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.