20 Years Later: Welcome to Showbiz David

Telling it like it is from Broadway to the Big Tops!

Note: Today marks the 20th anniversary of this blog, this from 2021: And what am I still doing here?  So much of what was here then, is gone now.  So much of the wrong history has passed by while I watched.  The only thing you can do is watch.  And maybe dream or wonder.  Not the best time for guarded optimism as the tentacles of Corona continue to depress an already decimated big top scene.  Never was the future for circuses more up in the air.  My biggest hope: That Kenneth Feld will re-start the parade with the sort or spectacle and international talent that only he can afford. And in so doing, help the American circus in its gravest hours of need.

At first, I went out under then name "Stage and Sawdust." Slowly, viewership continued to grow, and then, over the last few years, dwindle as big tops dwindled. Lately, I have been feted with a robust resurgence of traffic. From where?  I may be the most anonymously visited big top blog out there.  This first post sounds rather pretentious (maybe they all do), and I don't even relish printing it, but it's where I started. And here, now, is where we are, wherever that is. So here it is: 

My first posting as Showbiz David, August 24, 2006

From your independent showbiz critic David Lewis Hammarstrom (aka: David H. Lewis), my occasional reports, reminiscences, reviews (and rantings -- maybe) on the ever-changing world of the performing arts. Hey, this might be fun!

You want puff? Sorry, I don't do puff. Want rigged feel-good reviews from press flaks on the take parading as critics? Sorry, you're on the wrong lot. In my book, a hit is a hit and a turkey is a turkey. How can this be? Well, I also pay for my own tickets.

I've been dishing out opinions (and being dissed in return) since the age of 14 when I first got published nationally in The White Tops. From there up a many spangled trail I have traveled, landing articles in The Christian Science Monitor, Australia's The Outdoor Showman, American Skating World, and peaking in the pages of Variety --- when Variety was Variety, edited out of New York.

Some of you may be familiar with my books: Behind the Big Top ... Circus Rings Around Russia ... Big Top Boss: John Ringling North and the Circus ... Roller Skating for Gold ... Broadway Musicals: A Hundred Year History ... Fower Drum Songs: The Story of Two Musicals... And I have a new one in the works on the modern-day American circus scene -- [Fall of the Big Top: The Vanishing American Circus]. More about this in the days to come.

So, how about we meet up sometime soon on the midway? This new website I'm fronting has just arrived on the blogspot lot. They're yet to raise the tents -- still unloading the horses and the red wagons down at the railroad yards by the old ice house. Still waiting for the police to escort them through a band of protestors, some self-chained to the elephant car, shouting, "Reparations for Jumbo!"
You'll bear with me, I trust, as I navigate my way through cyberworld to bring you the essential me in this new and very happening format.

So standby for the Big Show! 

8.24.06

HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF A MEDIOCRE DAY AT THE CIRCUS

FROM SHOWBIZ DAVID SHOCK THERAPY DIVISION

You’re on your way to THE CIRCUS.  Like all the times before, your expectations are high.  This could be another Big One.  This might get it right, might run the acts in a steady confident flow. Might offer a few Big Moments.   You’re hoping to be thrilled.  You’d settle for GOOD. that too much to ask for?   Not GREAT but simply good.

Or worse?  How not to be let down on the other side of the canvas?   How not to end up nit picking away,  pitting every act on the bill against Francis Brunn (OK, Anthony Gatto?). La Norma or the Hannefords.

Here is my advisory for fans who suffer from Chronic Circus Comparison Syndrome (CCCS), to blot out the past in order to take on the present. Do  a clean sweep of your brain.  You want the show you are abut to see to be as magical as the the first circus you saw. So the exercise is to clear your mind of all that has gone before.

No, I do not advise a pre-performance lobotomy. There are some less destruct measures you can take to achieve a better outcome.   Are you ready?  

* BAN YOUR MEMORIES FOR THE DAY Think anything else.  Think the many ways in which I’ve made a fool of myself on this blog.  In this way, you may enjoy acts you have long dismissed out of hand as garden variety fodder. Even this takes conning yourself into the mind set of a five year old.   

* START WITH A CLEAN SLATE Let the acts color it their way, not yours. Your biggest challenge is pretending you have never seen any of them or their like before.   

 * BUY THE BEST SEAT IN THE TENT If you are about to endure schlock showmanship, at lest suffer it in maximum comfort by investing in a chair close to to  the ring.

* DO NOT READ THE PROGRAM before or during the show If there is one.  I want you to be surprised by the unfolding parade of wonders — not affected by any advance grudges against anything you're about to see --  until after the show.    

* BRING EAR PHONES as a backup soundtrack, in the event the first notes from the band (or, CD player) put you in a funk. No, No, not that crap!  Nothing can affect our attitude towards an act as much as the music.

* LET THE FUNDAMENTALS SHINE  Okay, the show is on!   If there is an opening ensemble splash, these almost always please. Let the performers entertain for you, let them show you what they can do, not what you want them to do.  These feel good openings will give you a fair idea of the talent level ahead. Doubts already?  You might try shifing your mood into gratuitously grateful.   

 

* ADMIRE THE STRIVING YOUNG HEART  You will now and then see them out there.  Give them a break.  Give them a chance. This business does not promise anyone a fortune, and we all have to start somewhere. They are the future of circus.

* LOOK TO THE CHILDREN  Look and listen to them, let their reactions be yours. You were one of them once, just as tickled watching the clowns stage a slap happy boxing match. How you marveled at the cleverness of it all!

* BRING A DATE  Preferably, the one  you are hoping to have your own circus with, some time after the show — if not during intermission.  Dare you tarnish your chances by  coming off as either a hopelessly infatuated circus fan  — or uppity critic who can’t shut up? No, No! Keep the ghosts of circus days past in lock down.  

* WITHHOLD ALL OPINIONS  Express yourself in applause and smiles, hold the date above the show.  In Virginia  several seasons ago, with  my sister, two nieces and one grand nephew, we took a chance on a show I’d never heard of, Do Circus Portugal.  After the show, I first asked them what they thought?  They had little to say other than pointing out some flubs over a few carping laughs --- being more critical than I.  Now my turn. I praised a young man on the bill for two outstanding turns — marvelous juggling and  dazzling rapid fire two-person quick costume changes. Below, an act with Do Portugal I do not recall seeing.

* IF ALL ELSE FAILS   Try this killer exercise.  Close your eyes for ten seconds.  Imagine the worst circus you ever saw. I will kindly refrain from making known mine. Okay, now open your eyes and resume watching.  Better? 

