AI Goes to the Circus and The Clowns of Misinformation Have a Field Day

Artificially meeting up with AI for some Q&A, here are some samples I threw its way and how it responded to each.   HI stands for Human Intervention, myself.

Where can I find the lyric for the song, Come to the Circus from the movie The Greatest Show on Earth?

AI:   The song "Come to the Circus" from the movie The Greatest Show on Earth doesn't have a specific song title or lyrics. It's a musical piece used in the movie's soundtrack, and it's part of the musical score, not a song with specific lyrics. (HI, it did have lyrics)

Who invented the three ring circus?

The three-ring circus was invented in 1871 by P.T. Barnum and William Coup,  founders of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. This innovation allowed for multiple acts to perform simultaneously, creating a more dynamic and entertaining spectacle.  (HI, make that 1881, by Barnum and Bailey)

Who moved Ringling from big tops to hard tops?

AI:  Irvin Feld is credited with moving Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from outdoor tents to indoor arenas. He purchased the circus in 1967 and made the transition to permanent venues like sports stadiums and arenas. This shift significantly impacted the circus's profitability, transforming it into a successful enterprise. (HI, it was John Ringling North and Art Concello)

I heard the show closed in 2017, but then returned to the road in 2023?

AI:  In 2023, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey did return with a new show, but it was not a touring show and was only performed in one location. (HI wrong)

Let's take on the still-contested triple somersault on the flying trapeze. Who was the first to accomplish it?

Two answers.  Who knows, there may be more.

AI:  The first circus performer to successfully execute a triple somersault on the flying trapeze was Lena Jordan, a Russian-born trapeze artist. She accomplished this feat at the young age of 12, although the first officially recognized triple somersault was performed in Australia in 1897.

AI:  The first aerialist to consistently perform the triple somersault on the flying trapeze was Alfredo Codona. He was a member of the famous "Flying Codonas" family and achieved this feat in 1919. The New York Times and BnF / CNAC reported on his accomplishment.  While Lena Jordan is credited with performing the first triple somersault in 1897 in Australia, she did not achieve consistent performance of the trick like Codona. Wikipedia notes that Jordan's first triple was recorded in Australia, but she also performed it in the US in 1896. Alfredo Codona, however, is known for perfecting the triple and making it a part of his regular act

But what about Ernest Clark? 

AI:  Yes, Ernest Clark is generally credited for completing a triple, though there have been others like Lena Jordan, who have also made claims. While some circus old-timers say that Clark tried it infrequently and wasn't always successful, his accomplishment is a significant milestone in trapeze history.

And what about claims that Antoinette Concello was the first  woman to throw a  triple? 

 

AI:   Yes, Antoinette Concello was the first woman to successfully perform the triple somersault on the flying trapeze. She was a member of the legendary "Flying Concellos and was known as the "Greatest Woman Flyer of All Time" for this achievement. Britannica and other sources confirm this.  (HI Jordan is the correct answer)

 

Why are there so many conflicting claims around this subject?  Even YOU contradict yourself. 
 
AI:  Conflicting claims about the first triple somersault in circus history are likely due to a few factors: the difficulty of verifying historical feats, the use of safety harnesses, and the evolving definition of what constitutes a "first" successful performance. Several performers, including the Clarkes and Alfredo Codona, have been credited with achieving the trick, sometimes in practice sessions rather than official performances.  Here's a more detailed breakdown:
 
 Verification Challenges:

    Documenting circus performances, especially from the early 20th century, can be difficult. Accurate records of practice sessions and the specific details of safety harnesses used might be incomplete or lost to time.
    The Role of Safety Harnesses:
    Some claims involve performers like the Clarkes using "mechanics" or safety harnesses to assist in the triple somersault. Whether these harnesses count as a true accomplishment is a matter of debate.
    Defining "First":
    Some claims refer to the first successful triple somersault in a practice session, while others focus on the first time it was performed in a public circus act. This distinction adds to the confusion.
    Alfredo Codona's Legacy:
    Alfredo Codona was a highly regarded aerialist known for consistently performing the triple somersault in the 1920s, even after a deadly fall, making him a prominent figure in circus history.
    The Clarkes and Miguel Vazquez:
    The Clarkes are credited with achieving the triple somersault in a performance of the Publiones Circus in Cuba, and Miguel Vazquez is known for successfully perfoing it and the quadruple somersault, though not in a live show.

