How Birkdale’s
CONTINUING our story about the “tame Birkdale lion” – which, as it turns out, was about three young lions, not just one – we now look at the most wellknown one, Rajah, who was a star in several films during the 1950s.
Born in 1954Rajah was a gentle little lion cub when he first entered the Farrar house, but this little pussy-cat grew, and grew, and grew; have you thought what it must be like to have a fully-grown shaggy lion holding over your house?
Well, Frank and Helena Farrar accomplished that with their pet-cum-exhibit.
The playful lion would often retire to his own caravan, although the Farrar’s were very welcome to the Rajah ‘cage’, in fact Helena often used her over-grown pet as a footrest, and regularly took him for ‘walkies’ on his chain.
Locals were used to seeing this unusual household pet around the resort.
The Farrars had raised Rajah – hand-reared from a tiny cub – which is why he was so docile and friendly, and would sleep and lounge in front of the fire just like any other household pet.
One good ripping yarn about the playful lion came courtesy of for Chester Road resident, Anne French, a former colleague of Frank Farrar’s step-daughter, Eleanor.
Anne worked on baby linen and Eleanor on lingerie at Robinson’s, the Lord Street linen shop (with the spectacular Muslim-style roof ).
Anne said Helena Farrar was forever buying new cushion covers from the Robinson’s store because Rajah had ripped them to shreds playing with them – although by some accounts this might have been the other lion, Sampson (also called Sammy).
Further reminiscences of seeing the “wild animal” included one brave resident, Norman Lanchie-Burns, reported to have got close to Birkdale’s king of cats.
He said he remembered the lion very well, in fact, he used to play with it, and that it was very friendly and would even shake paws with you, like any good little doggy.
The only difference was that this over-grown pussy-cat most certainly kept unwanted visitors away – unfortunately, but not surprisingly, that also meant many postmen (and woman) refused to deliver to the Westbourne Road house if Rajah was in the garden.
Next door was a newly-built property (38a) with a passageway running alongside which led to the sand hills.
It was also revealed that Eleanor Farrar’s favourite excuse for being late for work would be to use the family’s pet lion, saying the beast would not let her leave the house that particular morning until she had played a game with it.
The two ladies lost touch when Eleanor went to work at the old Marks & Spencer’s (now Boots on Chapel Street), and Anne left to start a family.
Rajah was, in fact, quite the star of the silver screen and was widely used in films, including three of the Tarzan movies starring Gordon Scott, collecting fair average earnings from his appearances.
Scott was regarded as a handsome, muscular actor, who portrayed an “intelligent and very good” Tarzan in the five 1950s movies.
As befits all movie stars, it was only right and proper that Rajah should watch himself in action on the big screen, in the cinema, with the comfort of the best seat in the house.
But, how can you take a reallife fully-grown lion into a cinema? That called for the determination and imagination of one extraordinary man – Ken Lloyd, general manager of the Gaumont Theatre and Cinema on Lord Street (originally called the Palladium, later the Odeon – now Sainsbury’s)
After retiring to Knob Hall Lane, Marshside, Ken recounted – with great glee – the famous lion’s visit to his theatre, which attracted the attention of local, regional and national media.
Rajah had starred in the film Safari with one of the main heart-throbs of the time, Victor
Mature, and the sultry Janet Leigh.
When the film was released to do the circuit mid-1956, Ken and his colleague, Peter Hutchinson, thought it would be a great stunt to welcome Birkdale’s star lion into the cinema house, to watch the film. So, along with Frank and Helena Farrar, Rajah duly arrived on the red carpet at the Gaumont on 3 May 1956. What could possibly go wrong!
They could not, of course, simply have the lion – tame or not – loose when members of the public were in the theatre, so when the cleaners had finished their shift and there were only a few staff members around, in came Rajah.
Getting him acclimatised meant allowing him to roam round for a while, up and down the aisles and in front of the stalls.
During his exploration of the cinema’s fine interior he went up to one of the exits and obviously sensed someone on the other side of the door, and wouldn’t leave the spot until Ken told the person to move away, and after that Rajah settled down in the aisle, to watch the film.
Ken said: “I swear that as soon as he saw himself on the big screen he let out this huge roar of approval and licked his lips.”
Although the auditorium doors were locked, in case any