Spring in Santa Rosa sent sun-happy kids through flexing sprinklers, around the block on roller skates .. I Love Lucy and Monopoly, county fairs and swimming parties.
But nothing could compare to the thrill of news items trickling our way (some from Grandma in Brooklyn) of the the nation's most famous and watched circus moving into Madison Square Garden for its annual spring opening. The Big Show. The Big One. Big Hertha. Gorgeous color photos in TV Guide touting a one hour telecast of highlights the following week. Dazzling artistry attached so strange sounding names ...
I had learned early that while most of the best acts came from abroad, it was American showmanship that cast them in into fascinating modes of production.
The Ringlngs had long scouted the world for the greatest and the most bizarre attractions, freaks to thrillers, but nothing to the extent of the annual talent-scouting haul of John Ringling North.
North was never more respected or revered than in 1956, and in 1956 a brilliant new movie was released, Trapeze, in which his character is given its due by the actor Minor Watson,who portrayed him. Indeed, North was arguably the most prolific American force for creative circus presentation. Not confined to just one ring, JRN interlaced the acts with parades, production number and aerial ballets.
And by 1956 when his cinematic character rang true, he had it all. The movie was released on May 30, only six weeks before the real Ringling circus fell in Pittsburgh, when North struck the big top for good and was declared "the man who kilted Santa Cause./" His charismatic image in ruins, he would never fully recover.
The movie that honored him was filmed in the famed Cirque d’Hiver in Paris, the oldest circus building in the world, now undergoing a major renovation. The first images of trapeze were performed over its ring on November 12, 1859,by French acrobat Jules Leotard, though without catchers. Leotard swung from one bar to another , once over a crowd below without net!
H lived a rather short like.
Burt Lancaster. a flyer himself whose career had been short lived by a fatal fall, got behind the movie with a passion and became one of its produces. Tony Curtis, begging Lancaster to show him how to master the triple, turns in the performance of a lifetime.
My favorite scenes depict North's jovial interactions with performers all of them obviously hoping to be offered contracts.
A joy shared by all: Ringling North congratulates Tony Curtis for his perfect Triple and ticket to Madison Square Garden,
This I know: What North was to the circus world will long live on in this terrific film. I look for his scenes whenever I watch this masterpiece.
Douglas McPherson has penned an enthralling, 4-star history on cirque'e Hiver and the movie.
Highly recommended! Link to circus mania on the right bar, down a ways.
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