ceo fired

When I learned last year that Scott O'Donnell had resigned his CEO post at Circus World (it sounded more like he'd been eased out), it did not make any sense at all, so I thought of the decks being cleared for a big name in the museum's history.  One name that came to mind:

Parkinson.

I was half way there. The other half?

Julie.

Down the Covington Chute comes a press release from Circus World:

"Following a national recruitment, the Wisconsin Historical Society is pleased to welcome Julie Parkinson as the new site director for Circus World in Baraboo."

I wonder how really really hard a time they had in reaching this decision? 

In my year end wrap, I had written about O'Donnell: "A big big loss in my outsider opinion.  A new CEO yet to be named.  The selection might tell us about the split.  Watch for a big name insider."

Sadly, it all makes sense.  Entitlement rules the day. 

MIDWAY FLASH! MIDWAY FLASH! Scott O'Donnell to Leave Circus World ... Dave Salutos, Another Exit ..

from 8.28.24

updated: 9:21 AM

The sudden exit of CEO Scott O'Donnell from the ringmaster's desk at Circus World took me by total surprise.

News of his exit came through a Don Covington link.  Naturally my first thoughts where, why? Had he been let go?  So I called CW this morning, to inquire, and they put me through to Scott, which marked the first time we have ever spoken. 

Was it his decision, I asked him?

Yes, he answered. 

Why?

He said he does not share a new vision held by  the state government, which now owns Circus World Museum. For most of its  existence, CW operated as a virtual private enterprise.  But that changed about four years ago, when the Wisconsin State Historical Society came in with much needed funding and assumed  greater control.   Evidently, they now want more power at the Top.  Or were they hoping to effect a "resignation"?

Momentous achievements on the job, not good enough?  A press release from Circus World overflows in citing O'Donnell's "countless transformative contributions," including preservation of Ringlingville, creation of a master plan "that will enhance the visitor experience for generations to come," and the "driving force" behind the Society's acquisition of the Al Ringling Theatre.  This and more, in but eleven seasons?  Something is wrong with this picture.   

I asked Scott if he will miss being there, and his answer sounded more like one reluctantly leaving.

"I put my heart and soul into Circus World" he answered. Clearly, as I heard him speak, the job meant a great deal to him, and yet he is leaving without rancor, ready for an "encore" somewhere else.

Scott's departure will be in tandem with Dave Salutos, who is  retiring at the end of the current season, following a 40 year run.  Ominously, this adds another layer of implicit intrigue to a back story.

Sheer speculation on my part, we may find out what was really going on when we learn who will next assume the CEO desk.

There are some things in life that just don't make sense.  This feels like one of them to me.

 Sad to see you go, Scott. 

posted 8.28.24

Wrapping 2024: Ringling Self-Reviews ... Cirque du Soleil Swallows Ballet ... Marcks and Mechanics, Kellner and Zoppe and Ring of Fame Plaques ... Doggies from Shelters, So No PETA Cracks!

             CIRCUS SPRINGS ETERNAL,  does it not?  A clump of papers, e-mails and notes before me, ignored or kept back in a gathering year-long stack, promise some kind of attention ahead, as I ramble through them before the current season goes bye bye into the barn ... After a rough shuffle, here is what randomly I face, from the top ..

            “A WEIRD AND WONDERFUL LIFE” for the  Zoppe Family, headlined a 2022 story from Redwood City’s On Line,  Dan Brown, profiling the old world Zoppes, with a focus on the current Zoppe leading the zip, Giovanni. They are doggedly old tradition, circa1842, all except for not using candles.  Why not? Answered Giovanni’s wife and marketing director Jeanette Prince, to Brown:  “Only because the fire marshal won’t allow it!” In the tent photo, above.     

   SCOTT O'DONNELL,  Circus World’s departing CEO, letting go of having to deal with its new bureaucratic owners, the Wisconsin Historical Society, as he tactfully implied to me when I called him.  An undercurrent of acute disappointment came through ... A big big loss in my outsider opinion.  A new CEO yet to be named.  The selection might tell us about the split.  Watch for a big name insider.

