WAY WITH TIGERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 291, 9 December 1941, Page 5

WAY WITH TIGERS

OPERA STAR'S PETS "BORN WITHOUT FEAR" NEW YORK, November 1. "Nice pussy," says Ruby Mercer, beautiful young operatic star who caresses Satan, the tiger, just as lovingly as you and I would pet a tabby-cat. Miss Mercer, stream-lined soprano who will make her debut in New York's New Opera Company on November 5, when she sings the feminine lead in the English version of Offenbach's "La Vie Parisienne,"* is a typical American girL That is. of course, if you except her hobby of animal training. She loves flying. £?w!? ack * swimming and animals of all kinHg was brought up on my grand* father's farm in Ohio," Miss Mercer told us, "and have always hart a passion for animals. Frank Buck is a friend of mine and it just seemed perfectly natural that I spend as much time as 1 could playing with the animals m his World's Fair Jungleland. It wasn't as much of a shift as you might think from domestic to wild beasts. Some farm animals can be very vicious—bulls, for mstance. and a bronc of grandonce took a large hunk of e back of my head. That couldn't happen now." she continued with a laugh, "because I learned right then and there never to turn my back on an animal. I dont have to worry about letting an animal know I am afraid, though, i guess I was born without that fear, but I certainly have a healthy respect for the "big cats.*" One thing Mercer doesn't do is "give out" with any operatic arias when playing with her "big cats." The chimpanzees loved her voice, however—the elephants didn't mind and, frankly, the snakes were downright indifferent, she says. Of English descent, she is full of fun, is completely unaffected, and is very intelligent. It almost seems too good-to be true that she.is -alao the possessor of a lovely voice.— Auckland Star and N'JLNJL i