History
Death in the theatre
by Chris Wood (Pen & Sword £22, 208pp)
The summer of 1907, animal trainer Madame Ella Jensen was top of the bill at the Gloucester Palace of Varieties with a speciality performance starring her and a cageful of lions.
One evening, before the show, her assistant Joseph Hasselmenn was left in charge of the beasts. For some reason he decided to usher the largest of the lions into a dressing room so he could clean its cage.
It was an unwise decision. Once settled in the dressing room, the lion objected to being recaged. When Hasselmenn tried to persuade it to return, the animal seized him in its jaws and inflicted a series of fatal wounds.
Jaws: A lion mauled assistant to death, the animal seized him in its jaws and inflicted a series of fatal wounds
This story of mauling by lion is one of the more unusual ones in Wood’s compendium of theatrical deaths.
Full of odd phrasing and stilted prose, the book is not very well written, but Wood has trawled…