Heck, I can't wait for the next circus I see in person, I’m going to try taking my own advice  Already, I’m trying it against my phobia for an act fit for the Gong Show: You will stop trashing hula hoops. ... I will stop trashing  hula hoops ...

3974 

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."

SUNDAY OUT OF THE PAST: They Read Me, They Bleed Me ... They Hate Me ... They Hate Me Not!

First posted  on July 18, 2010


As an update to this re-posting, let me add that I hold in the highest regard John Ringling North II and James Royal, who have never assaulted me in the fashion described below. They have remained most congenial, responding to my request for photos for my last book, Inside the Changing Circus, sending me annually, unsolicited, a copy of their program magazine with a bag of peanuts.

In the Circus Report that he founded and slaved over for most of his later life, the late Don Marcks once pointed me to a small space on the back cover that sometimes hosted adds. other times went blank. Said he, “How about your column there?”

I was very touched by the unexpected offer from someone who was my direct opposite, but resisted his polite invitation, telling him “eventually, I will write something that will cause you problems, and that will be it.” Don dreaded the discontent of circus owners and as a rule edited on the super safe don’t-rock-the big top side.

I knew Don well, as I knew the small insulated circus world well. They, most of them, are sheltered from criticism by the fans and by media indifference. Indeed, many a performer could last a lifetime under small tops, even in Ringing rings, and never face a legitimate review.

Before we fell into a kind of soft unspoken estrangement, Don once complained to me over the phone (we talked often) about circus fans who sent in glowing notices of Circus Vargas. He was growing tired of it. He printed their predictably rosy notices nonetheless.

Another time, Don told me, “I got a review of Circus Vargas. The guy was pretty critical, so I didn’t print it.”

That was Don, and that is how the circus world would like it to be.

Which brings us to the thorn in your side, that nagging customer who can inject unsettling opinions into your beautiful backyard paradise where every circus is the best it’s ever been, and better than all the others.

It was in Don’s paper that a piece I wrote looking back at Irvin Feld’s career, sometime after Mr. Feld passed away, caused probably a more vicious reaction than had ever greeted anything penned about the circus. Feld employees took out venomous attack ads in Circus Report. About a dozen or more. Some full pagers. Not a soul came to my defense. They bled me yes, and I did not die. And I still will not die. Bleeding is a part of my bizarre mission. When you get away with mouthing off in national print at age 14 (in The White Tops), it tends to go to your head, especially when, many years later, Variety signs on.

My most recent encounter with a hurricane of hostility arrived upon my posting a review here of Kelly Miller Circus. Some of you have no doubt seen it. Maybe you were amused. Maybe you half way agreed. Or considered me a number of things not fit for print — in more ways the one. In the eyes of the offended, I’d made a total fool of myself. That's the risk you take for daring to reveal your feelings, for you risk going against the grain. But how else?

One of the comments slung at my posting by that ever-ubiquitous contributor “Anonymous," whose profanity I did not allow onto the lot, found irony in my “legendary expertise” (a compliment, Anonymous?) being unaware that the names “Nellie” with “Hanneford go together. No, what I really failed to link were the names “Poema” and “Hanneford.”

I looked elsewhere, to one of the three Kelly Miller blogs, this being Steve and Ryan’s. Amidst some controversy, Steve, a classy guy, posted his own comment, “everybody is entitled to their own opinion.” Among other comments, Jon turned what he doubtlessly considered a negative into what I consider rare validation. You see, Jon lumped me together with the snobby New York critics’ crowd. May I take a bow please!? “Mr. Pompous ‘I live and die in New York’” he called me. (Mr. Pompous lives in Oakland, CA.) Well, it beats beings bland. And since I no longer disco into nights of senseless danger, gotta do something for cheap thrills.

Jon described my review as “a homework project.” Now to that, Jon, I can relate. For years, even after landing bylines in Variety and getting published in book form, I still felt like I were trying be a writer; lately, I’ve promoted my self-regard to writer trying to be a writer.

I'll grant that Jon might be on to some prickly things about me, but he goes totally off the rails when he accuses me of a mind set that was “formed before the presentation was presented.” If only he knew what was actually in my mind when I sat down to take in a performance of Kelly-Miller in Brewster, NY — and how what I thought I might find was significantly altered by what I actually found.

As for my carrying on like a know-it-all New Yorker, that tickles me pink lemonade. Why? Because, for starters, I think the NY critics are the toughest, and they think for themselves. Growing up, I admired how, following another opening night, they were forced to form their opinions in hours or less, rushing back to newsroom typewriters or to telephones to call in their notices. No time to stick their fingers in the wind or equivocate their immediate gut reactions down to intellectual mush. I read and treasured Walter Kerr almost every Sunday in The New York Herald Tribune. And when I landed my first byline in Variety, that only emboldened my stubbornly independent ways. Whatever I am, it's me that you get. I just wish, trust me, that you'd get a lot more voices and a lot more opinions -- in declarative review form.

"Pompous" if you please. English class room deficient if you must. But bias in advance? That I fight all the time, admitting that, yes, I too am human, but I think the conscious struggle to fight bias has made me a better, fairer reporter. Two things that remain uppermost in my thinking and approach: Number 1. Keep your mind an open slate, and let the arists in the ring paint their pictures on it. Number 2. The circus, ever since jugglers began in Egypt ,acrobats in China, is forever changing. It is not a fixed form. So, by all means adhere to a golden cliche: judge each show on its own terms.

Which can be a shock to my system as well.

And sometimes, a thrill. Never know what awaits me when, pompously, I embark on another homework review project. Considering how quaintly irrelevant I am obviously viewed by my dissenters, I'm thinking of making my entrances on to the lot in cape and carriage, but the Witness Protection Program refused me that guise.

[photo, at Carson & Barnes Circus in Half Moon Bay, CA,1995, by my nephew Jeffrey Hoffman]

7.18.10

 

2023, Looking Back: The Year That Was & Wasn’t

 “GREATEST SHOW” RETURN FAILS TO CAPTURE HEADLINES

     PERHAPS THE BIGGEST IGNORED EVENT event ever in American circus history was the so-called “comeback” of Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey.  Not a single legit notice in a newspaper that I can find. Some will send me “reviews” that turn out to be feature stories in which show people self-review their own work  It sill feels like  media in this country giving up on circus as passe after Ringling folded  in 2017. 

HOW CAN YOU RETURN WHEN IT’S  NOT YOU?

 
      RINGLING BEING ALL HUMAN may fail to be seen as a comeback, but a make over so radical as to not count as a comeback, defined in my dictionary from Webster, “a return to a former position or condition”  Show is not helped any by “circus” out of the title, by going without  rings or ringmaster, animals or clowns — even a live band.  All of which may strike a hurried reporter taking a fleeting glance as inconsequential.  Which is not to imply they are failing to attract crowds. For all I know, they may be.

