Claire_Heliot

Claire Heliot

Claire Heliot

German lion tamer

Claire Heliot (9 February 1866, in Halle (Saale) – 9 June 1953, in Stuttgart) was a German lion tamer.[1]

Claire Heliot

She was born Klara Haumann (Huth).[2] Her father was a government postal official.

In April 1897, she caused a sensation when she first performed at a zoo in Leipzig. She toured extensively. Accompanied by ten lions, she performed at the London Hippodrome in 1901.[2] In America, Heriot's act was part of A Yankee Circus on Mars, appearing at the New York Hippodrome[2][3] for 20 weeks in 1905 and 1906[4] and in Chicago in 1906.[2] The high point of her act was carrying her ten-year-old, 159-kilogram (351 lb) lion Sicchi on her back and shoulders.[2] In 1907, a nervous Heliot was attacked by her lions and severely injured while performing at the Circus Orlando in Copenhagen; she was rescued by three attendants.[4] After she retired, she was reported working as a hairdresser in 1930.[2]

The Heliot restaurant at the Hippodrome Casino in London is named after her.[5]

References

  1. [1]
    "Claire Heliot -- Most Daring of Lion Tamers; Of Which One of Her Fourteen Pets Will She Be the Victim? Auguste Is the Only One of Which This Frail but Fearless Little Woman Has Any Misgivings -- Her Exhibition of Trained Lions One of the Most Thrilling Animal Acts Ever Seen. Claire Heliot And Her Lions". The New York Times. 29 October 1905.
  2. [2]
    Tait, Peta (7 August 2016). "Dressing for War and Unnatural Poses: Human-Animal Acts at the Turn of the Twentieth Century" (PDF). Humanities Australia. Australian Academy of the Humanities. pp. 28–31.
  3. [3]
    June 27, Gwendolien Sabbe; Am, 2019 at 1:50 (26 June 2019). "Claire Heliot". Drinks With Dead People. Retrieved 2 August 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. [4]
    "Circus News". Variety. July 1907.
  5. [5]
    "Bars & Lounge | After Work Drinks London | Perfect Music Cocktails Bar | Hippodrome Casino". Retrieved 2 August 2020.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Claire_Heliot, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.