Menageries, movies
This week ‘History Hunters’ conclude the look back at the beginnings of Southport Zoo, with a glance at the founder, Frank Farrar.
From his Victorian villa in Westbourne Road (built in 1893) – described in the history books as one of Birkdale’s many ‘castles in the sands’ – is where Yorkshireman Frank lived with his second wife, Helena, his ‘Dutch goddess’.
These two forgotten figures were brought to life in a highly readable book ‘The Story of Colchester Zoo’ by Sam C Kershaw (The History Press) in 2013, tracing how their domestic life with their exotic animals prompted them to embark on a series of adventures which took them all over the world.
Further research added more to the Southport angle, as the history of Frank and Helena’s Colchester Zoo – which became one of the finest zoos in Britain – can be traced back to Frank’s ‘Southport Model Zoo.’
But, who were Frank and Helena Farrar?
Frank Norman Farrar was born in Leeds in 1911, the son of Ernest, who is said to have had our zoological gardens at Kew in the mid-1920s, although we haven’t been able to establish that; however, in 1924 and 1927 Ernest (stained glass window maker) and his wife, Hilda Alice (aka Helen) nee Horne (married May 1907, with their daughter, Edna, arriving two years later), lived and worked as an ‘artist’ at 116 Sussex Road, near Maple Street, then moved to 3 Gladstone Road, in the 1930s, all under ‘Southport Stained Glass Studio’.
Frank’s grandfather, William Farrar (b.1856) had been a draymen for a mineral water company in Leeds, with his 13-year old son, Ernest (d. April 1949) a dray boy, in 1901.
At the age of 22 Frank Farrar married Edna May Oppen, in Lancaster, on October 1, 1933 (her mother’s maiden name was Elsie Ivy Rimmer – the daughter of Oswald A Rimmer, of Cemetery Road) and they moved to Southport, living at 38b Kensington Road, working with his father, now a lead light manufacturer (with the initial A.I.S.G.) on the corner of Hall Street – formerly Bamber’s motor engineering and cycle works.
By 1939 Frank’s parents and two sisters, Edna and Mabel, moved to Morecambe, but he stayed in Southport living to 52 Hereford Road, near Wennington Road, and soon became well-known around the town as the manager of Knight’s National Estate Agents, which was over a district bank on the London Street-Chapel Street corner, later Rumbelows (now a mobile ‘phone shop).
In addition, the chatty Yorkshireman had several types of business ventures which he liked to build up then sell, including the ‘Biscuit Box’ shop on Lord Street and a delicatessen in Eastbank Street.
Frank served in the RAF in the summer of 1940 and thanks to the bravery of young men such as him in the Battle of Britain, the RAF delivered Hitler’s first military defeat, and a turning point in the Second World
War.
Frank Farrar was certainly someone who grew up to be no stranger to risk and excitement and, on his return, renewed his dream to have a zoo; with terrific determination he got his ‘Southport Model Zoo,’ which was opened in 1953 by George Cansdale, then head of Chester Zoo.
The ‘Southport Model Zoological Garden for Children’ was developed by Frank from a single acre of land next to Pleasureland, as a Pet’s Corner, close to the resort’s seafront.
Within a decade the venture became an impressive and varied collection of animals and birds, including breeding programmes, then within a six-acre site to be renamed ‘Farrar’s Southport Zoo’.
Frank had divorced his first wife some years earlier and later met his ‘Dutch challenge,’ a no-nonsense Dutch girl called Helena, who swept him off his feet when she came to his office looking to buy a new house following her own divorce.
Helena (or Halana) Wilhelmina Emma Kleyne-Hendricks was born April 14, 1917, in the Netherlands, and in 1935 the 18-year old married estate agent, Charles A Hatch, who lived at 6 Talbot Street in the 1930s, then in their new marital home ‘Parkfield,’ 28a Trafalgar Road; this had been created as one of five new properties on the bull-dozed site of the huge ‘Belair’ mansion house, off Gainsborough Road.
