Clyde Beatty

Clyde Raymond Beatty (June 10, 1903 – July 19, 1965) was a famed animal trainer, zoo owner, and circus mogul.

On August 16, 1921, at dawn, he and Howard Smith clambered into a boxcar on the DT&I Railroad, bound for Washington Court House, Ohio, and joined Howe's Great London and Van Amburgh's Wild Animal Circus.

[2] 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.

[5] There have been suggestions that Beatty was the first lion tamer to use a chair in his act,[6] but in an autobiographical book he disclaimed credit for this technique: "It was in use when I was a cage boy and had been used long before.

The stories were no doubt more fictitious than real, and Beatty actually appeared in name only; Vic Perrin (not identified as such to the radio audience) impersonated him on the show.

[12] Their union seems to have been founded on a great deal of team spirit, and after a year or so she insisted on becoming an animal trainer herself, which was highly unusual for a woman in those days.

[7] Her daughter Albina (born 1931), having learned animal training skills from her stepfather and mother, followed in their footsteps as a lion trainer.

[13] Beatty died of cancer in 1965, at age 62, in Ventura, California, and was interred in the Forest Lawn–Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Diamond honoring Beatty in the Studio City Walk of Fame