Does anyone know what "Mlle Auora's" real name was. If you could go back in time, I sure would like to spend a couple of year's around Frank Bostock and his trainers. What an incredible world it must have been.
Friday, February 17, 2012
"Mlle Auora"--Bostock Wild Animal Circus 1898
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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Hi Wade,
She sure was an interesting one. Here's what I've found during my research:
The spunky Mlle. Aurora is the earliest woman trainer to work with large carnivores that I’ve been able to identify. Before her marriage to John Miller, an animal trainer whose life she saved by screaming near the ring when an elephant almost trampled him, this Boston girl had been afraid of so much as a pup dog. The new Mrs. Lillian Miller fell in love with five newly arrived polar bears the first time she saw them, asking her husband if she could train them. “They have less affection than cats and are fully as treacherous,” she told the reporters—a year later, she defended her darlings to the wary W. Tudor. “5,000 pounds of husky polar bear answer the beck and call of 100 pounds of femininity,” crowed the papers, “for even the frostbitten heart of a polar bear is susceptible to feminine influence.” (Harrisburg Telegraph. 1904. August 1: 9)
Polarbearfan,
Welcome, and thank you for the great information on "Mlle Auora."
Wade Burck
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