CIRCUS TRICK EXPOSED

Evening Star, Issue 23189, 11 February 1939, Page 5

CIRCUS TRICK EXPOSED

BUT IT STILL SOUHDS DANGEROUS Clyde Beatty, world-famous animal trainer, who is currently appearing in Action Pictures’ ‘ The Lost Jungle,’ says that there is no such trick as putting your head in the mouth of a Tjon or tiger. He admits that it might be a good trick if it could be done, but he insists that it has never been performed. Now, wait a minute, don’t get excited and say that it has been done because you’ve seen it with your own eyes. When a trainer puts his head in a lion’s mouth he very nearly puts it in. In fact, Beatty himself has thrilled audiences by seeming to thrust his head inside a big cat’s jaws. But the I trick is not to put , your head in. the

lion’s mouth, but to make it appear as though the head was resting in the lion’s jaws. A simple device, that of putting your face in the lion’s mouth, creates the illusion and renders the stunt perfectly safe. The trainer catches the upper alid lower jaws of the animal. His right hand rests securely on the upper jaw, and he holds the lower jaw with l his left hand; and when he feels the slightest pressure, as though the animal had any ideas of his own about closing his jaws, the trainer quickly can withdraw his face. George Marshall has been signed by Universal studios to direct W. C. (Bill) Fields, Edgar Bergen, and Charlie M'Carthy in ‘ You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man.’ Marshall, a veteran in the motion picture business, ’is known as one of the best. comedy directors in Hollywood.