James Crockett

The lion king in Sanger’s circus by 1858 was James Crockett, a musician who had reportedly developed lung problems and could not play his wind instrument so shifted into lion taming; this may not be the full explanation since he married into the Sanger family, marrying George’s sister, Sarah.
The inexperienced Crockett was chosen to be the lion king because he was tall with a long beard, and looked the part. Crockett remained with the act when Sanger’s six lions were sold, and became well known in Britain, Ireland and mainland Europe for an act similar to Van Amburgh’s, earning £20 a week. His act was deemed to have scientific value, although at Astley’s in 1861 Crockett was billed as presenting four lions in a ‘thrilling oriental spectacle’ as ‘the Lion Conqueror’ in a plot in which he rescues the story’s heroine and her son.134 He received a ring from Queen Victoria and was eventually hired to work in the USA in 1864, where he died a year later, apparently from heat exhaustion or illness.