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FORTUNE’S WHEEL ***NEW***

Fortune's Wheel: Bill Stephen's in cage with lion Image Name: Fortune's Wheel: Bill Stephen's in cage with lion
Fortune's Wheel: Bill Stephen's feeds lion mouth to mouth Image Name: Fortune's Wheel: Bill Stephen's feeds lion mouth to mouth
Fortune's Wheel: Bill & Mai Stephens with lion cub and alsatian dog Image Name: Fortune's Wheel: Bill & Mai Stephens with lion cub and alsatian dog
Fortune's Wheel: Bill & Mai Stephens with lion cub Image Name: Fortune's Wheel: Bill & Mai Stephens with lion cub
Fortune's Wheel: Bill & Mai Stephens Image Name: Fortune's Wheel: Bill & Mai Stephens
Fortune's Wheel: Joe Lee (Director Producer) Lorraine Kennedy & Bill Whelan (Producers) Image Name: Fortune's Wheel: Joe Lee (Director Producer) Lorraine Kennedy & Bill Whelan (Producers)
Fortune's Wheel: Bill Stephens reads Irish Times in hospital 12Nov1951 Image Name: Fortune's Wheel: Bill Stephens reads Irish Times in hospital 12Nov1951

 

For a preview copy email: gareth.naughton@rte.ie

‘Fortune’s Wheel’ The Life and Legacy of the Fairview Lion Tamer

‘Fortune’s Wheel’ is a documentary feature film about Bill Stephens, an ordinary young man in 1950s Ireland with an extraordinary ambition: to become an international circus star. It is also a love story about Bill and his young and beautiful wife Mai, from East Wall. Their double act, Jungle Capers, Bill Stephens and Lovely Partner, was a series of death-defying feats with a troupe of lions and dogs designed to thrill audiences in the circus tent and on the stage. With this act they hoped to break free from the suffocating reality of Irish life, but things went terribly wrong when, in November 1951, one of their animals escaped. The story gained national and international attention at the time, but it is only now – after 60 years of silence – that two families and a community have come together to tell the story in full.

Fortune’s Wheel, August 15th at 9.35pm on RTÉ One

Director: Joe Lee

Independent filmmaker Joe Lee’s work includes Film and TV and a range of video documentation/archive projects with Irish national cultural institutions, as well as directing and curating public art projects.”

Principal Interviewees/Cast: Bill Whelan, Lorraine Kennedy, Joe Tracey, Martin Tracey, George Smith, Gerry Creighton Snr, Herta Fossett, Tom Duffy Snr, Michael Ingoldsby.

Producers: Lorraine Kennedy, Bill Whelan and Joe Lee.

Cameraman: Mick Doyle

Editor: Joe Lee