The Book, Cat, & Cat Book Lovers Almanac

of historical trivia regarding books, cats, and other animals. Actually this blog has evolved so that it is described better as a blog about cats in history and culture. And we take as a theme the advice of Aldous Huxley: If you want to be a writer, get some cats. Don't forget to see the archived articles linked at the bottom of the page.

October 13, 2017

October 13, 1899

Vittorio Pisani  (October 13, 1899 to April 27, 1974) was an Italian illustrator. We have one of the  pictures Pisano did:





This was for a newspaper, an illustration to accompany a Dublin Ireland story about an escaped lion.
The incident at the time it happened, made front-page news in the Irish Times with a headline: “Lioness escapes in Dublin and mauls two.” This event occurred November 12th, 1951, An Irish TImes article from 2014 explains the background.

"Picture of escaped lion in Dublin in 1951 comes to light.....In December 1951, the weekly newspaper La Tribuna Illustrata published the full-page colour image with a caption explaining that: “A Dublino, una leonessa . . . o un’incursione in un garage dove assaliva e feriva gravemente un operaio.”.....

[The picture above] was executed in 1951 by Vittorio Pisani, one of Italy’s most famous illustrators, to accompany a newspaper report about the bizarre event....

The story, that “a lioness had mauled a garage worker in Dublin” was true but the paper had veered from the facts when adding that the big cat had then wandered into a “negozio di giocattoli” (toy shop) where it is seen ready to pounce on an unsuspecting child.

La Tribuna Illustrata, which ceased publication in 1969, was renowned for its illustrations, which were often framed by readers and are sought by collectors.

[And now a] copy of the Dublin lioness issue has turned up, in a collection of 19th and 20th century European newspapers featuring unusual stories about Ireland, to be sold in Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers’ sale of rare books and historical memorabilia in Dublin next month.

Back to 1951, and an account of the actual events:

The previous afternoon, a lion had escaped and gone on the prowl along Merville Avenue in Fairview.

The animal wandered into the Clover Dairy, terrifying the assistant Peggy Macken, before heading to Costello’s Garage and attacking 16-year-old trainee mechanic Andrew Massey from Oliver Plunkett Farm, Monkstown. There was no mention of a toy shop.

The lion’s owner, Bill Stephens (28), was alerted but failed, according to an eye-witness, “to get a rope around its legs”. As the big cat leapt from garden to garden, the children at 21 Merville Avenue were “looking out and making faces at it”. According to the report, “radio messages were sent out to squad cars” and “the Special Branch at Dublin Castle was also notified”.
....After about an hour “the lioness arrived in waste land” behind Fairview’s Grand Cinema, where, “in the gathering dusk, crowds of people watched her roaming until armed police came and shot her”.
The Irish Times reported that local boys stripped “the dead lioness’s fur, its ears and tail, as souvenirs before its body was taken to the zoo." Both Mr Stephens and Mr Massey survived and were treated in Jervis Street Hospital.

Mr Stephens was, it turned out, a lion-tamer who lived in a caravan in Fairview with his wife. He kept three lions in an enclosure during the winter when the circus he worked for was off the road.

A sad story: the lion's life before its few hours of freedom.

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