 

End of interview.

  

Aside from too many sloppy and  conflicting answers, I was impressed by the last section under Verification Challenges. So maybe AI is better at analysis than facts?

MIDWAY FLASH! ... MIDWAY FLASH! ... RINGLING HEADS FOR THE BARN ... PROMISES "BRAND NEW EDITION" NEXT JANUARY ... SIGN UP FOR UPDATES, OUT OF ORDER ...

 I tried linking onto the "Sign Up" page for updates, and this appears: 

Hmm. We’re having trouble finding that site.

Out of the Past: Copeland & Combs Leave Kelly-Miller: Steve Talks About Their Days on the Show, From Pay Scales to Coloring Books.

Showbiz David Interviews Steve Copeland

When two young clowns named Steve Copeland and Ryan Combs,  who teamed up while working on the Ringling show, were hired by John Ringling North II in 2009 to produce the laughs for his Kelly-Miller Circus, they joined on with a degree of skepticism,  not knowing exactly what to expect.  But Steve was reminded by a Ringling clown of having once cracked, “I’d never work on a mud show!”

He’s not sure he ever said that, but he and Ryan faced a whole different set of circumstances in the great outdoors, much of it in the mud -- a totally different experience from appearing  in city arenas with the Big Show  The boys, you might say, had fallen from the Fields of Feld to the House of Ringling/JRN II version.

Who pays the most?

The bargain offered a tempting pay off: “We were making substantially more on Kelly-Miller than we were on Ringling.”

It helped them adapt to under-canvas life, playing to hundreds rather than thousands.  “A month into our fist year,” recalls Steve, “we had already decided that we enjoyed being on the show, and we definitely wanted to stay for a second year.”

He began blogging about the day-to-day details of trouping, and quickly drew an appreciative group of followers. He did not hold back on unflattering matters, such as bored or snotty audiences (cell phonies came in for put downs, from funny to scathing), or depressing days when the customers didn't come. But, when he told us about surging crowds, about straw houses and rousing tent-wide laughter that  greeted  their work, we, too, could savor the happy moment. Could feel his joy.  It was not spin.  It was real.  This gave Steve’s blog a raw vitality. Came a second year, and a third, and then a fourth and fifth, and they were still with Kelly-Miller. The blog evolved away from realism, from its early tell-it-all grit to a more upbeat  focus on their work in the ring and their personal lives.  House size estimates vanished. Management feared its bottom feeder rivals taking note of lush little markets.   Management conveyed these concerns to Steve and Ryan.

Precarious beginning

“If I can be honest, I thought the show was very weak our fist year,”says Steve, in reply to one of the questions I sent him, all of which he answered.  “I definitely think the quality of the show has improved since 2009.  Ryan and I tried our best to add to that quality over the years with our material, props, costumes, and talent.”

If the boss seemed to favor a static turnover in talent, bringing back the same faces year after year, this did not bother the more artistically ambitious Steve, a soul driven to innovate, albeit it, one might advance, sometimes mired in a surfeit of knockabout slapstick.  Some of their brutal attacks on each other, Three Stooges style, can be gloriously indulgent, bringing to mind the Fumagalli brothers. Others, like their big teeth gag, can seem mechanically executed, more clever than amusing, failing to deliver the big payoff one might expect from these inventive funmakers.   But, back to North's arguably static showmanship;  says Steve:

 “I don’t think that’s particularly strange in the circus business.  I can think of other shows that have almost the exact same program year after year, save for maybe a different clown.”

Color me unhappy

In the beginning when Steve’s blog let it all hang out, there were stressful moments that he did not shy away from recounting . For my money, the worst of all were those nagging coloring books that the guys were expected to sell.  It was clear that Steve did not relish the task, and when relived of it a season or so later, you could feel his elation.  

