The extraordinary story of Mabel Stark, the most famous tiger trainer in the United States

At the beginning of the XXth century, Mabel Stark, a former nurse, became the most famous tiger tamer in the United States. Her story tells of both a woman’s rise in a male-dominated world and the constant dangers of training wild animals.

For the most seasoned minds in show business, there is always a new vein to exploit. Take Joe Exotic, who despite his 2020 conviction for a murder-for-hire plot and violations of the Endangered Species Act, a US law on endangered species, has managed to stay in the spotlight.

Since the start of his 21-year sentence, the star of “Tiger King” has launched a cannabis brand, sold digital art, and started working on an album temporarily titled “Jungle Rhapsody: A Tiger King Experience.” His latest venture involves selling personal phone calls from his cell – “What better Valentine’s Day gift could you offer a loved one?” he wrote on Instagram in January 2026.

But before Joe Exotic, there was Mabel Stark. Often touted as the most famous American tiger tamer, the “Tiger Queen” was known for her daring and charisma.

Researching Caxton Printers, the publisher of Stark’s autobiography, I came across unpublished archives dedicated to Stark’s long career in animal training. Like Joe Exotic, Stark had a sense of showmanship. But even more remarkably, she managed to have a career in a male-dominated industry while caring for her animals with affection rather than fear.

### From nurse to tiger tamer

Born Mary Ann Haynie in 1888 or 1889 – the exact year remains a mystery – Stark grew up in Princeton, Kentucky. At the age of 8, she attended her first circus show, where she became fascinated by trained animal acts. It would take her two decades before she would have the opportunity to try animal training herself.

On vacation in California, while working as a nurse, Stark met Al Sands, the director of the Al G. Barnes circus. After learning of her interest in animal training, he hired her on the spot.

Stark started by riding horses and training goats. It would take several more years before she worked with tigers. But once she started, her career took off. Crowds flocked to see the “Tiger Girl” wrestle with big cats and dazzle the audience by commanding up to a dozen tigers at once. Her act with her favorite tiger, Rajah, rolling on the ground three or four times, became one of the most famous wild animal acts in the US. She leveraged this success to join Ringling Bros. circus, the largest circus in the US, for a salary twice as high.

As her fame grew, she collaborated with screenwriter Gertrude Orr to tell the story of her life. “Hold That Tiger” was published in 1938. Caxton Printers, a small publishing house in rural Idaho, released and marketed the book mainly to a young audience. The book was a success, selling well enough to be reprinted several times.

Known for giving a voice to novice authors and writers from underrepresented groups, Caxton Printers found an editorial niche in circus-themed books. The house also published works on Stark’s former employer, Al Barnes, as well as the Ringling brothers and famous lion trainer Louis Roth, who Stark was married to for a time.

### Female power in the arena

Stark was well aware of the path she was paving. “I deliberately chose a field where no other woman specialized,” she wrote in her autobiography.

The conventional wisdom of the time, she added, was that “tigers were considered too dangerous for a woman to train.” Her willingness to defy these conventions mattered. As circus historian Janet M. Davis noted, “women’s performances in the circus celebrated female power” and provided “a striking alternative to the social norms of the time.”

In early XXth century America, women could not vote or serve on juries in most states, but in the circus ring, they captured public attention, riding bareback, displaying strength and endurance, and performing gravity-defying acrobatics.

Stark’s pace was relentless. She performed almost daily with traveling circuses and continually perfected her act. In 1938, she simultaneously worked with tigers and lions, a first for a female trainer. She made history again by presenting an act with 12 tigers in a single cage.

Whether due to the demands of her schedule or her preference for her felines, Stark’s relationships with men rarely worked out. In her lifetime, she married four times and divorced three times.

“I love these big cats like a mother loves her children,” she confided in a friend. But “with my husbands, I have never been happy.”

### “An animal trainer must never be nervous”

Stark, aware of the abusive behaviors of other trainers towards their tigers, chose a different path. “Kindness and patience are the most important factors in training. (…) Trainers who try to subdue animals through violence always end up in trouble,” she explained.

But her profession was not without danger.

“An animal trainer must never be nervous. I am no longer since I left the nursing profession,” she declared in an interview with the New York Times in 1922. “Violets might grow on my grave tomorrow, but as long as I have health and strength, I prefer to take care of ten tigers rather than one sick person.”

Stark faced several serious accidents. The worst probably occurred in 1928: after a circus train arrived late, Stark started her act without knowing her tigers had not been fed for 24 hours. Two hungry tigers attacked her after she slipped in the mud.

“As I lay there helpless,” she wrote, “I wondered how many pieces they would tear me into and how long it would take the other tigers, growling and snarling nervously in their seats, to finish me off.” She suffered multiple fractures, nearly lost a leg, and needed 300 stitches.

Then, in 1950, a tigress mauled her while trying to retrieve her cub. Doctors initially considered amputating her arm but ultimately managed to save it.

Despite these dangerous encounters with her tigers, Stark claimed, “I’m not afraid. I love the challenge represented by their roaring challenge.”

### The harsh reality

Stark toured with circuses until the late 1940s before being hired by Jungleland, a zoo near Los Angeles.

Except for the three and a half years she spent in Japan on tour with her wild animal act, she spent the last twenty years of her career at this zoo.

Stark never stopped drawing crowds to her shows and never shied away from the limelight. She even appeared on “What’s My Line?” in 1961, a TV game where participants had to guess the guest’s profession.

“Every year leaves scars on my body, but it also brings me a full dose of happiness,” she recalled.

Stark worked at Jungleland until her dismissal in 1967 when the park’s insurer refused to cover her. Separated from her tigers, it devastated her, and she took her life a few months later, on April 20, 1968, at her home in Thousand Oaks.

The last paragraph of Stark’s autobiography seems to foreshadow the end of her life:

> “The stage door opens as I crack my whip and shout, ‘Let them come!’ The striped beasts sneak forward, growling and roaring, leaping at each other or at me. It’s an incomparable thrill, and life without it wouldn’t be worth living for me.