Perhaps it was appropriate that lions ran riot in “The Adventures of Tarzan” (1921), a 15-chapter serial produced by Numa Pictures Corporation, named for the felines in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan novels. (On July 15, 1921 five actors were hospitalized, three cameras destroyed, the film from the day's shoot was ruined  and the many people on the set narrowly escaped injury when three lions ran amok.)

The lions were the charges of trainer Charles Gay, a former European circus performer who opened Gay’s Lion Farm in unzoned El Monte in 1925 to provide big cats for Hollywood productions. The $100,000 facility, which housed 178 lions, charged 25 cents for admission and was served by the Pacific Electric Railway, ferrying crowds out from Los Angeles for weekend lion-training exhibitions. The farm was shuttered during World War II (horse meat was in short supply), and Gay never reopened it. Perhaps it was just as well; his body was covered in scars from four lion attacks he’d received over the years. After a lifetime tempting fang and claw, Gay died at his Newport Beach home of a heart attack on February 23, 1950.

Scott Tracy Griffin

POST CARD MEMORIES At one time the "farm" housed the MGM lion and several lions that were used in Tarzan movies. The site was open to tourists and they sold post cards, as you can see from the collection here. The following old postcards, brochures and other images of Gay's Lion Farm, provide a great visual look back at Gay's Lion Farm's history.