         COME ALIVE! ... Staying closer to  vintage sawdust, the new musical in London town, Come Alive!  The Greatest  Showman, is drawing boffo notices and luring good crowds to  its little 700-seat big top .. . Seems that the parade flies highest  on songs and acts, lowest when stumbling through inane story telling nonsense: Whoever went to a circus for this?  Memo to theatre snobs of increasingly idiotic irrelevance:  Out, damn dramaturgs, out!

           SID KELLNER WAS SOMEBODY ONCE   His brief reign as big top tycoon with James Bros Circus, founded with a popcorn machine in the 1950s, left some of us forever enamored of what he might have been.  Among them, Don Macks and Alex Smith, the later  recalling for me the day at Bentley Bros Circus in Vallejo, 1989, when Sid was guest of honor.  Chester Cable  "gave  great stories about Sid, wrote Alex.   "He was a handful," added Winni McKay.  I can relate, having toiled for King Kellner, and yet still miss his him to this day.
   
           GIVING NEW RINGLING A RAVE  While major media refused to review the circus that dare not speak its name,  in effect letting it review itself to Q&A reporters, a few others  fearlessly filled in the void.  London’s front line circus watcher and critic Douglas McPherson issued golden accolades, impressively noting the absence of many Cirque things that some of us, myself among the doubters, expected to see.  “Ringling has not switched camps.  There is no story line here, no theme, no message, no attempt to dress circus up as art.”

         SO HOW NEW OR NOVEL IS IT?  “It’s a traditional circus,  perhaps we should say New Traditional," opines Douglas.  I like that, although “new” is still being mostly met by an avalanche of unhappy Yelp Reviewers, wanting nothing to do with a sterile makeover.   I’d guess there’s a younger crowd ready to be entertained, and  that, given ticket and concession pries, the Feld of Felds may be cleaning up, ho ho.  Show has dates lined  up into spring.

       “WITH THE GREATEST OF EASE,” we once sang of the daring young man flying high. That word ease, and example of which -- Belmonte Cristiani, above, long ago -- feels more  meaningful to me now, as the ageless delight is more and more strapped to mechanics (lifelines, kids).  An abundance of unprotected ease charmed my heart while watching one of my favorite DVDs, highlights of the Ringling show as broadcast in 1968.  Then to my eyes, ease was more noticeable than now. Ease in the landings.  Ease in the connections. And why might that be? 

        THE PERILS OF SHUNNING PERIL  Could it be that performers in a circus without mechanics  are driven out of fear to perform  more cleanly so as NOT to risk a fall?   Oh, how softer the landings, how crisper the connections back then, before Soviet Circus era safety wire precautions invaded and practically emasculated  the rings.  Oh, how majestic the artistry!  Even Charlie Bauman, such a gracious showman, held court among his chummy tiger friends  with the greatest of ease!

           PRAY FOR  THE RING OF FAME PLAQUES  Many were attacked by  recent storms, leaving them smeared and cracked.  An update down the Covington Chute from the Circus Ring of Fame Foundation, tells of a dire outcome for 160 plus plaques  to be   “pressure washed.” The damage of each will be assessed for restoration treatment, expected  to go well into 2025.  A sad tale.

         HAS THAT ACT A NAME?   Increasing frustration, pulling up a website and wishing to see photos and names of the acts.   You might find photos with no names, or you might find nothing.  Here are three shows that deny us the obvious:  UniverSoul, Royal Hanneford, and Zoppe.  I understand this annoyance is also offered Brit fans by some of the circuses over over there. 

         AND OVER THERE IN BRIT LAND, the lions aren't roaring any more than they are over here, and  most big tops leave four legged critters out of the lineup.  Doggie stars everywhere should go on strike!    Has anybody heard of The National Dog Show?  Slowly, some of our more timidly produced shows are daring to reboot canine capers.  Big Apple Circus  brought back a pack of them to its recent Lincoln center opus. all only because, of course of course, yes, yes, okay they were  “rescued from dog shelters.”    Below, the three human fountains on Big Apple -- a knockout.

