Prince El Kigordo Jared Reaser [1916-2000]
It used to be, you could hear lions roar in Williamsport. Jared Reaser, a circus entertainer, lived at 1936 West Fourth street in, Newberry Pa. His house had two stone lions on the porch steps. Reaser also kept his 6 lionesses in the rear of his home, later moving them to cages outside the borough of South Williamsport, near Mountain Beach Park.
Born October 30 1916, Jared Reaser was the son of John Peter & Margaret Mae [Mecum] Reaser. Originally from Buttonwood Pa, at a "young age", he was sent to work on a farm in Sugar Valley. Interestingly enough, Lycoming County's other prince was also in Sugar Valley at the time. Prince Farrington moved his bootlegging business to that area in 1925, taking advantage of the abundance of corn, clear streams, and isolated ravines, all ideal for his enterprise.
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Council Voted To Ban Wild Animals
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In February 1950, the Williamsport Gazette and Bulletin reported that "Council Voted To Ban Wild Animals".
"An amended version of the anti wild animal ordinance was pulled out of the pigeon hole yesterday by City Council, and became effective February 24th." It gave owners of "vicious wild animals" until March 3rd to get them outside of city limits. The ordinance specifically prohibited the art, trade, or business of keeping lions, leopards, bears, wildcats, wolves, foxes, or other vicious wild animals. An amendment allowed for circuses or animal shows to perform in the city, provided they did not stay more than 7 consecutive days.
The article went on to say that:
"The only known keeper of animals locally is Jared W. Reaser, 1936 Wst Fourth Street, who has six Indian Lionesses in a van at the rear of his home. Mr Reaser appears professionally with teh cats as Prince El Kigordo.
The animal trainer told a reporter he plans to leave the city soon to join Biller Brothers Circut at winter headquarters in Mobile, Ala."
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Reaser spent more than 30 years traveling with his lions, on a special made truck that allowed the cages to be rolled on, and included sleeping quarters for himself.
He was a self employed Lion Tamer, working for the Shriner, and Police Circuses until his retirement in 1969.
At one time, Reaser held the record for the most African Lions - 11 - in a cage with a person at one time. I was not able to find how he got his start in lion taming, although several have suggested that he began as a "cage man" for Professor Keller, a lion tamer from Bloomsburg.
In every personal account given about Prince El Kigordo, he is described as an incredibly gentle man. He was also described as "a truck driver who tamed Lions"
"He was probably the most unassuming lion trainer I ever knew. We were together on the Polack Show for a season and he was a lot of fun to be around. He knew all the latest jokes, always upbeat and I don't recall him ever having a beef with anyone.
The act wasn't bad considering that he was self taught but he had the misfortune of following the likes of Pat Anthony.
The Prince seemed to enjoy driving his truck more than anything. He took great delight in beating me and Joe Zoppe to the next town. Being unencumbered with wife [He was, in fact, married] and family he could travel almost non stop.
He narrated a tape, done as tho he was a race track announcer, something like Spike Jones would do, "Around the curve comes Buckles driving the big diesel elephant truck! (lots of roaring sound effects).
"Down the back stretch comes Joe with the screaming diesel horse truck! (more sound effects). "And bringing up the rear is the little lion truck!" (which of course sounded like a coffee percolator.) Needless to say who won the race but whenever the Prince spotted either Joe or I approaching, he would quickly turn on the tape player and crank it up as loud as it would go."
- Buckles http://bucklesw.blogspot.com/2009/07/prince-el-kigordo-from-buckles.html
Prince El Kigordo, shown with his African Lion Caesar
This photo, which ran in a variety of papers in 1959, stated that he "puts his animals through the act without the Benefit of gunfire" He was promoted as the only wild animal trainer who directed his animals solely with his hand, using no whips nor rods.
Reaser survived two separate attacks by the same lion. On April 30th 1959 Prince El Kigordo was mauled by one of his cats during a show in Springfield Massachusetts. He was working with 15 lions when Caesar attacked. Prince El Kigordo subdued Caesar with a hard right hand punch, and continued on with his 15 minute act - with his left arm and lower back leg ripped open.
During his recovery, his troupe put on a show on the lawn of the hospital for the pediatric patients there.
Four months later, in September, he was again clawed by Caesar, the same lion, while in Vancouver Canada. He received extensive rounds to his shoulder and left side.
Reaser gave the following interview, from his hospital, following the attack:
The beast attacked without warning, aiming for the heart, but mauling instead Prince El Kigordo's left shoulder.
