NINE CARS off the old Ringling train standing idle, nearly forgotten, in a place called Spring Hope (how apt) somewhere in the green of North Carolina, reports the Carolina Journal, revealing a fairly well kept secret. “Few people seemed to know it existed.”
BARABOO, ARE YOU reading? I am still seething (well, not exactly) over John Ringling North’s not having willed at least one of the great Concello seats wagons to a museum of his choice. How I would love to sit on one of those small chairs, and recall how not so comfortable it was while I basked in the enchantment of watching the Greatest Show on Earth in 1955.
SPRING HOPE'S Mayor Buddy Gwaltney, joking “We haven’t’ seen any elephants or giraffes running around ... monkeys swinging in the trees, but we’ve got our eyes open!”
HOLD THAT FEELING! Me has an idea: Half a Midway hosting lost circus icons? Stray dogs and monkeys, suspiciously talented? Running around. Swinging from trees. The Ringling ghost train, parked imperially along its edge? Admission free. Donations on demand. Odds and ends, props and ring curbs in poetic disarray. Banners half raised, some full tilt.
SCRATCHY OLD RECORDS blowing out hot Merle Evans music, like on hot summer days when Americans jammed the tents, laughed at looney clowns, thrilled to spangled daredevils, delighted over amazing animals ... Half a ring somewhere in the midst, now and then half an act in motion before half a dozen spectators. ... Harold Ronk’s thundering voice crisply crashing the air, then half-way fading away ...
AM I OVERLOOKING it by half? I’d hoist half a tent, and in it host all of Billy Rose’s wonderful movie, Jumbo. I just saw it the other night — can’t recall seeing it when it came out in 1962 – I was out of the country then. What a fractured gem. A little too long and unable to end when it should But so much to love, most of all, seeing agile circus performers flying and jumping, through the air, onto horses, in perfect freedom.
REMEMBER WHEN circus performers were just that, and not “actors” unencumbered, as they increasingly are, by heavy-handed role-playing direction, but wearing their own God-given faces?. Maybe this is what Paul Binder was referring to in affirming the joyful connection between circus performer and spectator.. And why Paul took off the masks that a visiting Cirque du Soleil director had put onto his performers.. The ring action in Jumbo harkens back to an era before the ballet-theatre crowd began imprisoning acrobats into PC-refined straight jackets of body movement purity and “character arc” Before they were called “actors.”
There was a circus in days of yore
There’ll be a circus forever more..
OKAY, PERFECT segue over or down to you, Feld of Felds: So are you the resurrection and the light? The “forever more”? What about that press release issued by one of your own — check for the name Steve Yarios on your payroll---promising a return of Ringling? A prank? Half a trial balloon? Are you yourself turning into half-a-showman? I sense an irrational brain behind this, and I am reminded of another irrational brain at work when you blitzed the media over the first female ringmaster signed to blow your whistle, only, a few days later, to then announce the circus was closing for good, half a season in, the following May.
Rent the Tent, but not in Westbury
SOMETIMES, too, on our vanishing midway, you’ll see half-thriving survivors, still putting out circus shows, such as the Big Apple Circus, promising a return to Lincoln Center in the fall of 2020.
Its strangely barren website lacks a listing of any company names. With an off season now lasting 8 months, the show offers piece-meal options: the big top for rent, “perfect for parties, concerts, photo shoots, and anything else you can dream up.” And private show buyouts. So far, they’ve landed a four-day, four-performance date on the stage-in-the-round of Westbury Theatre with what looks like half a show. In half a ring? Actually, this looks like an ideal indoor venue -- while they're renting out their tent.
In these times, half a show may be more than good enough -- and something, maybe, of a smash hit on Half a Midway.
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NOTE TO ANONYMOUS: FAREWELL
Comes the time to unwelcome you
Sure, you can be quite smart and knowing, but also profane and more. One of you – or are all of you the same? — despises Lilian Leitzel and revels in trashing her figure in the most vile manner. You blast show owners whom, I assume, did you wrong. Sour grapes is your middle name. Some of you are barely veiled animal rights activists. I can spot you a mile away. Some of you show a savvy grasp of things. Altogether, I must say, you are a fairly cowardly lot. Collectively afraid of your own shadows? And why?
Anonymous out there feels ghostly. The Big A could be me. I am sure it is often the bloggers themselves, but I have never resorted to this pitiful exercise. Some of you have good things to say. Okay, show your face. Cowardly is no longer an option, and if this midway must stand alone, so be it. There is something about my decision to do this, and the meaning of social life itself, that feels strangely philosophical.
At the bottom feeder end of incoming "commentary," I have grown tired of your smirky put downs and your sneering digs at American circus companies. And, yes, at me. I would like to face my critics as they face me. Then will you deserve the respect of my response. Whomever you are, none of you will anymore be welcome here – and don’t favor yourself by feeling smug and satisfied knowing that at least I will even read you. NO, I won’t even read you anymore. In other words, I will not take the time to “review” what you have sent me before deciding whether to publish or send you to the dumpster.
How ironic, in a land that screams FREEDOM OF SPEECH morning noon and night, so many people hide behind the Big A Even here, far from a political blog – a CIRCUS blog. What in the world are you afraid of? Put your name to your pen and I’ll more likely print you. I can take most of it.
You say you can only get in as Anonymous? Then do this: STATE YOUR NAME at the beginning of your comment, such as “from Joe Doe.” Even then, I will probably have to recognize your name in order to admit you through to my speakeasy.
Now, to face the silence. How much longer? This I know: Sometimes, as has been said by others (and to think I once thought I said it first!) Nothing is better than something. Anyway, for those of you who do post comments behind your names, you will continue to be much appreciated.
Farewell, Anonymous. Better luck ghosting elsewhere. How about the Santa Anita race track?
1 comment:
To Anonymous-es all. Nice try.
Please kindly note: Your comments will not be read and will be deleted without my reading them. Sorry.
You are most welcome, of course, to re-post, showing your name.
IF you begin with your name as in "John Doe here" and I KNOW who you are, yes, I will then let you through into my speakeasy
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