Claire Heliot
{{Short description|German lion tamer}}
File:Friedländer.plakat.9.5.heliot.2.jpg
Klara Haumann (née Pleßke; 3 December 1866 – 9 June 1953), known professionally as Claire Heliot, was a German lion tamer.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times-claire-heliot-most/147500830/ |title=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. |date=October 29, 1905 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=31 |access-date=2024-05-16 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Biography
Klara Pleßke was born in Halle on 3 December 1866.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4cfkEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT216 |title=Frauen in Sachsen-Anhalt 2 |editor-first=Eva |editor-last=Labouvie |publisher=Böhlau Verlag |place=Köln |isbn=9783412514204 |page=216 |language=de |date=2018-11-12 |access-date=2024-05-16 |via=Google Books}} 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.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.humanities.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/AAH-Hums-Aust-07-2016-Tait.pdf |title=Dressing for War and Unnatural Poses: Human-Animal Acts at the Turn of the Twentieth Century |last=Tait |first=Peta |date=7 August 2016 |magazine=Humanities Australia |publisher=Australian Academy of the Humanities |pages=28–31}} In America, Heriot's act was part of A Yankee Circus on Mars, appearing at the New York Hippodrome{{Cite web|last=June 27|first=Gwendolien Sabbe|last2=Am|first2=2019 at 1:50|date=2019-06-26|title=Claire Heliot|url=http://drinkswithdeadpeople.com/2019/06/claire-heliot/|access-date=2020-08-02|website=Drinks With Dead People|language=en-US}} for 20 weeks in 1905 and 1906,{{cite news |url=https://archive.org/stream/variety07-1907-07/variety07-1907-07_djvu.txt |title=Circus News |date=July 1907 |newspaper=Variety}} and in Chicago in 1906. The high point of her act was carrying her ten-year-old, {{convert|159|kg|adj=on}} lion Sicchi on her back and shoulders. 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. After she retired, she was reported working as a hairdresser in 1930.
She died in Stuttgart on 9 June 1953.
The Heliot restaurant at the Hippodrome Casino in London is named after her.{{Cite web|title=Bars & Lounge {{!}} After Work Drinks London {{!}} Perfect Music Cocktails Bar {{!}} Hippodrome Casino|url=https://www.hippodromecasino.com/restaurant-bars-lounges/bars-lounge/|access-date=2020-08-02|language=en-US}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Find a Grave|7545983}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2020}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heliot, Claire}}