So why, last year, did the boys take back the concession they had so despised?  “Going into our fifth year, Mr. North and Jim Royal asked us to sell coloring books during intermission.  I didn’t feel like a negative answer would have dampened our chances of renewing our contract, but after how good K-M has been to us, we felt it would have been rude to say no.”

Insulting Intermissions
.

The funny fellows were all along, it would appear, coming to grips with  the realities of American circus trouping –  away from the few exceptions, be they Ringling or Big Apple. In fact, it was Big Apple Circus’s  current ringmaster, John Kennedy Kane, who helped persuade Copeland and Combs to embrace the advantages of pitching the crayon-ready books.  Kane, says Steve, is “one of the biggest advocates for clowns selling coloring books, and he actually sold us on doing the job while he was  filling in for John Moss as ringmaster.”

The task could be fun, and it could be “the pits,” concedes Steve. From his encounter with fans, he did harvest  “tons of funny quotes for my blog.”  What he didn’t relish was having to deal with  “rude or angry” customers.

Enter accidental agent John Ringling North II

Came Circo Vazquez “with an offer we couldn’t refuse.”  It might not have happened at all without the curiously unorthodox assistance of their own employer -- yes, John Ringling North II.  Earlier in the season, North told the fellows that Vazquez was interested in them. The gesture marked, in Steve’s words, “an excellent example of what a stand up gentleman he is ...one of, if not the nicest men I have ever worked for.”

There were awkward laughs to share when Mr. North approached them after learning that they had signed with the Mexican show.  ‘Now, I’m not trying to get rid of you guys!  You can stay on Kelly Miller as long as you want!”

Maybe one day they will return.

Circo Vasquez will compensate them with “a substantial raise,” and they will do a post-show photo concession, a gig they themselves solicited.   “We had seen other clowns doing the same thing after the show.”

“We had a good run on K-M, but after 5 years we felt it was time to make the next stop in our career.”

“The creative freedom that Mr. North and Jim Royal gave us can not be overlooked.”

Triumphal Texas premiere

His warmest memory?

“I fondly look back on our first two shows with Kelly Miller in Brownsville, Texas.  We had two packed houses full of cheering people, and we absolutely brought the house down with our sink repair gag. That was when we knew that we had a shot at making it in the business”

His digital diary has marked a new kind of living circus history, to be sure,  more-so in its early years.

Will he continue blogging over at Vazquez?

“Indeed, I will!”

Long term dreams?  “my ultimate goals are Big Apple Circus, and major circuses in Europe.”

“My greatest dream in circus .. is for me and Ryan to continue making people laugh using physical comedy.  I’d like to go farther in my career than I ever imagined when I left Ringling and I want to keep the forward momentum going.  Onward and upward!”

*******************************************************************************

[The following does not apply to this posting of 7/5/15] On Wednesday or Thursday, I will be posting a print-out of the complete e-mail interview. It will  not be placed at the top of the blog, so you may have to scroll down a little to find it.  I will post a note to this effect, however, at the top of the blog

First posted November 18, 2013

SUNDAY MORNING OUT OF THE PAST: They Dream Of Venice ... I Dream Of An Old Ice House ...

We all, each armed with memories, walk down old rail tracks, looking for an ice house, a silo, a barn, where once gilded circus trains unloaded, hoping to bring back those magical days, hoping to recapture exactly how we felt then ...

For Wade Burck, it's a place in Florida south of Sarasota: "You had to have walked into the building in Venice, with GGW in rehearsal, and Charlie and Axel in tents in the back lot, reserved parking in front for Irvin Feld, Kenneth Feld, Allen Bloom, etc., some of the greatest stars of their era eating in the restaurant, to really appreciate the wonder of that old building and facilities."

Burck, like another veteran Ringling pro, Jack Ryan, shares Tito Gaona's precarious dream of turning the place into a circus museum. And I am reminded of my own favored places that wither away as time moves on.

