Clyde Beatty (June 10, 1903 â€" July 19, 1965) was a famed animal
trainer, zoo owner, and circus mogul. He joined Howe's Great London
Circus in 1921 as a cage boy and spent the next four decades rising to
fame as one of the most famous circus performers and animal trainers
in the world. Through his career, the circus impresario owned several
circuses, including his own Clyde Beatty Circus from 1945 to
1956.Clyde Raymond Beatty was born on June 10, 1903, in Bainbridge,
Ross County, Ohio, the eldest of nine children. He graduated from
nearby Chillicothe High School, but had already succumbed to the world
of the circus. On August 16, 1921, at dawn, he and Howard Smith
clambered into a boxcar on the DT&I Railroad, bound for Washington
Court House, OH, and joined Howe's Great London and Van Amburgh's Wild
Animal Circus. His first and certainly influential boss was the
legendary wild animal trainer Louis Roth. Next, he came under the
tutelage of another great trainer, John "Chubby" Guilfoyle. By 1923
Clyde was working small mixed groups of big cats to start 42
uninterrupted seasons in the steel arena.Beatty became famous for his
"fighting act", in which he entered a cage with wild animals with a
whip and a pistol strapped to his side. The act was designed to
showcase his courage and mastery of wild beasts. Through his career
Beatty trained hippos, polar bears, brown bears, lions, tigers,
cougars, and hyenas; sometimes, many brought together all at once in a
single cage in a potentially lethal combination. At the height of his
fame, the act featured as many as 43 lions and tigers of both sexes,
for which Beatty still holds a world record for. and Beatty had his
own rail car in the 35-car circus train.Young Clyde's self-confidence
and unabashed theatrics swiftly catapulted him to circus fame. Within
merely a decade, the name Clyde Beatty became synonymous with the best
and most exciting wild animal training ever seen under the Big Top!
There have been suggestions that Beatty was the first lion tamer to
use a chair in his act, but in an autobiographical book he disclaimed
credit for this practice: "It was in use when I was a cage boy and had
been used long before."
trainer, zoo owner, and circus mogul. He joined Howe's Great London
Circus in 1921 as a cage boy and spent the next four decades rising to
fame as one of the most famous circus performers and animal trainers
in the world. Through his career, the circus impresario owned several
circuses, including his own Clyde Beatty Circus from 1945 to
1956.Clyde Raymond Beatty was born on June 10, 1903, in Bainbridge,
Ross County, Ohio, the eldest of nine children. He graduated from
nearby Chillicothe High School, but had already succumbed to the world
of the circus. On August 16, 1921, at dawn, he and Howard Smith
clambered into a boxcar on the DT&I Railroad, bound for Washington
Court House, OH, and joined Howe's Great London and Van Amburgh's Wild
Animal Circus. His first and certainly influential boss was the
legendary wild animal trainer Louis Roth. Next, he came under the
tutelage of another great trainer, John "Chubby" Guilfoyle. By 1923
Clyde was working small mixed groups of big cats to start 42
uninterrupted seasons in the steel arena.Beatty became famous for his
"fighting act", in which he entered a cage with wild animals with a
whip and a pistol strapped to his side. The act was designed to
showcase his courage and mastery of wild beasts. Through his career
Beatty trained hippos, polar bears, brown bears, lions, tigers,
cougars, and hyenas; sometimes, many brought together all at once in a
single cage in a potentially lethal combination. At the height of his
fame, the act featured as many as 43 lions and tigers of both sexes,
for which Beatty still holds a world record for. and Beatty had his
own rail car in the 35-car circus train.Young Clyde's self-confidence
and unabashed theatrics swiftly catapulted him to circus fame. Within
merely a decade, the name Clyde Beatty became synonymous with the best
and most exciting wild animal training ever seen under the Big Top!
There have been suggestions that Beatty was the first lion tamer to
use a chair in his act, but in an autobiographical book he disclaimed
credit for this practice: "It was in use when I was a cage boy and had
been used long before."
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