MY BIGGEST BLOGGING BLUNDER

     MORE THAN ONCE, I PREDICTED that Ringling would be “Circus du soleil on steroids” If those who have seen it up close and in full are to be believed, how dead wrong was I.

RINGMASTERS  NEED NOT APPLY?

     AS I TOUR OUR REAL OR YOU TUBED SHOWS, seems that suddenly the man in red is MIA.  Truth be told, he was never as fixed a figure as some might argue.  Some times, he was a voice that announced just a few of acts; other times, as in Zoppe Now, a pleasing silent figure in red on the edge of the ring,  but as comforting to see as a caring dad watching all. Ringmasters can still add a very human touch, but they need not be overbearing.  Al Ringling called for “elusive, yet vital.”  Ah, that fits Zoppe’s man.

GOTTA DANCE, LIKE IT OR NOT!

     DANCE HAS SOMETIMES PLAYED a subsidiary role in circus shows. Ringling’s production numbers used dancers to embellish action. You’ll see this at Vargas and U.K. shows, where a line of girls fill in briefly between turns..  But rarely if ever has dance been made an act itself, as it is in recurring appearances on the Big Apple’s  Roncalli Theater-circus.   Which begs the question, Why?  Were it closer to acrobatic dance, such as  Gene Kelly in flying whirls, and could thrill audiences, then let them dance!

HOLD YOUR FAKE HORSES!  HERE COME THE FAKE PIGS? 

     OUR FURY FRIENDS, robots or costumed performers, are showing up everywhere  — what, to tease kids and kiddie adults into missing them?  To signal ownership’s true heart?  To amuse Americans back into support mode?  Costumed Polar Bears at Big Apple of all places!  Heck, dogs and horses, even pigs, have not been for the most part banned.  They are NOT exotics.  They are DOMESTICS, and adults raising kids are coming to see the learning value of the magical interaction between man and non-man.

ZIPPY ZOPPE CAN DO

        ZOPPE FAMILY CIRCUS HAS DOGS and horses and they are playing long dates in the blue state of insanity (CA), and nobody seems to be picketing them. When they play 60 shows in Redwood city, and in the parking lot of the public library,  we are talking a circus performing for the progressive left and Silicon Valley.  How could this possibly be? Ask a parent.

VARGAS RISING  

    NOW THAT I OWN A CAR AGAIN (a Lyft), I am happy to see a Vargas tent more than half full, heck, thriving!  Something I have almost never seen in recent years.  Something that tells me they and the public are connecting.  And yes, not even a fake animal in sight.

 DIMINISHING THRILLS?

      THE OMINOUS RISE IN LIFELINES, if this is indeed a trend, will only further dilute the primal appeal of circus.   There are still plenty of risk takers out there to remind audiences of what sets circus apart.  Surely, this is why so many shows owners still carry the double wheel and motorcycle globe.  

THE CHANGING FACE OF CLOWNS

    I'VE A GENERAL IMPRESSION of they're finding renewed acceptance with funny faces more sketchy than thickly made up. It seems to be making a big welcome difference.   Grin, Clown, Grin!  

SHRINERS, RESTART YOUR GOLDEN AGE!

  THEY CAN EASILY get away with domestics. And a few are still getting away with wild, elephants included. These men of good will towards ailing children are fixtures in the community, the best possible link to a circus wishing to keep the animals 

MEMO TO MONTE CARLO & PRINCESS STEPHANIE:

     TOUGHEN UP, LET GO and Bring in Outside Judges, Mandate Gold Clowns only for mechanic-free acts. All of the others can  still qualify for silver, bronze, and tin foil.

YESTERDAY NEVER DIES

     YOU CAN KICK THE SOUL OUT OF CIRCUS, but you can’t kick it out of a kid who loves amusing animals and funny faces making mischief.

GOOD LUCK, 2024!!!

Enter Ballet. Exit Daring-Do. Shunned in Some Countries, Celebrated in Others ... Real Circus Is Not Going Away ...

     CIRCUS, WHATEVER you may wish to believe it means, to some it means the bloody gore of Circus Maximus, where Christians were fed to the lions and chariot races stormed around the hippodrome track.

     TO OTHERS, CIRCUS IS, as so described in my Merriam Webster's dictionary, a show combining   “feats of physical skill, wild animal acts, and performances by clowns” — the form invented by English horse rider Philip Astley over 250 years ago.  

     TO THAT, P.T. BARNUM, teaming up with James. A. Bailey, added his name and rings to call it the Greatest Show on Earth.  One ring or three, it was clearly defined by the three essential elements, listed above.

     SINCE THEN, ANIMAL PROTECTION societies and the creepy clown novels of Stephen King have driven animals and clowns from most of the rings in the U.S. and the UK.  Russia would not bend, and China did not have to, rarely if ever presenting animals or clowns in its acrobatic shows.  Let this put your fears to rest.  

     THUS WERE THE TENT FLAPS thrown wide open to people from ballet and theater, eager to save the old circus from itself – from its vulgar clowning and abused animals, as they would have you believe. To show circus artists how to bow with an overplayed  humility that is false, like ballet gods at the start and end points of their acts.  And on the highest level, to convey “character arcs” as in a play.  Con Colleano of old knew how to dash in, twirl his cape and quickly take to the wire.  How might his passion have been revised into stilted and pretentious through the cirque mills of Montreal?  He and the best of his ilk knew how to shade their acts with choreography, and how not to become a slave to the shading  They we re proud to be circus artists.    

     WHAT THIS LED TO is more ballet (or dance) on the ground, and in the air, more protection with safety wires.  In-between the two intrusions, the edge of circus is being softened to the impotent elegance of a classroom practice session.  How would you feel over the embarrassing spectacle of a group of pole climbing acrobats from China, all wired up?  I saw this on one of the Monte Carlo You Tubes. Yes, Monte Carlo.  Suddenly, mechanics are becoming a widely accepted part of the act.  

    SO ... IS THE CIRCUS ASTLEY  created  approaching its demise? I doubt this, there are too many reasons to enjoy the funny faces and the dancing dogs, etc.  And the evidence out there of this is too overwhelming to believe otherwise.  I am not pipe dreaming in a bubble.  I have You Tube’s insatiable appetite for circus shows on my side.