       CIRQUE DU YOU TUBE  Circuses near and far are never far away on You Tube, and that’s an armchair luxury.  Cirque du Soleil on the comeback trail is putting out one hour compilations of acts from three of its shows, and what a leap from where they were when last I saw them.  Now what I behold is  the most  persuasive merge yet of circus and ballet.  And I thought it couldn’t be done.  There’s even a fake animal on  the bill.  Really, rebranding is in order: Cirque du Ballet –  Eye Candy Acrobatics.  Would two hours of what I saw hold me?  Not so sure, the artistry seemed on the fundamental side, the acts maybe Montreal made. There latest opus, ECHO, a $30 million baby three years in the womb, is drawing wildly mixed notices, the negatives impatient with opulently obtuse narrative nonsense. Below, oh by gosh by golly, a fake horse -- out of desperation?

          BILLION DOLLAR BIG TOP  Per Fortune Magazine last April, though Cirque’s attendance is up from from pre-Covid levels  (sales then dwindling), they “remained saddled” with half a billion-plus in debt. No longer much of a fan, yet I rue, driven by the mesmerizing eye candy alone,  not having seen them when they were in San Jose recently. You Tube images are shimmering, bodies flying and floating over and around each other through staple acrobatics.  Yelp reviews reveal a growing number of people growing tired of it all. 

           DOWN THE LANE OF TALBURT  A late-breaking entry,  inspired by watching on You Tube a video he took of the wining Beatty-Cole performance in 1993, this is to acknowledge his great visual  contributions  to American circus history.  I am watching all the acts, clearly filmed, unlike so many videos taken by patrons from a fixed location, behind poles and patrons passing. Such a pleasure.   Thank you, Santa Lane!

       A TELLING VOICE I WILL MISS:  The passing  of Bill Taggart at 94,  a prime contributor to my coverage of the last days of Ringling under canvas in 1956, as profiled in my book Fall of the Big Top.  His days  on the Big Show in the yellow ticket wagon involved show-sanctioned short changing, a rather shocking  reality he made known to me and  in articles he wrote. He also shared with  me a disclosure on John Ringling North's personal proclivities, hard to believe, but then backed away and asked me not to repeat them. Maybe more on this in the coming year.

            RARE VALIDATION AT CAMBRIDGE A smiling cross-pond discovery this past year that my first book, Behind the Big Top, originally published by A.S. Barnes Over Here, the Tantiviy Press Over there, was published  an online in 2009 by Cambridge University Press.  A cap and gown for me?  I  had felt honored that the book was was reviewed by  circus connoisseur par excellence,  Antony Hippisley Coxe, excerpts of which appear at the top of the book's listing.   These seem to include only his  warmly affirmative words, not his extensive criticisms of incredibly inept editing and sloppy research on my part, all justly held.  I look forward to re-reading  Coxe's  wonderful 1951 A Seat at the Circus.

        STILL MISSING CIRCUS REPORT   The nice lady e-mailing her pleasure over the fist of seven posts I did on Circus Report founder and long time publisher, Don Marcks (she was a part of his variety shows), and anxiously waiting for more to come, and then, when more came, going silent thereafter.  Did I err in showing his more human side, such as a marriage quietly annulled?  Many of us still rue the absence of Don's labor of love, Jim Royal among them: "In those pre-internet days, Mr. Marcks provided a very valuable service to our industry." Were Don alive today, I have no doubt that he would be putting out CR online.

       LET THE FIFTIES PROUDLY PARADE!  Let me send you off whistling up a long long list of circuses touring these shores in the year 1959, as provided by John Swan’s The Circus Review.   You might be as amazed as was I, coming  across this by accident.  And who was the idiot quoted on Pledge Break Society’s (PBS) intolerably sloppy documentary, Circus, clamming that Ed Sullivan "killed the circus" in the the 1950s?  Here are all the circuses he did not kill.

Humbug!

