Mabel Stark
| Mabel Stark | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Mary Haynie December 9, 1889 Princeton, Kentucky |
| Died | April 20, 1968 (aged 78) Thousand Oaks, California |
| Occupation | Animal trainer |
| Parent(s) | Lela and Hardy Haynie |
Mabel Stark, whose real name was Mary Haynie (December 10, 1889 – April 20, 1968), was a renowned tiger trainer of the 1920s and she was referred to as one of the world's first women tiger trainers/tamers.
Stark was born in Kentucky. She was one of seven children born to Lela and Hardy Haynie. Stark's parents were farmers and they died within two years of each other, so that by the age of 17, Stark and her siblings were orphaned. She spent a short period of time with her aunt in Princeton. She then traveled to Louisville and became a nurse at St. Mary's Hospital. Soon after, she left Louisville and her history becomes difficult to trace. Circus friends contend that she worked in carnivals as a "dancer" of some type. Like many circus performers, Stark did not hesitate to enrich the truth to create an interesting story. She even once told an interviewer that she was born to a wealthy Canadian. She ended up in 1911 with the Al G. Barnes Circus based in Culver City, California, where she met animal trainer Al Sands. She worked for a brief time there as a "high school" rider (horseback rider), but fervently wanted to work with the big cats. She began work with Louis Roth, a famous "cat man" who she would later marry. (Stark was married 4 or 5 times) Soon, she became a tiger trainer in the ring. At first, they had her work a "balloon act" which had her "riding" a lion on a platform and then pressing a pedal to release fireworks at some point in the act. But by 1916, she was presenting the show's major tiger act.
On 18 February 1916, Stark was severely mauled by a lion named Louie while rehearsing for the Pacific Electric exhibit of the National Orange Show in San Bernardino, California. Stark's husband, Louis Roth, fired blank cartridges from a revolver into the face of the lion amid the screams of his wife and spectators who had gathered to watch the rehearsal. The lion seized Stark's left arm into its mouth and rolled over a number of times. (Roth had also been mauled earlier that same day by a lion named Jeff. He suffered deep injuries to his arm before firing a blanks into the animal's open jaws.) Mabel Stark was dragged unconscious from the cage and rushed to a hospital where she was treated for a mangled and broken arm. This was Stark's third mauling in as many years. In 1914, while in Detroit, Michigan, she was attacked by her leopards during a parade, and during the winter of 1915 she was mangled in Venice, California.
She adopted a mangy, sickly tiger cub named Rajah and raised him to perform a famous wrestling act with her. She accomplished this by romping and playing with the cub at the beach and actually keeping him as a pet in her apartment. According to Stark's autobiography, "Rajah would run straight toward me. Up he went on his hind legs, his forefeet around my neck. We turned around once or twice, I threw him to the ground, and we rolled three or four times. I opened his mouth and put my face inside, then jumped to my feet.
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