     RINGLING NO LONGER calls itself a circus, a shocking yet honest deletion.  They are no longer a circus anymore than the Chinese Acrobats are alone a circus They are a show, like Five Fingers is a show.  This is a story whose impact on the still standing real circuses will take time to play out. One thing is certain.  Funny faces are not going away, and neither will performing dogs and seals and horses. They thrive in Russia and parts of Europe, and dare to soldier on over here, as witness the Zoppee Family Circus, which recently played a 80-show stand in Redwood City, CA. Life at its core has a way of going on. 

NEXT: YOU TUBE REVELATIONS

Sunday Morning from Out of the Past: And You Wonder, What Are They Thinking? ...

Rumblings down at the runs, waiting on a circus train from nowhere... Once upon a season they were all in the barn by now -- red wagons in need of fresh red paint, ring curbs for new stars, jacks and stringers for repair ... Now the elephants wait for cues that may never come ... To be or not to be? To perform or not to perform?

Down at the runs, you wonder what Barbara Byrd is thinking. Strange how it should all come down to this -- from a man to a woman, from William Coup adding rings in 1872 to Barbara Byrd being the last to keep three of them in motion under the same canvas. Is she too thinking a single circle, or does she hear the ghost of her dad Dory telling her to stay the American course? ... Down in Florida, what is on Johnny Pugh’s mind? Time to retire? Or time to go for broke in a daring blaze, to reinvest and bring back the band?

A thousand miles down a spur track to a humble dream, a new circus is being formed in somebody’s ambitious mind, and maybe that circus has a crusty old midway to offer the jaded patron in search of the past ... Strange gaudy banner lines in flagrant violation of PC standards ...

... What might Paul Binder be thinking when he notes how long it’s been since he presented either a pachyderm or a flyer? Big Apple opens in the fall when circuses once closed, and closes come summer ... Once upon a season, the white tops slept during winter, awoke in time for early spring and were out in the sunshine chasing after the money that harvests put into farmer’s pockets....

Down by the old ice house where the train once arrived, you can almost hear the sound of a faint whistle up the rails and remember when they clanged into town under the cover of a damp morning mist. When the world was barely born and then suddenly appeared before your eyes under pennants galloping in the wind. And you wonder what Renee Storey is plotting when she considers how PETA gives her employer, Cole Bros. Circus, more publicity and might not be such a bad thing after all? What Kenneth Feld is thinking when he continues pitching the Big Cage act to customers who who evidently still want their circus on the wild side ...

And out in San Francisco, where patrons prefer Perrier over lemonade, ballet over big top, even the nuovo rich are growing restless for a taste of reality. They are taking in a very different version of Cirque du Soleil at the moment, a version called Kooza, and some of them are realizing what they have been missing for more than a season.

“This production feels like a heart-pumping cocaine binge for thrill addicts,” proclaims Nathaniel Eaton in the ultra-liberal S.F. Weekly, coming honest on how “ho hum” he found the three Cirque shows that came before.

Animals? Weren’t they supposed to all be gone by now, asks the Savvy Insider, elsewhere at work on routing and promotions, taking time out to answer his own question. No, says he, animals acts did not go away as planned. In Europe, they “have instead been reinvented” ... And you think how wonderfully ironic, that those uppity Brit Lords, sure of their agenda, paid for a study to prove that elephants are really mistreated at the circus —- a study they proved the very opposite! And down at the runs waiting for a train to pull in, you wonder what the public is thinking now...

Over road maps and sponsor contracts, watching videos of acrobats and jugglers and plotting another season, you wonder what John Ringling North II is thinking ...Bigger and better —- or the same?

Even more fun to ponder is what S.F. Cow Palace big shots, without a circus for two years, may be thinking? ... And you can almost hear a distant train whistle somewhere out there on real rails or in the back of your mind, racing forward with a world of spangled wonders to capture a waffling public restlessly ready to be thrilled by something either very new or very old ... And optimistically, you enjoy remember being told over and over again that history repeats itself ...

Down at the runs, Byrd and Pugh, Feld and Binder and Ringling North and Judkins, and yes, Laliberte the Great reinventing himself, are watching and waiting, too. Maybe wondering what we are thinking

First posted December 7, 2007.

End of the Year, Randomly on Parade: Big Top Bits, Past, Present, and Maybe Future ...

    IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, such as the stack of notes and e-mails too long ignored on a shelf I lazily glance at now and then. But now for each, it’s gloss it or toss it time.  I’m giving these little snatches of sawdust and spangly things one final chance to be something across my loyal 2008 Del Vostro keyboard, to which I am hopelessly attached, using it only for Word Perfect drafts. 

      LET THE GREAT HAROLD RONK blow the first whistle on this impromptu grab bag laid bare.  And let this be the Ronk fondly revealed by Don Covington in an a-mail to me dated September 9, 2016.  It was too too good ever to let languish. Now, finally, it’s up and ready to roll.   Harold, shared Don, became “a vital part of my perception of circus.”  While working on the Big Apple Circus, Don  enjoyed hosting Harold whenever he came out to take in a performance during the Chicago date (yes, they once toured).

     ENGLAND'S BELOVED RINGMASTER, Norman Barrett was one season Big Apple’s man in red. The retired Harold was Big Apple’s red letter patron in the seats, and after the show he approached  Barrett with pleasure.  “I have always wanted to meet you.” Likewise, too, from the other gratefully in return.  Don added Paul Binder to the circle, and Paul recounted how Harold, under Madison Square Garden spotlights, had “epitomized the ideal ringmaster.”  All of which “overwhelmed” Ronk, as Don remembers, the Ronk who by then  wasn’t sure anyone would still remember him.  He spent  the afternoon with Buckles and Barbara Woodcock.  “It was a magical day,” wrote Don.  Ringling’s iconic ringmaster passed away the following year.

 ... I WILL FOREVER RECALL the stoutly commanding figure cut by Ronk for Ringling, the brief and fleeting time it took him, and his smooth soaring voice against a crashing follow spot or two, as if answering its cue, to officially thunder CHILDREN    OF  A L L L L L  AGES !  Never was a circus more blazingly unfurled ... Al Ringling, when once describing the proper decorum of the man with whistle  — “elusive yet vital” --- was describing  the Harold yet to be.  How lucky was I to have lived through his prime.           

     QUAD ROCKETS TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: Next down the stack, from Anonymous (whom I know well),  retelling with relish chapter two of quad mania over Ringling.  Giddy Irvin Feld,  seen here, in 1982 trumpeted the first star to nail the feat, Miguel Vazquez.  Six  seasons later, Feld's son Kenneth added Rueben Caballero, Jr. to the show in a  cynical move to grab more headlines.    Only once did both Miguel and Reuben spin four circles beside each other  — what a spectacle to see! .... The tension between the two and their respective families became so great, that an explosion nearly rocked the Oakland arena, site of a “a massive brawl” backstage, and sent shock waves through the circus grapevine.