UNDER-CANVAS CIRCUSES

Adams Bros. & Sell Circus.
Beers Barnes Circus
Carson & Barnes Circus
Cristiani Bros. Circus
Clyde Betty & Cole Bros Circus
Famous Cole Circus
Garden Bros. Circus
Hunt Bros Circus
Hagen Bros. Circus
King Bros Circus
Kelly-Morris Circus
Mills Bros. Circus
All G. Kelly & Mile Bros circus
John Strong Circus
Sello Bros Circus

INDOORS, BALL PARK CIRCUSES

All American Circus
Bailey Bros Circus
Clyde Bros Circus
Circorama
Dobritch Circus
Orrin Davenport Circus’
Don Francisco Circus
Faabian’s circus
Gil Gray Circus
Gene Holter Wild Animal Circus
Garden Bros, Circus
Hamid-Morton circus
Harold Bros Circus
James Bros. Circs
Polack Bros Circus
Rudy Bros Circus
Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus
Tom Packs Circus

The billowing big tops remain a world unto themselves, operating slightly on the edge of mainstream society and culture. And may they remaini that way – exotic to robotic, real or fake, candles or no.

Keep your cards and e-mails coming. You never know what might appear here next December 31. I am not so prone now to carelessly throw stuff away.  In fact, if the stack warrants, I might do a mid-year catch up in '25.

HAVE A HAPPY SNAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Two Phone Calls, One About Scott O'Donnell Leaving Circus World, the Other About Ringling Crowd Sizes in L.A.

Sometimes today when we are drowning in AI, bots, and even the "Operator" no longer being there,it is possible to get through.  I just start dialing numbers, hoping that one will still work, better yet, might deliver me to a living human being from the age of He and She.

FIRST CALL: Why did  CEO Scott O'Donnell, as the official story goes, which he confirmed when I reached him by phone, "resign" from circus world?  Scott would only say that he and his overlords (aka: Wisconsin Historical Society) did not share the same vision for the future.

So, dialing for balance by reaching out to WHS and leaving  messages with, among others, Colleen in Media Relations, she did return my call!  I asked her if she could explain how they had come to loggerheads. She promised to consult with others and get back to me.  This she did, but with not a single word answering my specific query.  She sent me the same press release that I already had, which  I quoted from in the story I earlier  posted.  An expert in the ways of the business world might be able to decode this, but I am not going there. 

SECOND CALL:  To Crypto Center (previously Staples) in L.A, about Ringling's recent three day stop there.  To the guy, Lewis, who answered the phone, I said that I was hoping to get an estimation from them of the average number of customers in the seats per performance.  He did not waste an empty second in evasion or passing the buck, but answered: "Between six and eight thousand." The arena seats 20.000. 

Would that have been a disappointment to Crypto, I asked my source.  "No," he replied. 

You can look at the figure in two ways:  What a flop!  Not even half houses!

Or, you can look at the figure in context.  Is there another circus out there anywhere in the world that draws that number of bodies in the seats?

EYES ON THE SCENE: And how did Ringling show?  I have a deep state source who was on the scene and noted that the ends of the arena were blocked out.  Pyrotechnics "were greatly reduced" and the large overhead screens were not in use.The show, he reported, was a "scaled" down version of what he had seen at an earlier date months ago, which amounted to him as a "thinning of the herd." (I like that) For example, an Ethiopian father and son foot juggling was not on the bill.  Some of those in his party, he noted,  were critical of the show, but he stood by the excellent review he had given the show when he saw it earlier in the season.

End of on-the-ground reporting the older fashioned way.

TO CIRCUS OR NOT TO CIRCUS? ... BARABOO AFFIRMS ... RINGLING RETREATS ...

"That's not the circus I grew up in and not how I want to carry on" 

 -- John Ringling North II, to The Oklahoman in 2017, referring to circuses without animals on his decision to leave Kelly Miller.   

***updated 10.9 

Two major big tops recently passed each other going in opposite directions.  One was holding its own, honoring the roots of circus. The other, having given up on itself, was following instead a road to Montreal in a final act of self-annihilation.      

