Sunday Herald (Sydney, NSW : 1949 - 1953), Sunday 10 September 1950, page 1
"Don't Panic" Plea
LION ESCAPES
AMONG
CIRCUS CROWD
IwuW I.?? ?
A lion jumped among the audience from a circus arena at Bondi last night.
The audience was too surprised at first to know what had happened. People shouted: "The lion is out!" "No, he's not!" and "Too right he is!"
The Bullen Brothers and Hagen's Circus was having its last performance at Bondi.
The steel arena, capped with a rope net, was set up in the big tent near Brighton Boule
\ artic.
The tent was crowded at
8.30 p.m., when Ken Bullen was in the arena with the lion Rajah, a bear and two leopards.
RAN DOWN AISLE j Rajah jumped on his pedes-tal and then saw that one of the ropes in the net overhead had parted.
He jumped up about JO feet through the hole and cleared the top of the iron wall of the big cage.
The lion ran down an aisle.
Mr. Edward Cassidy, of Warner's Avenue, Bondi, and his wife were a't the circus with their two-year-old granddaugh-ter, Karen Waugh.
Mr. Cassidy said: "The lion seemed confused. He ran up the aisje and then doubled
back.
"People began to panic, but the lion left the tent before the audience could recover . from
theiç'{iU£prise." .
*A "DON'T PANIC"
Stafford Bullen stayed at the microphone. He told the crowd not to panic as the lion would be recaptured in a few
minutes.
Circus attendants found the lion. on a trailer and they
lassooed him.
Robert Dennis and Jules Bullen were hauling on the rope when Rajah turned around and bit it through. -
FELL ON CAMEL
The two men flew through the air and fell on the back of a squatting camel.
Other ropes were thrown around Rajah and about 15 men pulled him back into the
arena.
Mr. Ken Bullen said: "Everyone, including Rajah, calmed down and the rest of the performance went accord-ing to plan."
DAJAH, the young lion which
escaped from Bullen Brothers' Circus at Bondi last night, being admonished by his trainer, Mr.-Ken Bullen, after ho had been recaptured
and returned to his cage.