This original poster from our collection will be mounted, designed and cut into a one-of-a-kind PAR for you. Clyde Beatty (1903-1965) an animal trainer, lion tamer and overall circus entertainer, ran his own circus prior to joining forces with Cole Bros in 1935. He started out as a cage boy in 1921 with Howe’s Great London Circus and Van Amburgh’s Wild Animal Circus. Beatty became famous for courage and mastery of wild animals as he entered their cages with a whip. He trained everything from polar bears, tigers, hyenas, hippos and lions. At one point in his career, his act had as many as 43 lions and tigers in play at once - a record he still holds today.
Beatty married an aerialist in the circus, her name was Harriett Evans. She showed interest in taming wild animals as well and with teamwork between them, Evans became one of the few known female lion tamers in the 1930’s.
Beatty later made his way onto television on his own “Clyde Beatty Show”. The dialogue and vision for his episodes were allegedly taken from his real-life travails while in the circus world, and albeit plenty of embellishment to go along for the ride. He is known for a spot on the Ed Sullivan Show where he begrudgingly took to the stage knowing it was too small for his act and lost control of the animals. No one was hurt but blanks were fired in order to get a handle on wrangling the animals. Ed Sullivan took to the audience to announce the next guests after commercial break :)
Size: 21x28 - Approximately 900 pcs - we will not have an issue making this one a challenge given its large color swaths all around. Surprises to come…