First, to Baraboo.  I recently read of Circus World retiring its two elephants for good, no surprise.  A little sad, yes. But sad turned to glad when I read this from its pied piper-in-chief, Scott O’Donnell,  above, that: “Circus World will continue to have equine acts, as it did this past season. Future animal act options include cows, pigs, dogs, cats, zebras, camels and other animal stars awaiting their turn in the center ring.”

YES! You warmed my heart, Scott.  In my book, what you are doing defines a reasonable road to preserving one of the key elements of true circus, and why some shows, like UinverSoul and Royal Henneford, still daringly feature them — PETA haters and media morons be damned.

Another gift from Baraboo, by way of Greg DeSAnto at his International Circus Hall of Fame and Research Center, itself now back in full giggle mode, is the return of the late Pat Cashin’s Clown Alley blog. Best of all,  they’ve handed the steering of it to board member Steve Copeland.  Great News.  I have missed Steve’s blogging when he clowned on John Ringling North II’s Kelly Miller Circus. His was a big part of what is now seeming to feel like our newest good old times — the last days of Ringling and Cole and Binder’s Big Apple, of Carson and Barnes and Kelly Miller. And of so many blogs then on parade.

Steve’s blogging was full of emotion and revealing, and his boss had no problem allowing the day to day details of trouping, as he reported them.  I am hoping that Steve will re-charge, re-boot, and revive the best of himself to regale us once more.  Surely, he should have much to say about the state of clowning today.  

Okay, onto the state of circus in America today.  To the new “Greatest Show on Earth,” which no longer calls itself a circus — give them credit for honesty in advertising. No clowns. No Animals.  No Ringmaster. Breathtaking.  Covington Connected, I linked onto a 27 minute sampler of action, put out by Ringling. Here are my first raw impressions, based on those 27 minutes and 27 minutes only. Taking in the full spread may be a totally different affair. Nor do I have any idea how this stream may have been edited. And, of course, I may have missed what others give higher marks to.

It’s visually stunning, with set pieces changing colors, brilliant costume design and lighting effects. Overhead LED screens strike me as lamely superfluous  I did not feel the “immersive” experience  promised by Juliet Feld.  Sometimes there is more than one act in motion, conjuring up the old 3-ring mystique. The action is well paced (or well edited in this video), solid and sufficiently pleasing, without for the most part and to my great surprise, being remarkable.  I could usually count on Ringling for a few world class acts. I can see at least two here --- One in a photo on the show’s website of an ensemble Mongolian  three-high jump roping act that looks sensational.  Another to follow shortly.

 *** And since posting this, a few others not wishing to be identified have sent me videos I did not see.  There is too little of a high wire act to comment on.  Another is  the Flying Caceres cross-trapeze act:  Notwithstanding the excellent work of the individual flyers,  on balance the concept itself comes off as something of a long drawn out fizzle, and I can see why it was not included on the 27-minute sampler. 

This mostly ground-bound edition sells gusto over substance.  Casting and springboard send offs destined to land on large pads yield the strongest response.   Contortion in various forms are all on the slow side and quite respectable.  Juggling with fire is basic, there’s flashy foot stomping gaucho dancing.  Youthful extreme bike riders up and down ramps struck me as not very daring for the sport — complexity is in short supply here, especially given Feld’s touting having scouted the world over and over again for the very best. (Maybe the very best did not want to sign.)  Second big moment: Hands down, the big star was our own Wesley Williams on his sky high unicycle. The kid is finally getting a big national audience he has long deserved.  I overheard a smitten young girl chanting “Wesley! Wesley! Wesley!"over and over.

A moody musical score, some of it sung,  is vaguely unmemorable. And no wonder, turns out it was taped!  Good grief, no band, too?  This ringmaster-less, carefully controlled production, smooth as a Swiss watch, could use a little more humanity. Overall, there is a slightly cold and impersonal feel to the long-awaited rollout, all of which, in the abstract, can have the effect of dwarfing the performers.