- "Why did he do it?" "Just mood."
- "Had you any premonition?" "None."
- "Do you sometimes?" "Oh, yes. Sometimes we know when trouble is brewing, but we have to go on with the show anyway, keeping our eyes open and our nerves taut."
- "Were you in danger of your life?" The wounded trainer shrugged his shoulders: "Of course."
- "Have you been wounded worse than this?" "Oh yes, I had my stomach seriously clawed in Dundas, Ont."
- "Have you had many such experiences .' He. shrugged again. Ten perhaps 11 one loses count."
- "Once blood has been drawn, does that send the cats wild, or have some permanent influence on their tempers?" "Not a bit of it," said the prince. "Don't believe all you read about the smell of blood. We'll all be working together again soon." He pointed out that Sheba, the lioness, waited patiently on her pedestal during the attack.
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According to his obituary, he was also a boxer, known as "Lefty". And he was a show double for Victor Mature and Superman.
When he stopped touring, in 1971, he could not give up the animals he had loved and worked with for all of those years. Rather than turn them over to someone else, he kept them near Mountain Beach Park.
Jared Reaser died on January 9th, 2000, at the age of.... well, we aren't really certain. Most likely, he was 84. His obituary, and tombstone, list his date of birth as 1910, but his baptismal record states he was born October 30 1916. His Draft Card lists his birth year as 1914. The 1920, and 1930, censuses however, appear to confirm that his birthday was in 1916.
Tombstone for Jared William Reaser
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Featured on WVIA Our Town:
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"The Critter Of Cogan House Township"
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On January 30 1954, a mass hunt was organized for "
The Critter Of Cogan House Township" An estimated 600-700 hunters were expected to register for the Black Panther Hunt. About 10 days prior, news reports reached Williamsport that tracks of a large cat has been found in the area of Cogan House.
There had been several reports of livestock being attacked, and smaller game being killed.
A hunt was organized, with a cash prize of $300 being offered, along with other prizes for those who bagged foxes or wildcats. The headquarters for the hunt was set up at "a turkey farm atop Steam Valley Moutnain on Route 15"
The AP article went on to say:
"The only hitch to the plans came last week when Jared W. Reaser of Williamsport, who's better known professionally as Prince El Kigordo, arrived home for a brief vacation between bookings.
Reaser, who has a wild animal act, was interviewed about the "critter". "There are no black panthers, only black leopards." Then he conceded it could be a puma, or mountain lion. "Which occasionally wander into this section of the country."
The article reported that Reaser would be out of the city for a television appearance, so his truck load of lions would be safe.
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READ MORE
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In 1958, the state department of health revoked Mountain Beach Resorts public bathing permit and closed down the facilities. Nichols eventually sold the property in 1961 to an investment group. Lakeview Apartments now stand on the site of Mountain Beach.
Prince El Kigordo is Mentioned in the book:
The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats
In 1949, the Siberian tiger weighing 453 kilograms came to the circus to prepare for a performance. Before this tiger, people had never seen such a big tiger. In the same circus there is also a lion named Jin, which was trained by an American named Prince El Kigordo. During the performance, Jin and Tiger had a fight. This bloody battle lasted for a few minutes, and finally the tiger was killed by the lion. As a result of killing such a huge tiger, this lion became quite famous in its time.
https://inf.news/en/nature/dc2085b0146e451b3e054fd783c4ea71.html
(I was unable to verify this one)
"I met Prince when he was hauling freight out of Clarion, PA in the late 60's and early 70's. He had a number of "plum craze" metallic purple (the new color rage at the time) GMC Astro semi-trucks and was one of the funnier guys I had ever met. I guess he was probably almost 40 years older than I, and one of his more popular sayings was "You can take the lion out of the jungle but you can't take the jungle out of the lion". Seemed like he would apply that saying to any issue of the moment. He had many interesting perspectives on just about any topic. I just discovered that he passed away in 2000 at age 90. Not too bad for a fun-lovin', flirtin' with danger kind of guy."
~John Pasko
Prince and the Professor, the Story of Two Wild Animal Trainers, Steve Hyde, Bandwagon January-February 2010, Vol. 54, No. 1 pp. 28-32. Steve Hyde was fortunate to know both of these amazing trainers, Professor George Keller and Prince El Kigordo. Both came from Pennsylvania and neither came from a circus background; yet they found themselves tossed into the ring, where they learned their craft themselves, doing it their way and making legends out of themselves at the same time
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