     REMEMBERING THE BLOODY OUTCOME,  wrote A,  “Our old friend Marcks hanging around the lot had gotten the juicy details and found it quite humorous that the daughter Veronica (Caballero)  had whacked Miguel in the face, sending him to the hospital.”  A furious Kenneth Feld fired the Caballeros on the spot, but they eventually charmed a flight path back into Feld’s favor ...  Does anybody still do the quad? ...  There was a time when the flying trapeze dominated audience satisfaction.  Fundamental to  fabulous, they were the best way to bring the show to a rousing climax.
   

      ABOUT MY BEST CIRCUS FRIEND EVER, Don Marcks (until we sadly had a wordless falling out), how I valued his company, we were so damn different, hut CIRCUS kept us viably and vividly connected, the phone calls were long, never boring, my visits to his place a frequent journey into another world more strict and settled.  The New England born Don specialized in outward restraint, but he did let go a tad when up close and off the lots, venting his real thoughts on this or that  act. And, as you can see from the above,  he turned discreetly gleeful over backyard drama circling the rumor mills   He loved to ride a juicy disclosure with a backward lift into an almost apologetic giggle.

    FROM MY CAVE MAN SCRIBBLES on a piece of paper, I can now report, that in the higher halls of academically supported circus-type learning (non binary certified, I assume), it is claimed that in every state in this here union there is now at least one circus school.  And what, may I inelegantly ask, do they have to show for themselves?  They now have the example of Circus Jeventas, signed by Cirque du Soliel to serve as a “talent development center” for the Montreal monster ....  This, if anything, will likely produce more fringe circus converts being taught how to give the public a few good circus acts — without the circus.
  
     FROM CIRCUS SCHOOLS THAT MATTER, most of the best ones flourish in communist countries, maybe the harsher atmosphere is more conducive to the demanding discipline needed to produce something more than a few pleasant rollovers on the fluffy fabrics ... Can you spell Russia?  CHINA?  Even the very democratic UK, land of circus invention, has two major teaching centers --- London’s National Center for Circus Arts, and Circommedia in Bristol.  And they're turning out committed young graduates, 93% of whom are still working in circuses three years after graduation. Now, I’d say this calls for one of ringmaster Ronk’s classic  exhortations:  W A T CH    T H E M ! 

 

     BUT HOLD YOUR WHISTLE,  Sir Harold! Most of those graduates are unlikely  to end up under the commercial big tops, reported a valued contributor to this blog, Douglas McPherson,  in an in-depth he wrote on the subject for The Stage.  Here, I am belatedly drawing from his story, safely held in my stack:  “British  circus schools emerged from the ‘new circus’ sector''”  And that, of course, means a kinder gentler circus without cherry pie (raising canvas, peddling popcorn, etc.)  Many of the graduates, notes Douglas, will join up with Cirque du Soleil or Seven Fingers, or Circa, or start up their own  companies.  England’s leading circus lords who value audience size and ticket price still comb eastern Europe and South America for the best talent ... I suspect that Russia and China are iffy these days given international politics ...  

 

     MCPHERSON KEEPS ME IMPRESSIVELY APPRISED  on the sawdust scene his way, such as when he sent me a you tube of the complete performance of a wham bang show, Circus Xtreme --  the surprise highlight of my circus going in 2022, all of which occurred in You Tube land.  Not under a real tent?  How I wanted to take in the ever-lovable Zoppe  Family, but not on the day they played 50 miles north under 90+ degrees inside a tent. I am no longer a kid who walks miles to see a circus while power-snacking on Ding Dongs and Twinkies.  

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST: The passing of a major critical voice in the circus arts was  Ernest Albrecht, who left us this past year, and with him, his thoughtful  magazine Spectacle.  I will miss his voice.  His perspective.  I particularly  enjoyed comparing his reviews against those of the sharp London critic,  Liz Arratoon, when both reviewed  Monte Carlos Circus Festivals.  A double pleasure ... Albrecht’s  last review may have been the one he did of Circus Sarasota, shortly before the outset of Corona, after which he was never heard from again.  He had  many qualms with the show, supposing the producers had drained the bulk of their kitty on two star attractions, with the rest being very ordinary.  Here is one of them:
                                       
     “A JUGGLING ACT CALLED GET THE SHOE never really got very interesting.  While the title of the act suggests something creative and comical, the two young men who work the act are, unfortunately, almost totally lacking  in stage presence ... nothing more than sloppy juggling mixed with marital arts."

    HOW ARC IS YOUR CHARACTER?  Beware what you may wish for: Albrecht covered circuses of all ilk, and was an advocate for what he called the New American Circus in his book of the same name.  To its pages flocked the young, eager to get on with the times.   But, the movement Albrecht  helped give voice and printed page to may have gone too far even for his taste.  He suffered a jaw-dropping discovery in the pages of Circus Talk when one of its more sophisticated reviewers complained about the muddled impression of one performer’s “character  arc.” You did not wish for it to go this far, Ernest?  The term is used in theater. Albrecht became nearly unhinged over the audacity of such an expectation.  And by extension, I'd say,  over how far the “new circus” movement had veered into theater land.  

   

     IN THE GARDEN OF NUCLEAR SNOW CONES:  Perhaps it had to happen, my being reminded of a depressing fact, that out there are shows that hurt rather than help American big tops.  At the top of the list is Garden Bros. Could be Dick or Niles.  It’s still Garden.  Ringmaster and more Tim Tegge, merely chatting about the season with me on the phone, did not exactly intend it that way when marveling over how well their Nuclear Circus is doing. He was awed by the "huge tent, " mighty impressive on the lot, "lit up like a Christmas tree at night." Most enthused about clown Hector Frias.   Music of course recorded. Without a ringmaster,  a rather formless affair with some good-enough acts. "I thought it was OK at best."  

    WHY HAD I NOT HEARD THE WORD Nuclear attached to circus? Perhaps I had, but ran into the word “Garden” and knee-jerk deleted the whole thing ... So ... I checked out reviews on Yelp, dreadfully savage one star slams for the most part. Free kiddie tickets lured parents into “a money pit.” $60 seats, ringside. $12 snow cone jobs, any side.  Pony rides and paint-on faces cheering on the moppets to beg for more. "No ring leader," lamented some.  Dancing dames in thongs sexing up space between acts.  Disgusted parents baling  at intermission.  Some did grant satisfaction with the acts.  Many ranted against animal mistreatment, a horse being whipped.   Okay, let me wrap this here:  This kind of a show does incalculable harm to public perception of the America circus, and it continues to drag down what’s left of it.  And I think the American public at large has been talked into  degrees of indifference or total rejection, possibly unmatched in any other country. Thank you Tim, for the inadvertent reality check. 

