Within the early twentieth century, Mabel Stark, a former nurse, become The us’s most famed tiger teacher. Her adventure is ready each the upward thrust of a lady in a person’s global and the iconic risks of untamed animal coaching.
For the sharpest minds in display industry, there is all the time a brand new vein to milk. Take Joe Unique, who in spite of his conviction in 2020 for conspiracy to devote homicide and violation of the Endangered Species Act, The us’s endangered species legislation, was once ready to proceed making headlines.
Since starting his 21-year sentence, the “Tiger King” megastar has introduced a hashish emblem, offered virtual artwork and begun paintings on an album tentatively titled “Jungle Rhapsody: A Tiger King Experience.” His newest project is promoting non-public telephone calls from his cellular – “What better Valentine’s Day gift could you give your loved one?” “, he wrote on Instagram in January 2026.
However prior to Joe Unique, there was once Mabel Stark. Incessantly touted as The us’s most famed tiger teacher, the “Tiger Queen” was once recognized for her boldness and air of mystery.
Whilst researching Cakton Printers, the writer of Stark’s autobiography, I got here throughout up to now unpublished archives dedicated to Stark’s lengthy profession in animal coaching. Like Joe Ekotic, Stark had a display. However, much more unusual, she controlled to carve out a profession beneath the scrutiny of a male-dominated surroundings, whilst taking good care of her animals with love, no longer worry.
From nurse to tiger teacher
Born Mary Ann Haney in 1888 or 1889 – the precise 12 months stays a thriller – Stark grew up in Princeton, Kentucky. On the age of 8, she attended her first circus efficiency, the place she was once extremely joyful by means of the performances of skilled animals. 20 years handed prior to she had the chance to take a look at her hand at dressage.
On holiday in California, whilst running as a nurse, Stark met Al Sands, the director of Al G. Barnes Circus. After studying that she was once occupied with animal coaching, he employed her at the spot.
Stark started by means of using horses and taming goats. It was once a couple of extra years prior to he labored with the tigers. However as soon as it was once introduced, his profession took off. Crowds flocked to peer “Tigress” combat with the massive cats and amaze audiences by means of commanding as much as a dozen tigers at a time. His wrestling regimen along with his favourite tiger, Rajah—through which the duo rolled 3 or 4 occasions at the floor—become some of the well-known flora and fauna routines in the USA. She used this luck to enroll in the Ringling Circus – the most important circus in the USA – for double the wage.
A poster selling the act of Mabel Stark for the Ringling Bros. Circus. and Barnum & Bailey. Parkinson Library and Analysis Centre, Circus International
As her reputation grew, she collaborated with screenwriter Gertrude Orr to inform her lifestyles tale. “Hold That Tiger” hit bookstores in 1938. Jackton Printers, a small publishing area in rural Idaho, printed the paintings and advertised it basically to a tender target audience. The ebook was once a luck, promoting neatly sufficient to be reprinted a number of occasions.
Recognized for giving voice to first-time authors and writers from underrepresented teams, Cakton Printers has discovered a publishing area of interest in books devoted to the sector of circus. The home additionally printed works on Stark’s first employer, Al Barnes, in addition to at the Ringling brothers and the well-known lion tamer Lewis Roth, to whom Stark was once as soon as married.
Girls’s energy within the area
Stark was once neatly conscious about the trail she was once taking. “I deliberately chose a field in which no other woman specialized,” she wrote in her autobiography.
The normal knowledge of the time, she added, was once that “tigers were considered too dangerous for a woman to train.” His willingness to defy those conventions was once vital. As famous by means of circus historian Janet M. Davis, “female circus performances celebrated female power” and represented “a striking alternative to the social norms of the time.”
In early twentieth century The us, girls won’t were ready to vote or serve on juries in maximum states, however within the circus ring they captured the general public’s consideration, using bareback, appearing energy and staying power, and appearing gravity-defying acrobatic feats.
Stark’s tempo was once relentless. She carried out nearly day by day with touring circuses and continuously progressed her performing. In 1938, she labored with tigers and lions concurrently, for the primary time as a teacher. She made historical past once more by means of presenting a bunch with 12 tigers in the similar cage.
Mabel Stark carried out in a cage with 12 tigers. Cinema Libre Studios
Whether or not because of the calls for of his agenda or his penchant for his beasts, Stark’s relationships with males infrequently labored out. Right through her lifestyles, she married 4 occasions and divorced thrice.
“I love these big cats like a mother loves her children,” she confided to a chum. However “I was never happy with my husbands.”
“An animal drainer should never be nervous”
Stark, conscious about the abusive habits of different running shoes against their tigers, selected every other trail. “Kindness and patience are the most important factors in training. (…) Trainers who try to subdue animals with violence always end up in trouble,” she defined.
However his activity was once no longer with out its risks.
“An animal trainer should never be nervous. I haven’t been since I stopped nursing,” she mentioned in a New York Instances interview in 1922. “They may plant violets on my grave tomorrow, but as long as I have health and strength, I’d rather look after ten tigers than one sick person.”
Stark has had a number of dangerous injuries. Possibly the worst got here in 1928: after the overdue arrival of the circus teach, Stark started his act unaware that his tigers had no longer been fed for twenty-four hours. Two hungry tigers attacked her after she slipped within the dust.
“As I lay helpless,” she wrote, “I wondered how many pieces I would be torn into and how long it would take the other tigers, growling and snarling nervously in their seats, to finish me off.” She suffered a couple of fractures, just about misplaced a leg and needed to obtain 300 stitches.
Then, in 1950, she was once mauled by means of a tigress whilst looking to catch her cub. Medical doctors to start with idea they must amputate his arm, however after all they controlled to put it aside.
In spite of those unhealthy face-to-face encounters along with his tigers, Stark declared, “I am not afraid. I love the challenge of their roaring challenge.”
Harsh truth
Stark toured with circuses till the overdue Nineteen Forties, prior to being employed by means of Jungleland, a zoo close to Los Angeles.
Except the 3 and a part years she spent in Japan on excursion together with her play Wild Beasts, the final 20 years of her profession have been spent at this zoo.
Mabel Stark with certainly one of her tigers in 1957, when she was once running as a teacher at Jungleland in Thousand Oaks, California. Larry Paulson, Valley Instances/Los Angeles Public Library Assortment
Stark by no means stopped drawing audiences to his displays and not shied clear of the highlight. She even seemed in “What’s My Line?” », in 1961, a sport display that requested contributors to wager the visitor’s occupation.
“Every year left scars on my body, but it also brought me a full dose of happiness,” she remembers.
Stark labored at Jungleland till she was once fired in 1967, when the park’s insurance coverage now not coated her. Being clear of her tigers devastated her, and he or she ended her lifestyles a couple of months later, on April 20, 1968, at her house in Thousand Oaks.
The final paragraph of Stark’s autobiography turns out to foreshadow the tip of his lifestyles:
“The behind the curtain door opens as I crack my whip and yell, ‘Allow them to move!’ The striped beasts advance stealthily, snarling and roaring, charging at each and every different or at me. It’s an emotion like no different, and lifestyles with out it will no longer be price residing for me. »
