Thursday, December 27, 2018

MABEL #7


Posted by Chic Silber at 12/27/2018 12:07:00 AM

3 comments:

Roger Smith said...

Mabel with Goldie rolling her barrel. A pole for Tiba's wire-walk is @ L.

This is Mabel's normal attire for her performances in the time I had with her. The brooch on her blouse was a daily fixture. Owing to the extensive damage she had survived from tiger attacks, Mabel needed her clothing custom designed. Her personal tailor was my neighbor, Hazel Huber, who added strategic padding and careful cuttings to conceal the parts of Mabel that were not there.

One night at the Tiger Room, the bar Jungleland claimed as our own, Hazel suddenly sat beside me, shaking, and with tears streaming. She had just come from a fitting for Mabel. She struggled to speak, and finally said, "Roger! What the hell do you guys get out this--working those cats? What is worth it to you? Do you realize at all what has happened to Mabel? You'll never see her as I do, standing in her bra and panties so I can get her measurements. She has her leg muscles torn away, and barely enough left so she can walk. The rest is a pair of bones. She has a shoulder gone, and a hip was torn off, and a breast was barely sewn back on. Is this what you guys want, too? What about these animals is worth it to you?" I wanted to tell Hazel we accepted the risks, that we were adventurers, and this career was our calling. But there would be no words to calm Hazel's deep-seated horror of what she had seen of Mabel.

27 December, 2018 17:52
Charles Hanson said...

ROGER; The above comments remind me of an interview with Tarzan Zerbini many, many years ago. The interviewer asked him why would anyone want to be in the circus business.....with the long over night jumps, lack of sleep, break downs, low wages, harsh living conditions, blow downs, missing family recitals, graduations and etc, etc. Without missing a beat he replied, " If you had to ask the question then you would not understand the answer"...........Basically, the same thing you said in above comment......

27 December, 2018 19:44
Roger Smith said...

Exactly, CHARLES. And there is another viewpoint I've heard from more than one old-timer, and it is not nearly so polite: "Never try to wise up a townie."

28 December, 2018 00:36

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