Charles – a one-time President of the Southport Chess Club – was half of one of Southport’s leading estate agents, Hatch & Fielding, auctioneers, valuers, house, estate and insurance agents, based at ‘Albany Galleries’ 341 Lord Street, which was started by the builder, John Hatch, of St Paul’s Street, and JA Fielding, of 7 Lord Street West.
Helena’s daughter was Eleanor, who later worked at Robinson’s linen store on Lord Street – the building formerly with the ‘mushroom’ roof. With them both now divorced, Frank and Helena (re)tied the knot, in Southport, in July 1956, and moved to 36 Westbourne Road, and from then on the couple always kept a tame, housetrained lion cub at their Birkdale home by the sea – the first of which was bought (rescued) from a pet shop.
The dynamic duo, with their vivid personalities, fitted in very well with the colourful and creative people who inhabited the mainstream movie world at this time.
Given that their animals were so expertly trained and well-behaved, and that handsome payments were forthcoming for such appearances by ‘Rajah,’ it is hardly surprising that their film-making venture was merely the beginning of a long association between the Farrars’ animals and the world of show business.
It was during the 1950s that the intrepid couple began to prepare their hand – reared ‘Rajah’ – Birkdale’s famous lion – to appear in new Tarzan films starring Gordon Scott (the Arnold Schwarzenegger of his day).
Scott made five Tarzan movies between 1955 and 1960 – with ‘Rajah’ appearing in three of them.
This was all new territory for the
Farrars, as most of their time had simply been building up and drawing people to their little zoo.
Last week we told you how Jackie Grainger (who lived a few streets away from the Farrars) – later becoming the headman for Red Rum – became Rajah’s chauffeur for his film and TV appearances.
When the tame lion was selected to appear in the film ‘The Jungle Princess’ – a re-make of the 1936 hit of the same name – Frank and Helena were then driving around in a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud – a superb and lush motorcar, but not one that met their transporting needs to deliver a rather large, fully-grown lion to a film crew down south.
The couple asked Southport van drivers to give them a lift to Elstree Studios, in Hertfordshire – but, not too surprisingly, no-one seemed interested in sharing a 400-mile round-trip with poor little ‘Rajah,’ so in desperation they offered Jackie £20 for the job (the equivalent to roughly £400 today) and he accepted, enjoying the adventurous experience a great deal.
He then became a regular driver for the Farrars, taking all kinds of animals all over the country for film roles or guest appearances.
Around this time ‘Rajah’ also appeared in the adventure movie ‘Safari’ starring Victor Mature and Janet Leigh (later of ‘Psycho’ fame), and it was this film that the friendly lion ‘watched’ privately at Lord Street’s ‘Gaumont’ cinema theatre when it was released – a great, but very brief, PR stunt of course! ‘
Safari’ was directed by Shaun Terence Young (1915-1994), a British film director and screenwriter who became best known for directing three James Bond films, including the first two in the series, ‘ Dr No ’ (1962) and ‘From Russia with Love’ (1963), as well as ‘ Thunderball ’ (1965), all starring Sean Connery.
‘Rajah’ also appeared in a TV series called ‘White Hunter,’ (starring 27-year old Rhodes Reason and based on John A Hunter’s book) which aired from October 1957.
Filmed in Twickenham, Middlesex, the black-and-white adventures were over 39 episodes each 30-minutes long, produced in association with ITC (Incorporated Television Company); Telestar Productions; and Beaconsfield Productions.
It is not known just how many of the episodes featured ‘Rajah,’ but some episodes were edited together as the feature Man Eater.
Any other zoo of its kind might have been quite content to remain a children’s model petting zoo, with mainly rabbits and goats and a few spectacular animals to draw the crowds – but that was not the style of Frank and Helena Farrar.
Breeding success aside, their zoo was still, essentially, what would be referred to as a ‘menagerie’ today, and in the narrow confines of ‘Southport Zoo’ the popular couple were trying to build a serious animal collection.
In April 1960 Frank is recorded travelling back to London from Calcutta aboard the ship ‘Indian Renown’ after one of his many animal business