Mabel Stark
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Mabel Stark (real name Mary Haynie) (d. April 21, 1968) was the worlds premier tiger trainer of the 1920s, specializing in highly sexualized circus acts. Born in Kentucky, a single child, Stark led an isolated and difficult childhood including corporal punishment from her mother. At the age of 13, both her parents died leaving her an orphan. She spent the rest of her youth with an aunt in Louisville, Kentucky. At the age of 18, after her graduation in 1911, she ran away to become a nurse, but ended up working as a stripper at the Great Parker Carnival instead. taking the name Mary Aganosticus and later Mabel Stark.
When the manager of the Carnival's menagerie left to form his own circus, he invited Stark, who had shown an interest in the animals, to join him. She was originally slated to teach a troupe of performing goats - but failing that went on to replace the recently-killed cat-trainer Marguerite Haupt.
Choosing to work with the breed of tigers, it has been surmised that the solitary Stark preferred the company of one of the few solitary creatures in nature. There she met her new companion Rajah who would become her trademark tamed tiger.
She would later reveal in her writing that when she appeared to be tussling with Rajah, it was actually Rajah trying to copulate with her - which was her reason from changing from an all-black leather ensemble to an all-white bodysuit, to hide the resultant semen.
She was approached by, and joined the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, though in 1925 they announced they were discarding the large cat portion of their traveling circus and terminated her employment, instead introducing Clyde Beatty as their stand-in tamer for the occasional act. The following year, working for a much smaller circus, Stark was mauled by unfed tigers - an event some claimed was an attempt at suicide on her part since she'd previously displayed her desire to die at the claws of tigers; she spent the next two years in hospitals recovering from the event.
Stark appeared occasionally on television in the 1960s. For example, she did a stint as one of the guests with an unusual occupation on What's My Line?, the popular Sunday Night CBS-TV program.
Her final job was as a menagerie-trainer with JungleLand in Thousand Oaks, California - but in 1968 the park was sold to a new owner who disliked Stark and promptly fired her. Three months later, she killed herself by a combination of an overdose of barbiturates and carbon monoxide poisoning.
As of February 26, 2007, there are rumors of a film based on her life in the developmental stages, reportedly directed and/or produced by Sam Mendes and starring Kate Winslet. The filming rights were purchased by his production company, Neal Street Productions, and based upon a slightly-fictionalized account of Stark's life by author Robert Hough, entitled The Final Confession of Mabel Stark. The screenplay is rumored to be adapted by Italian screenwriter Francesca Marciano. Production is expected to begin sometime in 2008 (See links below for more information).
[edit] External links
- Article on her life
- History of Jungleland mentioning Mabel Stark, sponsored by Jungleland skates
- Winslet and Mendes team up for Mabel Stark movie
- Husband and Wife unite to make film about Circus Tiger Tamer
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stark, Mabel |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Haynie, Mary (real name); Aganosticus, Mary (previous stage name) |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | tiger trainer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | unknown |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kentucky, United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 21, 1968 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Thousand Oaks, California |
