Just in passing

While still at school, Pertwee worked as a circus performer riding the Wall of Death on a motorcycle with a toothless lion in the sidecar.

Interesting summer job.

17 thoughts on “Just in passing”

  1. There’s that story about Victor Mature in Samson and Delilah. Filming the scene where Samson fights the lion, Cecil B deMille has hired some mangy old circus creature.

    “Right Vic, when I shout action I want you to start wrestling the lion.”
    “I’m not fighting any goddamned lion !”
    “He’s completely tame, he was brought up on milk.”
    “So was I, but now I eat meat !”

  2. Bloke in North Powys

    Tantalising throw-away from his Wikipedia article: “and at some other schools from which he was expelled”

    Need to know more!

  3. ..I worked in an asylum and managed to leave the lock up ward unlocked.It took them ages to herd all,the loonies up again( true story).Lost a farm job having crashed their tractor, and worked in a garage where I used to turn off all the forecourt lights and do a Vincent Price laugh over the tannoy, late at night for the benefit of lonely travellers. Happy days …..
    I noticed Ron Moody was the first choice for the 3rd Doctor ( unavailable) that would have worked

  4. I spent one summer working for a circus in their ‘Amazing People’ tent where I was billed as “The World’s Tallest Midget”.

  5. Toothless in the literal sense or as in harmless, if it’ still had claws thats bad, anyone whose owned a cat will know it’s the claws they use the most.

  6. All kitties are not the same. Lions not so much in fact, more the clamping bite to the neck and a bit of head shaking to make sure the jaws set properly. Windpipe, carotid and jugular all at once.

  7. Pertwee was my favourite Doctor Who

    @Tim Worstall May 30, 2020 at 4:56 pm

    That’s for small prey. For large with thick hide, like buffalo, it’s many on back/side to slow it then one clamps jaws over mouth & nose to asphyxiate

    Jaguar has stronger bite and kills Caymans by biting through skull into brain

  8. I met him in 1978 I think it was when he visited the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway to name their new steam locomotive. He was wearing a white jacket so that he stood out in the crowd. I watched as he worked his way along the train and spoke to almost everyone there, especially the children. He gave me the impression of being a genuinely decent man.

  9. Wow! I was at Ravenglass in 1978 when they were naming a new steam engine. I have memories of some chap walking down the train chatting to people, but being 8 years old, Tom Baker was Dr Who, and I would have had no idea who this bloke was, until a few years later when I discovered the books. Wow! I’ve met Jon Pertwee!

  10. I went down a rabbit hole of “how do you feed a toothless lion?” Turns out normally they just rip a bit off and swallow it, so you only have to cut their meat up into bite sized chunks, not actually mince it. I expect that not a lot of people know that.

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