      I'M HAVING, OR WAS HAVING so much fun, now I wish there was more.  But there isn’t other than to say — to Don Covington on this side of the pond, Douglas McPherson on the other -- my deepest thanks for the stream of links and news items you send my way.   Thank you, too, Tanbark Titan Tim and  Awesomely Anonymous -- whomever you are, for your insightful comments. I have a new respect for the slush pile, and this next year, I’m letting it grow slushier, fatter, and may do a periodic purge to page, but then, but then ...

    NEXT YEAR SHOULD BE BIG,  at least in the headlines, for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey is coming back, in some form or another. Tim sees a train wreck in the making.  I see Cirque du Soleil on steroids.  Neither of us sees The Greatest Show on Earth.  And You?  Kenneth Feld fired all the animal acts, likely to win a gold medal from PETA.  But he may lose a large and loyal audience base out there that has no problem with dogs and horses and may resent the total absence of a menagerie.  How can you return if it's not you returning?

Let me me wish you all a happy New Year!   

WHY I STILL MISS CIRCUS REPORT:  Like a flickering light in the darkening shadows, it gave us the shows and the write-ups, the obits and those wonderful routes that made every fragile thing still very real ... Like a lone red wagon up streets of indifference, it kept on rolling.  Like the single light bulb raised to illuminate Foley & Burke flat cars down by the old ice house, as  late into the night its ride wagons came rumbling down the runs for their trek out to the fairgrounds ...  The lots grew less crowded, the tents smaller, the parade thinner,  but Circus Report kept that one flickering light aglow.

The Queen and I: A Nation Unified in Peace is a Nation to Respect and Believe in

 My thoughts are with the Brits. And as I watch the coverage, I am moved by a quiet and firmly shared  respect among the thousands along the parade route for what, it feels to me, Queen Elizabeth gave the people every day of her life: the comforting spirit  and symbolism of Continuity.  How eloquently she served that one word.  Maybe the monarchy is earning a renewed respect for its soft maturing power to elevate and lift and render as one, all of the people.

It approaches the majestic and the rhapsodic, and you can see and feel it in their eyes. They are in touch with a higher state of being.

And am I lost in my own  sentimental fabrications?  I know of the  family's dark history.  And of the  recent scandals. And of others likely to come in freshly written books.  Imperfection marks the course of all ruling parties.  I once nearly worshiped JFK. It took years of revelations to deconstruct my fantasy.  He surely made us feel good at the time.

For now, I'm feeling a belief  in the new king.  I think he is off to a remarkable start.

God bless them all.

The Silence of Circus Fans: Why Circus Reviewing Can Get You Banned from the Big Top

 A circus fan's only outlet: Anonymous

From across the big pond, Douglas McPherson responds to a comment I recently made -- “If only circus fans would debate like sports/musical theater fans”

“But why don’t they?” he asks.  “What’s your theory?”

Oh, my, where to begin.  Monograph or sound bite?
                                   
“Circus fans” of the CFA kind are a breed unto themselves.  The CFA was organized to “Fight anything that fights the circus.”   That included by implication negative reviews.  And the fans fell in line.

CFAers in the early days were about the only local contact that circuses  had in many communities.  When adversity struck, the owners were damn well grateful to have a tried and true circus fan around to help defend them.  Some held respected professions.   The last thing any circus needed was a bad review. Especially from an iron-clad supporter of big tops.  Defending the circus to the point of holding back on publicly debating its artistic merit  became a kind of religion.

No Stage Door to Crash

In return for their loyalty, circuses opened their backyards to the fans, and even issued passes to some. Come right in, knock directly on our doors, or tug at our tent flaps. We’d love to see you!  In what other realm of show business can a customer walk right through to the backstage area and knock on a star’s dressing room door, in effect, inviting themselves into their privacy?  You usually get as far as a security man at the Stage Door.

Naturally, in the backyards, enduing friendships  formed, and thus the incestuous relationship between performer and full-access fan.  What fan would dare turn out a negative notice on people whom they consider to be their friends? And if they did, it’s doubtful The White Tops would print it.  For myself, a friend is too important a part of my life to risk losing over an honest review, and so I won’t review their work, but support them in private.  Which is why I long ago stopped going into the backyard.  This position became a mantra for me when I read of the great New York Times theater critic, Brooks Atkinson,  revealing how he avoided socializing with people whose work he might be reviewing.  What perfect sense it made.
                               
Douglas: “I’ve noticed a distinct touchiness among circus owners, who will pick up on the slightest criticism, even within an otherwise positive review”

So have I, although not so much with the owners as with performers and fans.  I could issue a strong positive review overall, but dare to criticize one or two of the acts, and I am Judas Iscariot   A rare piece of hate mail gave me pause to ever consider showing my face anywhere on a certain lot.

                                    The Value of Many Voices 

Were there many reviews for a given show to draw from, any individual review would not be as offensive as it alone can be.  A wide range of opinions is the healthiest option, and such is usually the case in other venues.  Think Rotten Tomatoes.  But not in the circus world.  

Circus owners, I believe, are ill-served by the fans issuing non-stop, one way praise.  Smaller shows can tour for years without ever facing an objective notice. And if they do face harsh criticism, it can be a tough experience to deal with. 

Douglas: “I have been banned from reviewing a couple of circuses.”   

Now, that's extreme. And I am rather smiling at the perverse honor!  I do not know of that ever happening over here.  I can recall the efforts of a fan, long ago, to get press passes from the Ringling show, who was refused.  The reason given was negative coverage the show received from the same magazine, though not by the fan. Coverage that I myself was likely responsible for.  

“I also wonder if circus fans are very small in number. By that, I mean maybe most circus goers don’t consider themselves to be ‘circus fans.’

Right.  Beyond the few thousand hard core American fans out there who remain in lockstep, the  public that will argue over a film, a play, a book, a ballet, rarely takes the time to view circuses critically.  I think the kiddie factor is another softener --- just watching one’s  child take such joy and delight over a mediocre act can win the heart away.

When Candor Crashes Through

So, the owners have been able to minimize critical scrutiny by their hold on the fan magazines. But not always.  In his sharper moments, the late Ernest Albrecht turned out hard-hitting notices in his magazine, Spectacle.  In the pages of  Circus Report, I was refreshingly shocked to see Herb Ueckert now and than turning critical on a few artists for under-par work.  One performer’s irate reaction to a Ueckert review was to claim that only a performer of the same skill was qualified to review another, i.e., jugglers reviewing jugglers!