There's an old ice house -- no, there was an old ice house down Sebastopol Road in Santa Rosa, on whose raised exterior walkway I once stood on enchanted summer days when a carnival train rattled into town and was spotted there. I watched transfixed as a wide array of multi-colored wagons of Foley & Burk Shows rumbled and clattered from flat car to flat car, muscled hands tugging at their tongues, pulling against ropes to guide them onto the runs, down which they bolted with wild force, hitting the pavement for sure, jerking this way or that, getting hooked to tractors and pulled out to the fairgrounds ... Sometimes on my bicycle, I anxiously followed them.

And there's a spot out in Point Richmond; a few years ago, I walked it, finding an old shack still standing, and still seeing vividly in my reaching mind the side show tent that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey had pitched in front of it over fifty years ago when it threw up a glorious one day date under the big top in late August. Most magical day of my life. Now, that sacred place is covered in smooth sterile asphalt and loading ramps for container trucks.

So many old ice houses gone. So many old tracks and fences and buildings rusted and ignored, waiting maybe for new trains to find them ... On visits over the years to the railroad crossing where the carnival unloaded, I've watched a special setting, bit by bit wither away. First, the ice dispensing machine. Then the elevated walkway along the building. Then the building, down to a shell, and finally -- gone. Now only the railroad tracks remain. Abandoned.

So I can understand Wade Burck's poignant memories, can understand how a building in Venice that I found rather plain, even ugly, can mean so much to somebody else ...

"Not only the greats from the true 'golden era', but the whole city of Venice was electric with pride and anticipation," shares Burck, "waiting for the opening night dress rehearsal, and the animal walk to the train, as the Greatest Show on Earth, 'their' Greatest Show on Earth, left for another tour ... The permanent chain link arena, with the sloped concrete floor, which sat behind the octagon ring stock training barn, in which the likes of Bottcher, Chipperfield, Bauman, Williams practiced, in which I had the honor of practicing ..."

How I wish I still owned that Schwin bike and could ride it out Sebastopol Road to watch the colorful Foley & Burk train pull in alongside the ice house ...


first posted 4.27,2010

Ah, What Unmitigated Joy It Was, When Circus Ruled the Hearts of America! ... Here's John Ringling North's 1951 Opus at Madison Square Garden, Opening Night Galla for the Heart Fund ... AI Botches Big Top History! ...

Updated below, 3.20.25

Movie Star to Circus Star!  Is that you, Celeste?

Thank you, Shutter Stock!

Yeah, Jimmy, high nose it!  I can feel your joy. That's the greatest Greatest Show up, down, and all around!.

I'll take greatness in grainy any day over schlock in pixels. 

How I would love to have attended one of those Opening Night Galas at Madison Square Garden, when the arena could be drenched in famous faces.

 

 

Do you see any faces wreaking of issues?  Looks to me like a totally embracing crowd

 

There Goes Otto, back into the audience that he can't stay away from!

 

Weary Willie, what are you thinking?  To clown or not to clown?

Serendipity tossed these dazzling mages my way.  The year is 1951.  We're at the circus, opening night at Madison Square Garden ---  a benefit performance for the Heart Fund.  Do I see celebrities riding the floats?  Is that Celeste Holm on the elephants trunk? (Marilyn Monroe rode one in 1955)  My favorite is of Jimmy Durante lapping it all up on the sidelines.

This was the show being filmed by Cecil B. DeMille for scenes in his his epic film The Greatest Show on Earth.  The cameras rolled in Sarasota and would be rolling once again when the show hit the canvas road in Philadelphia.

********* updated:

PS I wanted to sign off by quoting some lines from "Come to the Circus" from the GSOE, so I googled in vain for the lyrics, and got this from the latest advance in digital domination:

AI Overview
Learn more
The song "Come to the Circus" from the movie The Greatest Show on Earth doesn't have a specific song title or lyrics. It's a musical piece used in the movie's soundtrack, and it's part of the musical score, not a song with specific lyrics.  

Artificial Idiocy anyone?

