OCR Text |
Show Family Weekly/ July 23, 1967 | Killer Lions hurt my animals,” I said. Moments later, my father told me they were all safe in their cages, then I-went to the hospital where surgeons toox 500 stitches in my head and body. That night I argued with the doctors until they allowed me to appear at the evening performance. I only took a bow to the standing ovation, but I wanted the world to see the lions hadn’t stopped a Zerbini. Three days later, however, we were scheduled to open in Milwaukee. My hand was infected and in a sling; my body was an aching mass of bandages; I had a fever of 104, “You'll have to stay out of the cage —weeks, maybe months,”the doctors said. | tried to explain why I must perform opening night. Maybe you can call it family pride, tradition, responsibility. I don’t know. But while we are relative newcomers to America, in Europe, the Zerbini name has been famous for eight generations. Circus people would understand what this means, but the doctors didn’t. My wife Sylvia, an aerialist, was in Sarasota, Fla., expecting our second baby. We talked by phone, and she suggested I rest two weeks. “Dobritch says the house has been sold out to see the Zerbinis,” I said. “They expect us.” “Then you must go on,” she agreed. I hobbled into the ring that night before 14,000 people. I wondered how the lions would react to my bandages, and at first they seemed,.skittish. Then I stared at them and commanded obedience, and they leaped through the act without faltering. For five days I left the hospital bed only to perform. It was many days before weallowed Prince to perform again. I admit I tensed a bit when his turn came to bound into the cage. Prince looked around, seemingly happy to be back, and then leaped on his perch without incident. “Good, Prince,” I shouted. “We are both back where we belong!” E “ ase . Partly crippled, a fever of 104, Zerbini faces lions three days after being mauled. Family Weekly, July 2351967 5 |