Terrell Jacobs Circus

Terrell Jacobs was an American lion tamer who launched his own traveling circus in the 1930s. He was sometimes billed as a 'Lion King' of the big-top era.

His signature act famously featured fifty performing African lions in the ring simultaneously. That scale made it one of the largest big-cat acts of the circus era.

The show toured during the 1930s, the last great era of traveling railroad and truck circuses in the United States. Jacobs reportedly later presented his lion act with larger established outfits such as the Cole Brothers Circus after his own show ceased touring.

Period photographs and press coverage of the fifty-lion act survive in circus history collections. Researchers often find material through circus archives and vintage newspaper archives documenting 1930s touring shows.