 Beyond all of this, American press agents loved casting circus day as another (sacred by implication) American holiday. They passed out hordes of free tickets to city editors, and the editors largely went along with the feel-good embracement of circus.  And the ageless delight too often gets a pass when it might have been better served by the sting of honesty.  As my friend Boyi Yuan once said, “a bad review is the best review.”

Carry on, Sir Douglas!
 

Where Is There a Notable Voice for the American Circus, Where?

   

                Over there, they have Princess Stephanie                  

                                                              

     BRIT BIG TOP watcher Douglas McPherson is not a celebrity per say, but as a journalist and author, he enjoys byline access to such major UK outlets as The Stage and The Daily Mail, and thus is able to supply coverage of the circus on his side of the pond, and now throughout Europe. If only we had a McPherson over here, over here ... (can you hear the song rising?)

     IN HIS LATEST report on the subject, McPherson details the tragic plight of Ukrainian circus artists being rescued and given ring time under Brit big tops, and I am once again reminded that, on our side of the Pond, we do not enjoy such serious coverage.  Tis a pity. Observes McPherson in The Stage, “The inherently international circus industry has rallied around its Ukranian colleges”.  He talked to many of the key figures. Among them:
                                   
     PRINCESS STEPHANIE organized a benefit show for Ukraine circus schools at the Princess Grace Theatre in Monte Carlo.  The Ukraine  has 100 circus schools and seven permanent circus buildings, including the formidable National Circus of Ukraine building in Kiev.  How well I know that magnificent old landmark, from reaching it up a sweeping staircase  in 1989, when I visited the USSR on a research mission for my book, Circus Rings Around Russia.

     WE LEARN FROM McPherson’s report of Aussie Jasmine Straga, a director of the World Circus Federation, helping evacuate over 290 circus students from Kiev and Kharkiv, and finding places for them in circus schools in Sweden, France and Germany.  Noted she,  “Circus is very much socially focused and always comes together to help those in need.”

    WHO OR WHAT have we over here to keep circus USA alive in the public’s mind?  Don’t look to major media, fearful of wokeland’s wrath. In days gone by, The Billboard supplied weekly reports on circus business, daring to reveal crowd size estimations.  Variety once sent out three scribes to Madison Square Garden, each to review a separate ring of Ringling!   Life magazine loved photographing the show in its spring New York premieres.  And remember watching top circus acts on  Ed Sullivan’s Sunday night program?  Not to mention Circus of the stars, which first aired in 1977, and for which hundreds of big name celebrities appeared. 

 
  
   NOTABLE FACES in American culture were known for their  love of the big tops, be it the columnist Gabriel Heater, author Ernest Hemingway,  or any number of actors who enjoyed dabbling on the low wire, or juggling a few in early reality shows.

     TODAY? A AND B LIST celebrities rarely associate with U.S. big tops, and are more likely to shun them,  prone to side with, or be bludgeoned by, PETA.

     EVEN THE MAGAZINES are largely missing in action.White Tops down to only four issues a year.  Circus Report called it quits a few years back, and to Don Covington I e-mailed a suggestion that he consider taking over the magazine. He e-mailed back, neither saying yes or no.  Don?

     IRONICALLY, THE ONLY major media voice cheer leading for circus on this side, is actually from the other side, Simon Cowell. On his America’s Got Talent show, Cowell is a fearlessly  unashamed  sucker for the old knife throwing act, a lover of performing dogs. In fact, of many things from the sawdust rings.   I have yet to see a mechanic attached to any of the contestants on AGT. All of which offers compelling evidence that the lure of circus is still a powerful force for average ordinary Americans.

The Olate family dog act blew the judges away on AGT's 7th season and barked off with the million dollar first place prize.
      

SIMON, I BELIEVE, is helping to reestablish respect for what Hemingway called “the ageless delight, by daring to open many shows with circus act teases.  He knows well how to grab and hold a crowd.  And we are lucky to have him, from over there over there.
 
     END RINGERS, following the movements of the still-trouping: Culpepper & Merriweather played an appropriately lovely location, Green River, Wyoming, in early July ... Circus Funtastic rolling through Canadian dates, all of July ...Venardos Circus, “the little circus that could,” is still proving its metal, tenting up through Washington, Colorado, and Texas, North Carolina, wrapping in Florida....Circus Vargas currently entertaining in San Luis Obispo, CA  ... UniverSoul  opened a two-month run at  National Harbor, Maryland ...  The sporadically touring Zoppe Family Circus, when I call, answers yes. they are sill set for Petaluma, CA in August. Cheers to them all!

How to View a Circus When It’s Hardly a Circus? Poking About for What's Left in the Ruins of Ringling .... Take, for Example, Do Portugal Circus

        Nameless juggler and big box illusionist tops a weak bill 

     Going to a circus these days can be like rolling the dice over a sinking ship.

    During her supreme court nomination process, Katanji Brown Jackson was asked to define “woman,” She could not.  Or would not, more likely.  Yes, believe it.   More than ever, some of the most basic yet critical words are being  ignored or twisted into meaningless  mush: Objectivity, monogamy, gender, among the most fractious.    

       And so to the word Circus:  There is a definition upon which most of us, I believe, can agree: A variety show (preferably) in a ring featuring acrobats, clowns and animals.  These tepid days, I am keeping those three staples in mind whenever I step under canvas to take in another promise of “circus.”      

     At another show out of Mexico throwing up allusions to a more exotic land, called Do Portugal Circus, it offered to a gratefully responsive crowd heavily stacked with kids: no animals, few action-acrobatic acts, too much pointless dancing by four girls who start the show (Hello! The circus, anyone?), and a clown who clung to the ring as if he could have clung-clowned all night.  His self-satisfaction was not shared by everyone. 

      Overall, the number of motorbikes in the big “cage of death” fairly well sums up Portugal’s meager spread of talent: two.  Nothing bad, all very okay basic. 

      On balance,  however, the whole affair left the three adults and a bright sixteen year old in my party more amused in recalling how big a let down the whole thing was. A very merry ride back home was had by all.  For myself, I’d give five stars  to a ring redeemer in the terrific juggling and, later, big box illusions, of a showmanly young man whose name does not appear on Portagul's  bare-bones website.  My kin liked the elaborate multiple bow-and-arrow shoot out, too complicated to try describing.

