The Man who Inspired the Tiger King; and the official VIP programme he created

As anyone who has spent time in lockdown now knows there is weirdness in all of us.

And then there is the special kind of head-scratching weirdness that we all discovered watching Netflix’s Tiger King documentary series.

Central to that series was the Tiger King himself, Joe Schreibvogel, aka Joseph Maldonado or ‘Joe Exotic’, and his ongoing battle with nemesis Carole Baskin – whose murder he attempted to solicit resulting in a 22-year jail sentence.

But there could not have been a Tiger King without Roy Horn, who passed away last week of coronavirus-related illness. He was one half of the Las Vegas legendary act Siegfried & Roy. Whereas Siegfried Fischbacher’s contribution was the magic, Roy’s was the animals.

Hence, as the obituaries to Roy are written and published, the clear link can be made for the first time between his work with animals and the inspiration he provided to the Tiger King and others featured in the series like ‘Doc’ Antle.

Needless to say Roy’s death – and the phenomenal success of the Tiger King in its own right - was followed this week by news that the Tiger King producers are reportedly developing a new project about the 2003 attack that left Roy Horn severely injured, effectively ending the Siegfried & Roy showbusiness juggernaut.

The Times’ obituary of Roy sets the scene for that fateful day: ‘As usual, the 1,500-seat theatre in the Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas was crammed to capacity on October 3, 2003, as Roy Horn led a white tiger on to the stage.

‘Some in the audience thought it part of the act, but the frisson of risk at the Siegfried & Roy show that night was genuine. The spangly suited duo really did share their stage with dangerous animals, which was why their slick spectacle, a blend of magic tricks and circus stunts, had for decades been the hottest ticket in town.

‘The 28-stone, seven-year-old animal had performed reliably for years. Yet on this night the big cat began to wander off, ignoring Horn’s commands and becoming agitated. When Horn stumbled and rapped the tiger on the nose with a microphone the animal clamped his jaws on the magician’s neck and dragged him offstage.

‘As confusion spread in the stalls and turned to alarm, crew members desperately fought backstage to free the profusely bleeding Horn from the tiger’s maw. After they sprayed the animal with a fire extinguisher and tried to pry open his mouth he let go and calmly returned to his cage. The mauling, on Horn’s 59th birthday, was so severe that he suffered a crushed windpipe and damage to an artery carrying oxygen to his brain, causing a stroke and partial paralysis on his left side. Though his recovery was remarkable, his speech and mobility were permanently impaired.’

Apart from one charity appearance in 2009, there were no more Siegfried & Roy appearances. The tiger involved in the attack – Mantecore – would die, aged 17, in happy retirement at the Jungle Palace sanctuary where the two men lived.

Bizarrely enough one of their tigers, Bengali, aged 21 or 22 years of age, found its way to the Tiger King’s nemesis and died at Carole Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue in May 2016. Another former Siegfried & Roy tiger,  Sarmoti, acquired at the same time, died at Big Cat Rescue at age 20 in 2013.

Casino mogul Steve Wynn who signed them first to his Frontier Hotel in the early 1980s, and then to the Mirage in 1990 paid both of them the ultimate tribute. ‘When Elvis Presley used to work in Las Vegas two months a year, he had empty seats. These boys don’t,’ Wynn told Vanity Fair in 1999. ‘We’re talking about 15,000 people a week.’ The total income generated was estimated to be USD45m per year at their peak.

In enforced retirement Siegfried and Roy, along with dozens of roaming but retired lions and tigers and a small army of staff, lived in a variety of sprawling properties in Las Vegas, a lush 100-acre estate dubbed Little Bavaria and a compound known as the Jungle Palace that boasted a replica of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling in the dining room.

The rights to organise official VIP Tours through the Jungle Palace were retained by Wynn’s MGM Resorts, and the range of VIP products, experiences and tours available can be reviewed here [noting, of course, that no actual tours are available because of the Live Event lockdown].

And looking at TripAdvisor’s reviews of the Siegfried & Roy’s tour you’d have to say they are considerably more positive than negative. The last review is dated early March this year: more than one thousand Excellents versus under 200 Terribles. And as many of the reviews make clear on the VIP Tour there is always the chance of meeting Siegfried who continues to be a very large presence.