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Gay's Lion Farm was a public selective breeding facility and tourist attraction located just west of the south-east junction of Peck Road and Valley Boulevard in El Monte, California. It operated from 1925 through 1942, when it was closed temporarily due to wartime meat shortages. It was never reopened. ==Early years== Founders Charles and Muriel Gay were Anglo-French circus performers who arrived in Los Angeles in 1914. They established an attraction in MacArthur Park (then known as Westlake Park) where the public could watch Charles Gay working with three adult lions. The lions were trained as animal actors in the burgeoning motion picture industry. Needing more room for their animals, the Gays found a large plot of un-zoned property in El Monte, east of Los Angeles, where in 1925 they opened Gay's Lion Farm, a public attraction dedicated to the breeding, training and exhibition of African lions. The Farm quickly became one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Southland, doing a brisk trade in souvenir photographic postcards. Among the famous animals raised on the Farm were Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio lions Slats (1924–1927, died of appendicitis and was stuffed) and his lookalike successor Jackie, and the celebrated comic lion Numa (1912–1930, died of cancer and was stuffed), named for the lion in the Tarzan books and a co-star in Charlie Chaplin's "The Circus" (1928). The farm with its thatched roof, African-inspired architecture (a likely inspiration for Walt Disney's Adventureland), was a U-shaped compound, with separate cages for each adult cat, a nursery, and a central caged arena where Charles Gay, with whip and gun, performed a classic lion tamer act for the crowds. Feedings were also a big draw, with a ton of meat being consumed daily. In 1925, El Monte High School adopted the Lions name for its teams, and the Gays provided a lion mascot for big games. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gay's Lion Farm」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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