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Founders Charles and Muriel Gay were Anglo-French
circus performers who arrived in Los Angeles in 1914. They established
an attraction in MacArthur Park (then known as Westlake Park) where the
public could watch Charles Gay working with three adult lions. The lions
were trained as animal actors in the burgeoning motion picture industry.
Needing more room for their animals, the Gays found a large plot of un-zoned property in El Monte, east of Los Angeles, where in 1925 they opened Gay's Lion Farm, a public attraction dedicated to the breeding, training and exhibition of African lions. The Farm quickly became one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Southland, doing a brisk trade in souvenir photographic postcards. Among the famous animals raised on the Farm were Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio lions Slats (1924–1927, died of appendicitis and was stuffed) and his lookalike successor Jackie, and the celebrated comic lion Numa (1912–1930, died of cancer and was stuffed), named for the lion in the Tarzan books. Slats, Numa, and Jackie (the friendliest of the three) appeared as one lion in Charlie Chaplin's "The Circus" (1928). The 5-acre (2.0 ha) farm with its thatched roof, African-inspired architecture (a likely inspiration for Walt Disney's Adventureland), was a U-shaped compound, with separate cages for each adult cat, a nursery, and a central caged arena where Charles Gay, with whip and gun, performed a classic lion tamer act for the crowds. Feedings were also a big draw, with a ton of meat being consumed daily. In 1925, El Monte High School adopted the Lions name for its teams, and the Gays provided a lion mascot for big games. |
Charles Gay was the founder
of Gay's Lion Park.
He was a former circus performer,
who had trained the animals for the movies
Lion tamer, Charles Gay working
with four lions at Gay’s Lion Farm in El Monte, California
Mr Gay ran his lion farm alongside
his wife Muriel,
who was also a former circus
performer
Feline hungry: All of the young
lion cubs gather around Mrs Gay
as she holds out a bowl with
food
Mr Gay looks as though he is
going head to head
with one of his animals, who
rises up on his back legs
and jumps up at his trainer
His park was also responsible
for the breeding of African lions.
Here Mr Gay is pictured holding
up two young cubs
Mrs Gay balances two very young
cubs on her shoulders.
At its peak Mrs Gay and her
husband looked after 200 lions
Mr Gay teaches one of his young
cubs to hold his own bottle of milk
during feeding time at Gay's
Lion Farm.
Mr and Mrs Gay along with veterinary
staff check over some of
the young cubs that were born
at Gay's Lion Farm in the 1930s
Mr Gay had to close his lion
farm in 1942 as war rations meant
there was not enough meat to
feed his big cats.
After the war ended he fell
ill and was unable to re-open his park .
The lions had many enclosures
in the large park,
including this one that contained
a vintage car and two dummies
Several of the lions line up
together on a large plank of wood inside their enclosure.
During the Second World War,
they had to be loaned out to other zoos across the US
Some of the lion cubs and older
big cats gather together beside a tree trunk for a picture.
Two young lions are perplexed
when they see their own reflections
in a mirror that was left inside
their enclosure
Two lion cubs pose for the camera.
Mr Gay died in 1950,
eight years after his lion park
in El Monte was forced to close
The lions at Gay's Lion Farm
were trained especially for
the burgeoning movie industry
that was expanding in Hollywood in the 1930s
A group of men sit at a dinner
table and raise a toast to a lion called Numa.
He was the inspiration behind
the lion in the Tarzan films
A brave group of schoolgirls
hold hands in a circle around another one of the lions,
who lived at Gay's Lion Park
between 1925 and 1942
Mrs. Gay takes a baby lion for
a walk on Center Street in El Monte
One of his big cats allows Mr
Gay to take a ride on his back.
One of his most famous lions
was Jackie, who was the face of MGM films
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