From AI to DC: 

Came an e-mail from a friend to this blog, not the first time he has offered valuable corrections or missing facts needed.  DC for Don Covington, referring me to  a record I already have and was only listening to a few weeks ago! Okay, maybe I preferred pushing how impossible it was googling up the lyrics (never had trouble finding any song before) over re-listening to Harold Ronk's highly entertaining A Seat at the Circus with "Mr. Singing Ringmaster."  A record I highly recommend to all.  So I put the record back on my turntable.  Ronk opens the show on a high note:

Come to the circus!  See  the circus!  If we're not very careful life can overwork us!  So take today, and make it gay, for there are too many tears along the  way ...

One for DC. None for AI.

Thank you, Don.

Legendary Breakthrough at the Circus--- Dancing At Last Holds Its Own

How could it be?  How could a group of dancers ever hold their own against, if not exceed the talents of the best circus acts on the bill?

Mine eyes have seen a revelation. for the first time, four-star choreography in the ring.  

If you live long enough, you may be surprised in ways you could never have expected.  Over the years, I have seen many kinds of dancing in league with clowns and elephants. Some was good enough as filler between acts and prop changes. Some fairly pedestrian. Some, well, at least lively.  But not of a caliber you would expect to find in a professional venue centered in dance and ballet.

Until now. I'm almost afraid to re-watch the You Tube on which I discovered this, for fear I might have over-reacted. But let me leave that for now and ride the waves of something that deserves top drawer respect

These nimble dames are jazzy.  They're funky.  I see saucy shades of Fosse.

The acts between the footwork? Mostly good enough. Three stand outs include a cradle casting duo and a lovely low-wire ballerina who performs both softly and intrepidly well, and on her toes. But here is where the dancers, flapping large wings, messed up my sight lines.  I strained to see the star, and wanted to scream, off with their wings!

Weakest of all, ringmaster overkill. Best of all, wrapping the show with a smartly placed powerhouse of tumblers forming pyramids and individually taking turns thundering around the ring trough somersaults and flip flops. I could feel a hurricane of horses sweeping me away.

Okay, name of the circus?  Candyland 2024 from Zippos. A forty five minute show, easy to look up on You Tube.

 

Monday Morning Wake Up: Why I Will Not Read Battle for the Big Top ...

 You could never guess. 

I've known about  Lee Standiford's well received book, have skidded through a stream of consumer raves, hoping the local library would eventually order a copy.  It sounded like maybe a Big One. Not big enough for Oakland, half the town still behind masks, some on a waiting list for mask implants.

 So, I broke down and ordered a copy from Amazon. The moment it arrived, I opened it to find a form of type face insultingly small,worse yet, not clear black but half-dead grey.  And this, from a major publisher?  Great cover,  frugal interior design on life support.

The experts say that the publishing world is having a hell of a time, many books selling 0 copies, the average new tome, in a swampland of both traditional and self-publishing, selling around 300 to 500 copies.

I read many books, but I did not relish the thought of fighting my way across a grainy grey typeface terrain. Not unless the book were about John Ringling North or Rodgers & Hammerstein.

Here comes yet a bigger shock, for anybody who has a basic kindergarten knowledge of American circus history. While temporarily in possession of the orphan, I did a little checking to see how big a role Art Concello plays in the narrative.  So I looked for his name in the index.

Nothing!  

Heck, he was only to John Ringling North what James. A. Bailey had kind of been to P. To Barnum.  A big player.

I'll leave it at that, other to note that the book seems to cover a wider ground than what the title promises.

Cirque du Desperate? Show Now Touts Story Line and Paper Animals, Leaves Critics in a Muddle ...

Oh, those glorious days gone by when Cirque du  Soleil  need only post its name in suave newspaper ads, and the world would storm the phones to secure the priciest tickets.

And..........................now ......ECHO.  You may clip a discount coupon from your local newspaper, if you still have one and are a subscriber. This oddly and  odorouslly unfaltering discovery I came upon  by accident, in the Sunday edition of our local rag. Notice how the Montreal monster is not pushing the predictable slate of familiar acts, but, instead, a story line that reaches in many directions and features "our main female heroine, Future."  Music by /Wagner?