                Classy Top, Comfy Chairs

     The tent was the most impressive thing of all, not small, with solid seating.  Add to that, a good half house full.  Lights flashed.  . The emphatic sound system pumped out woozy modern-sounding pop, loud enough to keep everybody awake. An inconspicuous ring-mistress made a few token appearances, mostly to urge customers to tweet up the show to friends.  Consumer reviews for Do Portagul, assuming they are to be believed, are boffo.  Perhaps Circus Talk can find some worthy character arcs in these generally slow turns. 

     And what might all of this really matter to the adults in the tent the next morning?  It matters if they are going away thinking, as my great nephew Noah did, that it was “really for children.”  Was the Greatest Show on Earth really just for children?

     Our twilight American midway grows smaller, the crowds younger.  And the shows hobble on in the shreds of a long-gone brilliance.  Astley’s great gift is virtually extinct over here.

END RINGERS: Do Portugal,which we caught in Harrisonburg, VA, appears to have several units. Who knows, they might sometimes put out a very good performance.  Website is devoid of photos.  In Culpeper VA,  there awaiting my train back to the state or inanity, we discovered a Zoppe flyer in a store window.  This family of charmers had been there only days earlier! Zoppe’s few dates are spread far apart across the country.  They will be out my way, in Petaluma, come August.  And once again, I will embark upon a midway with incurable dreams.

The Impresario Enters ...

From 2008 ...

Golden find:  Included here are opening night notes from John Ringling North to his creative staff in 1951

Only he can silence a room. Only he can still the ego of others. The abrasive choreographer ... the overbearing set designer ... the prickly composer — they all suddenly turn silent when HE enters ... They all bow to him, for he is the ultimate arbitrator of what they will do. He is the studio mogul, the stage impresario, the big top king. The audience of audiences.

In the riveting brilliance of the British film masterpiece The Red Shoes, He is Boris Lermontov, played by Austrian actor Anton Walbrook. They all talk of him, wait for him to appear, take their cues from his wishes. Walbrook (who, in real life, broke from a circus family to pursue acting) teaches us perhaps everything there is to know about the importance of that one looming figure whose demanding vision lights the path that all of the rest must follow. Many years ago, perhaps that figure was Nate Salsbury, who produced Black America , a spectacular touring exhibition celebrating “Negro life and character,” now profiled in the current issue of Bandwagon. Maybe he was once a young Al Ringling who lured his brothers into a legendary showbiz dynasty unrivaled in its time.

Today, he surely is Guy Laliberte, Cirque du Soleil’s founding force whose creative drive powers an operation of almost unprecedented contemporary splendor and world-wide success ...
Who else in modern times had it? I will surprise you, perhaps, by suggesting — even though he did not exactly dress for the part — that maybe Cliff Vargas had it, however crudely, however fleetingly. Maybe that is the reason why he remains so profoundly respected by, it seems, everyone under the big top

When I was barely 8 years old, I went with some kids to see The Red Shoes at the Roxie movie house in Santa Rosa, and I would remember only a cinematic image of a make-believe world anchored to selfless discipline. Those days, my mother mopped up and dusted the dance studio of one Dinah Selby, so that my sister, Kathy, could take tap lessons. There, I sometimes felt a certain magic in the air... Girls danced on pointe and, in their dedication to a difficult art, I sensed there was something more to life than baseball and Lionel train sets.

Watching The Red Shoes in recent times (the other night on TCM), I marvel at its depiction of the same world, only now I find myself even more mesmerized by the figure of the dashing and demanding Anton Walbrook, who seems so hauntingly real to me in his relentless hunger for artistic exaltation. He is not a merchant. Not a cast-couching lout. He is the producer of great performances. He is the true impresario.

In Lermontov, I can see shades of John Ringling North — the impeccably attired, elusive mogul assuming a position above it all. North must have known what an impresario can do for the circus. If his uncles gave the show the respect of a family operation, North gave it the flamboyance of one man’s superior vision. Like most entrepreneurs, he did not direct or design. More often, they inspire. Badger. Hold out. Expect. Push. Insist. Even dream, sometimes madly ...

Now at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, where at long last the long-guarded Ringling-Barnum Archives have been opened to the public, there are a couple of stunning documents written in North’s own handwriting. These two discoveries open wide a window into the emotions of a man who rarely revealed his innermost thoughts on the subject of producing. In his own handwriting, we can witness him boldly issuing notes on the 1951 show after it had just opened. There is a lot of the bluntness of a Lertmontov in them: “Sammy Grossman, arrange Veronica Martel so it will be perfection. Doug Morris, give her perfect lighting. This is a new star with a magnetic personality.”

And more, of which .. “As of today, I demand that all acts finish their numbers together and any feuds as such will engage themselves for mortal combat outside of the circus arena.” Lermontov? Walbrook?

Here is my favorite picture of the mysterious Mr. North, who strangely almost never attended any of the circuses he produced once they passed through dress rehearsal and onto opening night. So tentative, standing there all alone at the edge of the Paris opening during the European tour. Insecure about his own work? Not quite sold on the result? Holding out still for something he knows he may never achieve? Waiting, still, perhaps, for his own elusive Lermontov masterpiece?

[photos, above: Anton Walbrook in The Red Shoes; Guy Laliberte; Cliff Vargas; John Ringling North, in Business Week, October 12, 1963)

First posted February 14, 2008

The Morning Midway: Women Now Dominate in College and Other Fields -- And the Circus, Too? ...

On the news, woman outnumbering men in halls of higher learning by as much as 60 to 40%  ... Men being squeezed down to a softer breed, and some are retreating.  Shamed into defaulting down to the kind of work they are better endowed to do, and giving up on the old B/A degree.  

Situation so dire, that some colleges are actively trying to lure them back ----the very opposite of what it was thirty or forty years ago when the drive was tto get more girls on a career path. Do you remember "bring your daughter to work day"?

Might there now be a bring your son to work day?

The circus has been ridiculed and shamed too, off the lots by the culture of deconstruction.

Under the big tops in heydays gone by, women held their own in the rings, despite modern day feminism, rampantly alive in San Francisco, arguing blatant bias.  So little do they know or care to know about the real world of the circus.  Modern distortions in fact are gobbled up by a brain dead media that has little interest and sees only a quaint relic of another time too out of sync with today.

And, thus has the circus suffered from a distaff side increasingly louder against animals acts, even those creepy clowns, more critical by implication of the circus's raw connection to reality. For an irretrievable past, read The White Tops. For an unworkable future, read Circus Talk.

Only when the nation pushes back, only when the American people come to their better senses and take on the Woke crowd, will the circus, too, have a chance to be what it once was -- like so many other things that have been hounded and harassed into the shadows of a new world disorder, where store fronts now feature plywood rather than glass.

Other than that in your way, do have a nice day!