Beautiful Jim Key

Dr. Key then hired a promoter, and together they spent nine years traveling across the United States, performing at prestigious music halls and opera houses.

Their tours included regular appearances at venues such as the old Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Broadway in New York, and locations in Syracuse, Chicago, Cincinnati, Atlantic City, New Orleans, and Boston.

He performed at major venues across the country, from Atlantic City to Chicago,[1] and was even made an honorary member of George Thorndike Angell's American Humane Association.

[5] Beautiful Jim Key and his trainer periodically toured the United States in a specially outfitted railroad car to promote the emerging cause of humane treatment of animals.

President William McKinley witnessed Beautiful Jim Key perform at an exposition in Tennessee and declared, “This is the most astonishing and entertaining exhibition I have ever witnessed.” He also remarked that it was a testament to what “kindness and patience” could achieve.

However, due to his advancing age and an ongoing struggle with rheumatism, Jim Key gave his final public performance in March 1906 at the Kansas City Convention Hall.