Claire Heliot (9 February 1866, in Halle (Saale) – 9 June 1953, in Stuttgart) was a German lion tamer. She was born Klara Haumann (Huth). Her father was a government postal official. In April 1897, she caused a sensation when she first performed at a zoo in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

. She toured extensively. Accompanied by ten lions, she performed at the

London Hippodrome The Hippodrome is a building on the corner of Cranbourn Street and Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, London. The name was used for many different theatres and music halls, of which the London Hippodrome is one of only a few su ...

in 1901. In America, Heriot's act was part of A Yankee Circus on Mars, appearing at the New York Hippodrome for 20 weeks in 1905 and 1906 and in Chicago in 1906. The high point of her act was carrying her ten-year-old, 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 Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

; she was rescued by three attendants. After she retired, she was reported working as a hairdresser in 1930. The Heliot restaurant at the Hippodrome Casino in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

is named after her.

References

External links

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Image of "Claire Heliot with Lion"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heliot, Claire 1866 births 1953 deaths German women Lion tamers People from Halle (Saale)