The amateur-looking ad, if you can read it, promises "a tale of relations and evolution's ... combining poetry, stagecraft, daring acrobatics, and technology... exploring the delicate balance between people. animals, and the world we share."  And only one word about circus -- acrobatics.

Having examined a couple of reviews, a recurring theme bleeds distress over a hodgepodge of action. Both give high marks to some of the acts, and yet differ over story elements, one terming them "compelling" despite dolling out only two stars. Both end up in a  muddle of disappointment, unable to sing Cirque's praises. Here are excerpts from the notices:

Joshua Chong in a 2-star Toronto Star review: "Echo feels like a dull whimper, quite literally confined to a box [and ]is far from the glorious comeback that Cirque du Soleil intended. Despite some stunning individual routines and a compelling story line, Echo is torn by competing artistic visions that prevent the show, [which] never comes together as a thrilling whole."   

Aisling Murphy in  Intermission:  "An echo of circuses past. Two creative visions come to a head in ECHO, and they don’t gel particularly well. On one hand, you have the ultra-sleek box and the treasures inside; on the other, you have a mysterious world of paper animals infiltrated by a blue little girl and her blue dog. Most Cirque du Soleil shows tend to wield a thin story, but ECHO is close to non-existent beyond the initial offer of a girl and her pet on an odyssey of some sort."

The show seems to be doing better with consumer reviews, but here we might be traipsing through a minefield of shilling. Luckily for me and this post, I came upon a 34 minute You Tube sampler ...

"The Best of ECHO" from Cirque du Soleil 

So I had a chance to see for myself what they are up to, that is, with respect only to acts, for there is no trace of the story telling pushed in the grim, grainy newspaper graphic above    The acrobatic action, house acts I suppose, is more roughly athletic than finished.  Iron jaw and hair hang, webs and risley and casting,  with teeter boarders getting the longest workout, refreshing to a point of redundancy.  They are stressing large ensembles, though by far the biggest  hit of the clips shown were two clown-like fellows competing to build the tallest stack of cardboard boxes.  A four-star  hoot.  A great build that goes a bit weak when the stack falls but does not come apart.

If that's the best of ECHO, what is the rest of ECHO?  I have to assume Shakespeare over sawdust. 

Here is what stuck me the most about this leaden opus.  It is cold. It is dark, literally dark. It is abstract and alienating.  Most of the cast have painted faces or wear masks.  I can well understand why the two media reviewers filed acute reservations . One of the Yelper raves talked up never having felt so satisfyingly engulfed in the  atmosphere. It is heavy, yes, I can agree, except that, unlike him, I wanted out.  This was not the feeling I recently got when I  viewed parts of other CDS shows in a one hour You Tube sampler. It seems that their reigning esthetic of the moment is to feature many people doing similar things, rather then giving focus to well honed world class acts.  The enchanting sampler left me open to taking in another Cirque show.  After watching ECHO, that desire is gone.  In fact, I would sooner go to Ringling than to Cirque.

About that embarrassing ad.  What next?  Cirque du phone room calling? 

MORNING WAKE UP, CIRCUS VERSUS THEATER: "Love, sorrow, fear, triumph or revenge cannot be interpreted by purely acrobatic movements." -- Antony Hippisley Coxe, A Seat at the Circus

Further ...

 "After his first wild leap, the acrobat forgot the cause, and, impressed by its effect, became more interested  in evolving physical variations than in trying to express different feelings by similar movements."

And the Winners Are! ...

GOLD  Turkmenistan’s Djiguite riders, China’s National Acrobatic Troupe, and the gravity-defying Flying Caballeros.

SILVER The Scandinavian Boards and the Martini Family’s enchanting exotic animals brought awe to the ring. Pastelito and Junior also earned this distinction, proving their comedic brilliance to be world-class.

BRONZE The Triple Breath High Wire trio, with their serene mastery of the tightrope, joined Duo Acero and Wolfgang Lauenburger in this category.