How do we make a show about the circus stories we are finding? In June we experimented, in our Newcastle and Billingham youth circus clubs, with the Wallace and Macommo story. The workshops included using acrobatics to describe elements of his life story. Like the Boat he might have sailed on to get to England, from the West Indies.
Wallace the Lion (Lived in 1860s)
Wallace was a lion who worked with a group of other lions and tigers and Martini Macommo, whom he once attacked but didn’t kill.
“Wallace, the African lion mentioned by Mr. Bostock in his reminiscences, died when the menagerie was on a visit to Sunderland sixty years ago. His body was presented to the town authorities, and was stuffed. It is one of the exhibits in the Sunderland Museum to-day. “Wallace” was reputed to have killed eight men during his term of captivity.” (North Mail, September 29, 1927)
Wallace may have been or “descended from to the original lion “Wallace” that fought the dogs of Warwick over one hundred years ago. All the “Wallace” breed of lions were acknowledged to be specially fine specimens, but they manifested fierce and dangerous tempers.” (World’s Fair 7, July 26, 1941)
