Putting On the Squeeze

One has to wonder just a bit about people who keep dangerous beasts as pets. My late friend Cliff Gorman, the extraordinary actor who starred on Broadway in Lenny, once presented his wife with a baby lion, which was especially iffy since they lived in a New York Ciy apartment. The lion used the bathtub for his bed, and wasn't at all happy when Cliff and his wife wanted to shower. Lions don't start out with a quiet roar which grows louder as they get older. They don't roar at all until they get bigger and certain hormones kick in. One day Mr. Leone, by now approaching his full growth, "found his roar," as they say, and you can imagine the consternation when the neighbors began to hear a roaring lion next door. Mr. Leone wound up in a New Jersey zoo, where Cliff and his wife had visitation rights.