In a supreme act of irony, the most down-to-earth, older fashioned circus moment comes in the famished figure of a scroungy little dog, down to the bones, as if having side-walled it into the show, lonely to be a part of it again and desperate to show what smart little doggies can really do. But our mutt is not a real mutt. Our mutt is a robot.  As poignant as it is hypocritical, the "dog" it is said to be stirring a controversy, and it may only remind audiences of what is not there and make them ask, why?  Yes, Mr. Feld, why?

Cutting through all the mumbo jumbo talk about intense creative deliberations (if only they could have channeled in Aristotle), I think what Kenneth Feld was all about was producing the perfect fit for his existing Disney mice-on-ice audience base, and here he may strike gold —  now without the antagonists mucking up  the midway.  He might have taken other less profitable routes to preserve the circus.  He might have led the way.

 

 

 John II's Kelly Miller in 2015

Returning to the words of John Ringling North II quoted above, I think of being taken delightufly aback by that  robotic dog stirring up such a fuss, and remember the last Ringling “circus” I saw, back in 2017. Four of its acts perpetually live on in my memory:  The magnificent lion and tiger act of Alexander Lacey, possibly the greatest display of its kind that I have ever seen;  the flying Tunizianis completing two perfect triples simultaneously; thundering horse riders from Mongolia; and a barnyard pig — another Lacey offering –  sliding down a slide and bringing down the house.       

Now, that was a circus.  That was  the Greatest Show on Earth.  Goodbye, Big Bertha, goodbye. 

Believe in Baraboo: Summer Season Promises Perky Circus Show ... Town's Charms, A Haven From Woke Insanity ... What More Could You Ask For? ...

 LONG LIVE the spirit of the Ringling brothers in this utterly enchanting burg. How I wish Lyft could whisk me there in an hour or so. Just thinking about Ringlingville puts me back in a comfort zone far removed from the social garbage and coddled lunatics across the bay. Barnum could not compete with what now passes for cutting-edge life in San FranFreako. That word woke. I HATE it.

CIRCUS WORLD is making a big little splash-back come June.  I’ve pre-screened one of the acts, and can promise you a slice of gold. 

  Was there ever a more beautiful circus wagon?

PIPES RINGMASTER-IN-CHIEF Scott O’Donnell, who is becoming an enduring staple of stability, expect two daily shows under the big top, at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.  And expect sideshow features, such as the Be a Clown performance, a guided wagon tour, and the Antique Musical Instrument Show.

OF COURSES, you’ll have possibly the largest collection in the world of red wagons, photographs and old souvenirs to get blissfully lost in.  Never has the past felt so much better than the present.  BTW: My mask is off!

Hurricane Hungarian Jugglers, Viki and Richie Zsilak 

 

ABOUT THE RING show O’Donnell & Co. are cooking up,  I can tell you this. I watched something new to my eyes: T.J Howell’s multi-bike acts (from zig-zag uni-wheel down to quarter-inch scale, a riot) and was shortly-in captivated by the guy’s zippy showmanship, his amusing dexterity and the way he BUILDS the act.  It’s all there.

TOP OF MY WISH list, Scott: Please be the one to RESURRECT the old Foley & Burke Thimble Theatre fun house, which was sent your way decades ago, and for all I know, may still be withering if not shamefully rotting away in the back area under a flimsy roof.  Is it there? Are you going to EVER give it its due? How many friggen wagon wheels must you re-spin before you honor a magnificent carnival attraction that those before you legally accepted?  I hereby offer to make you out a check for one-thousand dollars when I step up to buy a ticket to the Thimble Theater at Circus World.  One thousand dollars.  

Will somebody please rush this post to Scott. ...  Hello? ...  Hello? ... Anybody there? ... I thought I heard .... hello?

Sorry about that. I had better put my mask back on. 

 Now in the works: My re-review of the book Queen of the Air

Circusing Into 2020: As Big Tops Topple, Museums & Movies Keep the Ageless Delight Half-a Delight.... The House of Ringling Stirs Again! ... Could It Be? ..

