Mabel Stark

April 8, 2003 6:36 AM

Mabel Starkwas one of the greatest tiger trainers of the 1910's and 1920's. Her life is now the subject of a novel, The Final Confession of Mabel Stark by Robert Hough. The book has created a lot of controversy because it describes the sexual nature of Mabel's relationship with her big cats. Film rights have already been sold; Kate Winslet will play the lead. Writer Rip Sense recalls seeing Mabel as an old woman, still handling big cats in Jungleland, California. Want to raise big cats in your home? See this handy guide to matters such as litter-box training, feeding, and keeping the tigers from destroying the furniture.
posted by SealWyf (6 comments total)

I forgot to mention that RBB&B's current tiger trainer is also a woman, Sara Houcke. It makes a conventional career seem a little dull, doesn't it?
posted by SealWyf at 6:41 AM on April 8, 2003

mmm....Kate Winslet....
posted by drinkcoffee at 9:10 AM on April 8, 2003

I note in reading the post that "she was asking for it," and that her husband was lucky enough to have lived at a time when he was able to send his errant wife off to an institution because she did not perform for him. And nearly had her sterilized. Ah, those were good days back the.

This post would be of greater interest if some pics of the lady and the tiger were posted...you know, the kind that will spice up the film for pervs (moi)
posted by Postroad at 10:11 AM on April 8, 2003

Novels as biography... ugh.

Either come up with something inventive on your own, or do the research to write a proper biography.

This is also why I hate "Law & Order" doing thinly disguised versions of widely-known criminal cases. I usually snort at the lame disclaimer that opens the show (adopted to ward off lawsuits) while I reach to switch it off.
posted by pmurray63 at 10:13 AM on April 8, 2003

Believe me, Postroad, I was looking for the pictures too.

And I agree about "novels as biography". But unless and until the lady's own autobiography comes back in print, this may be what we're stuck with. <sigh>
posted by SealWyf at 10:27 AM on April 8, 2003

This was also covered in the Guardian last Saturday and while there were some pictures in the print version, none in the online version. None of the pictures were particularly revealing though - apparently she "discarded her trademark black-leather bodysuits for white" in order that the tiger's semen wouldn't be visible!
posted by daveg at 2:46 PM on April 8, 2003