The Big Cage

[American CIRCUS] - Clyde BEATTY and Edward ANTHONY (1895-1971).

The Big Cage. New York & London: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1936. Octavo (9 1/8 x 6 1/8in; 232 x 156mm), pp. [i-]v[-vi; 1-]408[-410]. Portrait frontispiece, 63 half-tone full-page illustrations, EXTENSIVE AUTOGRAPH ADDITIONS, CORRECTIONS AND DELETIONS BY ANTHONY. (Clean tear to the 25th illustration, light rust-marks to margins of some leaves caused by the use of paper-clips.)  Original cloth gilt (worn, extremities rubbed, upper joint split, spine faded and chipped, stitching broken). Provenance: Edward Anthony (1895 –  1971, co-author, American journalist and writer, inscribed on front pastedown 'Property of / Edward Anthony / 444 E. 52nd St / N.Y.C.', extensive annotations).

Unique copy of the first edition, second printing of this autobiography of an Ohio runaway who became one of the greatest ever wild animal trainers. This copy, from the estate of Beatty's co-author, Edward Anthony, is extensively annotated - apparently, they were preparing for a second revised edition. This does not appear to have ever been published leaving the present example as the only record of what might have been. Beatty, who worked with up to forty Lions and Tigers at one time, became famous for his "fighting act" in which he entered the animals cage with a whip and a pistol strapped to his side. The 1933 movie "The Big Cage" was based on this book. It was directed by Kurt Neumann with Beatty playing himself, and with a cast that included Anita Page, Andy Devine, and Mickey Rooney in an early role. 

"Edward Anthony (August 4, 1895 – August 16, 1971) was an American journalist and writer who co-wrote Frank Buck’s first two books, Bring 'Em Back Alive, and Wild Cargo. After completing four years of high school, according to the 1940 US Census, Anthony got his start as a journalist on The Bridgeport Herald and then with The New York Herald in 1920-23. An associate editor for a short time of Judge, the humor magazine, Anthony joined the staff of the Crowell group of magazines, later Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, in 1924. In 1928, he served as Eastern press director for Herbert Hoover's presidential campaign. ...  Anthony wrote or co-wrote other books, among them The Big Cage with the wild animal trainer Clyde Beatty. Anthony was the publisher of Woman's Home Companion, 1942–52 and of Collier's from 1949 to 1954. Collier's died shortly afterwards. Anthony wrote an autobiography, This is where I came in: the impromptu confessions of Edward Anthony (1960)." (wikipedia). Toole-Stott p.10, Circus and Allied Arts vol.1 #11521.