Originally posted on January 7 

So, why don't we begin the new year on a high note?

BACK TO BARABOO: On good news we lift off.  Ringlinglville spreading its rebounding glories in a glorious 8-sheet brochure, bright and cheery.  Next summer’s non-PC show to be themed, Go West.  Among the rootin’ tootin’ returnees, barnyard magician Jenny Vidbel promising another zany menagerie, including (but not limited to, please) horses, pones, dogs, goats, and two steers. No pig, Jenny? And what about that snippy skunk?   ... “We never know exactly what’s coming until she is here and unloading it,” chirps ringmaster Dave SaLoutos ... Half-white face clowning by goofball reliables Copeland and Combs, heading to Amsterdam for end-of-the year rollick at Wereldkerstcircus, holding court at Circus World for another summer season.  Don’t you just love their ambitious sprits?

CIRCUS WORLD’S  Piper-in-Chief Scott O’Donnell, talking up rising attendance, affirming the “majesty and beauty through the elephants and tigers that shared our summer,” dropping hints of  “live circus performances year around..” ...  New exhibits planned.  More ailing wagons readied for rehab. ((Is my beloved Foley & Burke fun house wagon still rotting away in the nether regions of criminal neglect? )  For me, Baraboo is a dream town, and how I wish Amtrak rumbled through...Does anybody know if  the lady in the grand Victorian still rent rooms, complete with visiting bats, and for breakfast, serves up a Ringling spec of a feast?
.

BIG APPLE DREAMS NEVER DIE -- not yet. Post Binder and Christensen, they took the good doctor, Neil Khranvatz, on a rescue ride as mover and shaker — the press bought it --- a ride that lasted but maybe a season and a half.  Into replace the doc came rock-the-tent lawyer Gregg Walker, who’s high on upscale cuisine and a more spicy performance.  He’s cooked up what looks like a good show, and seasoned it with dabs of sleaze and sass. Will mom and dad resist?  Will younger singles and duos take the bait?  I am waiting for the show to play Cunningham Park in May, with or without innuendo.   

CAPTURED, FRACTURED on cinema.  I settled down for another look at the PBS Circus in reruns..   So much brilliant footage to die for, but to muddle through for?  Opens up wondrously, then too soon takes us back in time,  NOT to Philly l792 where the circus in this country started out, but to New York, 1843, site of Barnum’s Museum.  And they can’t let go of Mr. Barnum.   Barnum.  Barnum.  Barnum forever.  Pardon me!  HELLO! That was a bloody freak and oddities show he had up and running. NOT a circus!  Knowing what other agitations lay ahead in this ill-conceived, half-baked tribute that ends up giving up in the most lame fashion in Pittsburgh, 1956, blaming the end of circus on Ed Sullivan,  I tuned out, and, yes okay, I am wasting your time already. Let’s spin a little cotton candy.

CIRCUS IS WHERE YOU FIND IT!  These gloomy days, circus artists, struggling to land  gigs, are finding work in the most unlikely places, concert hall to half-time at football games.  The latter venue conquered with grace, stamina and charm by acrobat Christian Stolinev and Percy, his 7-year-old Mexican born golden Chihuahua. The duo logging in more than 200 shows at pro and college games since 2013.  Percy knocks ‘em dead. “He’s definitely the star,” says Christian, giving his partner credit for the half time payoffs ... Let’s hang the true magic of circus on that little dog, who, midway in Christian’s workout, pops out of a box on onto Christian and stays loyally  upright during his master’s handstands.

FELDISHLY FAITHFUL:  Fallen circus king, Kenneth Feld, in his own words, from the doc he produced about the show’s final days: “Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey will live and at some point in time Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey will reappear, and it will be quite different. It will set the standard for the time and for the future.” Chills   down    my    spine ... This I know. This man CAN be brilliant, CAN adapt, CAN pull in crowds larger than any other top out there on the planet, CDS included,  and HAS millions in chump change to play with.  So, how about it, House of Ringling?  I am in your face, Feld of Felds:  MAKE MY BLOG.

