El Monte California-1937: Lion Seen Through Fence Slowly Walks Tightrope

$149 · CommercialDirect license: commercial and editorial use. $149 flat from Stockfilm. Royalty-free worldwide license for commercial and editorial use, delivered as the restored 4K master.

Year1937
Decade1930s
LocationEl Monte, California, United States
Duration6s
Price$149 USD
Collection1937 El Monte California

$149 · CommercialDirect license: commercial and editorial use

$149 USD flat · royalty-free worldwide · 4K restored master (MP4)

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Stockfilm licenses the rights identified in the applicable agreement. Additional use-specific review may be required. See the Licensing Guide and Archive Integrity.

Lion Seen Through Fence Slowly Walks Tightrope — Clip Details

EL MONTE CALIFORNIA-1937: A scrawny lion walks slowly across a tightrope within a chain-link enclosure, viewed through a diamond-patterned fence. The black and white 8mm home movie footage captures the animal's strained movement in a confined space, with visible film grain and soft focus typical of vintage Super 8 recordings. The setting appears to be a makeshift outdoor performance area, possibly part of a traveling show or local fair. The lion’s muscular frame is evident despite its thin condition, and the scene evokes a sense of historical captivity and early 20th-century animal entertainment. This archival clip offers a raw, unfiltered glimpse into past practices of wildlife display.

Licensing & Technical Details

Original Format: 8mm / Super 8 Home Movie
Shot details: Black & white
Resolution: 4K restored master (MP4)
License: Direct license: commercial and editorial use
Delivery: Instant Digital Download
Duration: 6s
Price: $149 USD
Clip ID: 127253786

Rights & Clearance

$149 · Commercial Direct license: commercial and editorial use. $149 flat from Stockfilm. Royalty-free worldwide license for commercial and editorial use, delivered as the restored 4K master.

No recognizable people, logos, or music are flagged. Lower-risk for commercial use, subject to your own review.

People visible: No
Logos / trademarks: No
Audible music: No

Flags come from automated catalog metadata, not a legal opinion. The source is an original 8mm / Super 8 Home Movie reel. For high-stakes commercial use, request a full rights review.

Source & Documentation

Source reel: Reel record not linked for this clip
Date: 1937 Estimated (Catalog estimate from the footage and file metadata; not independently confirmed.)
Date evidence: Catalog estimate based on source metadata and visual or technical evidence; no reel-level note is linked.
Location: El Monte, California, United States Estimated (Catalog estimate from the footage and file metadata; not independently confirmed.)
Location evidence: Catalog estimate based on source metadata and visual evidence such as signage, landmarks, or terrain; no reel-level note is linked.
Licensing route: Direct license available from Stockfilm

Confidence labels are defined on Archive Integrity. Fields without a recorded value are shown as not recorded rather than assumed.

Open Clip Documentation Record Request source information

Topics & Keywords

Archive Intelligence

Archive brief fit: 1930s animal-entertainment footage for documentary, museum, education, or editorial sequences about captive wildlife display and home-movie views of public spectacles.
Period detail: The chain-link enclosure, outdoor setting, black-and-white 8mm image, and metadata-supported 1937 El Monte location point to a Depression-era animal performance environment.
Home-movie behavior: The camera watches from behind the fence like a visitor, holding on the lion's slow movement rather than staging a polished performance view.
What appears in frame: Visible elements include a lion on a narrow rope, diamond-pattern chain-link fencing, dark vertical obstructions, trees or foliage, and enclosure structures in soft focus.
Film character: The clip has a high-grain 8mm look with soft focus, uneven exposure, gate edges, and handheld framing that emphasize its original home-movie source.
Edit role: An editor could use it as a brief cutaway, memory beat, or contextual insert for historical animal captivity, roadside entertainment, or archival California sequences.
Historical context: The scene reflects a period view of a captive lion presented for spectators, while the frames alone do not identify the show, owner, or exact venue.
Research note: No people, children, logos, or audible music are indicated, but users should still review copyright status and any animal-welfare or property-context concerns separately.
Research search match: Useful searches include 1937 El Monte 8mm lion footage, black-and-white home movie captive lion, chain-link animal enclosure, and vintage tightrope lion clip.
Archive pairing path: Pair first with same-reel animal or fairground footage, then with 1937 El Monte material, then with broader 1930s captive wildlife or performance scenes.

Still Frames From This Clip

1937 El Monte home-movie frame showing a lion behind diamond-pattern fencing, with trees and enclosure structures in soft focus. — A lion is viewed through chain-link fencing as it moves near a narrow rope inside an outdoor enclosure.

A black-and-white 8mm frame from El Monte shows the lion partly obscured by fencing and dark vertical film or foreground edges. — The lion is partially hidden by the fence and foreground shadows inside the enclosure.

The home-movie frame shows the lion close to the fence line, with its body and legs visible through the diamond-pattern mesh. — The lion stands or moves close to the fence, with its body broken up by the mesh pattern.

Final frame shows the lion behind the fence in the 1937 El Monte enclosure, with a narrow rope and soft background structures visible. — The lion remains behind the chain-link fence as the rope and enclosure details stay visible in the background.

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