The
marvelous Mabel Stark
|
Movie
| Book
| Author
| Director
& cast
|
Book: The Final Confession of Mabel Stark (2003)
Movie: The Marvelous Mabel Stark (2005)
For more info, you can also visit:
http://www.discoverkate.com/movies/mabel-stark/
press_2003-04-06_guardian.html
Premise
movie:
There is not much news about the movie.
Shooting is planned for the summer of 2005. Kate Winslet will play
Mabel Stark, however a director has not been found (yet).
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Premise
book:
"This ribald, rough-hewn debut novel by a prize-winning
Canadian writer is based on the flamboyant career of Mabel Stark,
arguably the greatest (certainly the greatest female) tiger trainer
of all time. Recounted as Stark is turning 80 in 1968, the faux memoir
follows her path to superstardom through the 1910s and '20s as she
learns to tame tigers and men, and finally tours with the famous
Ringling Brothers Circus. Stark, born Mary Haynie, is a teenage
Louisville, Ky., nurse, when she is committed to a mental hospital
after rebelling against her brutish husband's insensitivity. Aided by
a smitten psychiatrist, she escapes to Tennessee, where she becomes
Little Egypt, a headliner belly dancer with the Great Parker Carnival.
Another marriage and another gig as a "cooch dancer" follow, until she
is rescued at the age of 23 by Al G. Barnes, a carny pal, lately owner
of a small circus. When the show's animal trainer falls for her, he
teaches her how to work with tigers and a new career is launched.
Famous for the act in which she wrestles Rajah, a 500-pound Bengal
tiger she's raised from a cub, she is also known for her brazenness,
multiple marriages ("My men. Whew. Had a slew of them") and
black leather jumpsuit. Rich in the atmosphere of circus life, this graphic,
slangy fictional reminiscence also offers some surprising, deft
metafictional touches." "Mabel Stark was the greatest female tiger
trainer in history. During the golden age of the big top, she was the
superstar of the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, and one
of America's most eccentric celebrities. A tiny, curvaceous Kentucky
blonde in a white leather bodysuit, Mabel was brazen, sexually
adventurous, and suicidally courageous. It is 1968. Mabel, nursing her
most serious mauling yet, is just turning eighty and about to lose her
job at Jungleland, a Florida game park. Devastated by the loss of her
cats, she looks back on her life and her five husbands: the fifth -- a
cross-dresser whom she married without bothering to divorce the other
four -- would one day be tragically mauled by her one true love, her
ferocious yet amorous 550-pound Bengal tiger, Rajah. Starting with her
escape from a mental institution to begin her circus career as a
burlesque dancer, Mabel's exquisitely voiced confession is a live wire
of dark secrets, broken dreams, and comic escapades. It is a
brilliant, exhilarating story of an America before television and
movies, when the spectacle of the circus reigned and an unlikely woman
captured the public imagination with her singular charm and audacity."
from:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/
0871138700/ref%3Dnosim/sealarksgoodbook/
002-4285588-4030463
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Author:
"Robert Hough has made his name writing narrative-driven
nonfiction about characters "who live beyond our culture's conception
of normalcy," for such magazines as Saturday Night and Toronto Life.
His fiction has appeared in many journals, including Canadian Fiction,
Quarry and The Fiddlehead. He lives in Toronto."
from:
http://www.bookclubs.ca/catalog/display.pperl?
0679311327&view=print
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Director:
There is not much news about the movie.
Shooting is planned for the summer of 2005. Kate Winslet will play
Mabel Stark, however a director has not been found (yet).
back
to top
|