Can You Imagine? (1936)

Synopsis: A Vitaphone short featuring oddities from across the United States.

Kitty Cameo: One segment begins with a boy named Dickie McCollin of Salt Lake City holding a longhair tabby kitten in front of his face.

Can You Imagine? - boy Dickie McCollin holding longhair tabby kitten in front of his face
Can You Imagine? - boy Dickie McCollin holding longhair tabby kitten in front of his face
Can You Imagine? - boy Dickie McCollin holding longhair tabby kitten in front of his face

This segues into a picture of a young lion named Rex. The boy, the son of lion tamer Ralph McCollin, is then seen wrestling with the young lion who is chained.

Can You Imagine? - boy Dickie McCollin wrestling with young lion Rex

Ralph McCollin worked at the Hogle Gardens Zoo and while he wasn’t wrestling lions (yes, father used to wrestle the big cats, too!) he was wrestling police in a charity event (which might explain Dickie’s interest in both lions and wrestling). Unfortunately Ralph was unable to attend one wrestling event when his leg was reportedly injured by a lion’s lashing tail (???).

Another news report had Mrs. A.J. McCollin bathing Teddy, another zoo lion, in a bathtub. Apparently hanging around with lions was a family affair for the McCollins.

Can You Imagine? - newspaper photo of Mrs. A.J. McCollin bathing lion Teddy in bathtub

Of course it should come as no surprise that a trainer named Joe Arcaris working with the McCollin family at the zoo was clawed and bitten by Rex while transferring the lion from one cage to another. Arcaris did not blame Rex, of course, but with tomfoolery such as this something was bound to happen.

Can You Imagine? - newspaper photo of trainer Joe Arcaris after being attacked by lion Rex

Final Mewsings: Dickie would be safer just playing with the kitten!

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