Vintage Images of the Circus in Its Heyday

Clyde Beatty is one of the most famous animal trainers from the golden era of the circus. This early photograph of Beatty shows him posing next to one of his many lions. What made Clyde Beatty so special? He stood out from the crowd because of his fearlessness in the ring.

Beatty drew crowds with his “fighting act.” In this famous act, Beatty entered a circus ring with several different wild animals at once. The whole concept was that Beatty would “fight” off the big cats and animals with a whip and blank cartridge pistol. To this day, he still holds the record for entering the ring with 43 lions and tigers. Clyde Beatty was insane, brave, or a little bit of both.