Friday, July 19, 2019

ELPAPER #8


Posted by Chic Silber at 7/19/2019 11:50:00 PM

1 comments:

Roger Smith said...

We've covered this act before, but for First of Mays, it goes like this: When Harriett Evans married Beatty, on September 13, 1933, in Bristol, Virginia, she lost no time in entreating her bridegroom for a cat act. Naturally, he at first said no, then found himself having to stall her off, before OK-ing something with cats three years later. Over the winter of 1935, Eddie Allen broke the original Anna May (namesake for the Woodcock star), to carry a platform for the two cats chosen. Primba was the tigress, and Simba was the lion. Beatty worked on the cats, with Allen cueing Anna May. The act premiered in 1936, on Cole Bros. and Clyde Beatty Circus.. Soon, Simba was found to be going blind, and was retired. When Cole-Beatty closed mid-season of '38, all the acts worked by the Beattys went to the sister show, Robbins Bros., then to Hamid's Steel Pier for '39, on to the Clyde Beatty Jungle Zoo until '45, and on through Beatty show history, in various presentations. The act continued until Harriett's death, in 1950, even though two others tried substituting. They were Bobby Peck and Dorothy Herbert. The last single riding cat was the tigress, Singapore.

20 July, 2019 19:02

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