Phoenix, her ball-roller Nellie came of and gave Mabel her most vicious attack since the one in Bangor, Maine, in '28. Nellie's claws ripped Mabel's right arm, tearing out the deltoid muscle and crippling her hand. As you see here, Mabel from then on worked her 6-foot buggy whip by holding it under her arm and waving it with her hand. The next day, after Mabel's attack in Phoenix, actor Charles Bickford was attacked by a lion at Universal Studios, while filming EAST OF JAVA. The two stars shared banner headlines for weeks as they recovered day by day.

This shot is at Jungleland. The cage is a Barnes show arena, built by J.O. "Red" Forbes, and salvaged by Louis Goebel when Barnes-Sells Floto folded in 1938. Mabel was on the show, and began her 29 years in Thousand Oaks that winter. Many performers suffered along with shows lost to that dreaded season, and one might claim that Louis Goebel also salvaged Mabel's career.

17 August, 2018 03:52

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