How’s that for a wrap?  Until that magic day, circus is where you find it, so go out and look!

Happy whatever, 2020!

Center ring kudos to cyber courier Don Covington, for keeping me linked in through the year to numerous circus articles and reviews.

posted 1.7.2020

Monte Carlo Gold to Shanghai Acrobats, Richter Animals .... Colossal Ueckert Circus Collection to The Milner ... Big Apple Circus to the Road Without Grandma ...

 

Enter Princess Stephanie and Circusdome's Royal Family

Once again, Asian acrobats shine in the circus world’s most honored spotlights.  One of two Gold Clowns handed out at the recent 42nd competition went to the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe, the other to the extraordinary animal acts of the Richters –  and how pictures of them inspire.  One Silver Clown was awarded to D'Argent Prosvirnin Duo Stauberti Duo Balance.  And two acts received the Bronze: the inner Mongolian Acrobats Duo 2-Zen-O, and the Troupe Vavilov Michael Ferrerir performing on monocycles.  A shower of other awards, as well, from different groups, made the festival a glorious affirmation of great good  cheer.  Touring these dazzling images, how impressed,  proud, and hopeful I feel for the future of world circus arts. Thank you for another spectacular showcase,  Princess Stephanie!

Colossal Collection, Sarasota to Normal: 250,000 circus items bequeathed to the Milner Library at Illinois State University by partners Herb Ueckert and Neil Cockerline.  I had no idea that  Herb, a retired school librarian, was such a prolific collector.  In a statement he issued through ISU, said Ueckert,  “We are absolutely thrilled they have accepted our collection and look forward to seeing the items shared and used for educating ISU students and the larger public.”  Thrilled to accept was the Milnar’s  Special Collection librarian, Maureen Brunsale,  seen above, at her post since 2008, calling it “the largest donation during my time here ... When you think of circuses, these are the kinds of things you think of ... I would love to be able to show this stuff off." ... The awesome archival acquisition follows another formidable gift — the papers of none other than Henry Ringling North.  All of which should give CFA circus fans, who convene for their annual convention in Normal, come April, reason, I suspect, to await tantalizing previews of the goodies from Brunsdale & Company ... Take your bows, mighty Milner!

 

END RINGERS:   Carson & Barnes Circus is on the road. Show opened season in McAllen, TX, there now through Feb. 5. ...  Watching old Ed Sullivan TV programs — my, did Ed know how to pace a program  — the occasional circus act, unadorned by modern day pretensions, reminding me of how wonderful it was, long ago, when watching a circus act on its own terms was easier to appreciate and enjoy, and more than enough ... Do you know the name Deyanira Rosales?  I do now, having been blown away by her dazzling hula hoop routine on a video John Ringling North II sent me, of the last performance of Kelly Miller under his ownership. WOW!  You older ones, think of Francis Brunn manipulating hula hoops like he juggled clubs over his body.  The best damn act on the show.  And from a garden variety hula hoop  hater, that’s the kiss of exaltation.  Indeed, one of only two hula hoop acts I can recall sitting through that swept me away, the other being the wondrous work of a Russian kid with Jim Judkin’s old Circus Chimera, whose mother dazzled equally well with big box illusion ... What a segue -- I’m hoping that Jim, Kelly Miller’s new owner to the rescue, will route his show out my way into markets he played annually with Chimera.  We are in desperate need of a real circus out here, Jim!   But, please, at least give us a dog act.
 

 

, .

And finally, about Grandma and Barry Lubin. I think we are all suffering a silently shared shock and sadness over what recently happened.  It hit me hard.  I’ve read the New York Times report at least five times, and find it somewhat meager.  I do not know what to say, and so I will not say much, other than to express my great sorrow and sadness to all parties concerned, and to note that sometimes a fuller truth not known in the beginning may eventually surface ... This will not diminish my respect for the wonderful character that Barry created, a character I hope will ultimately live on in some form.  Most of all, I feel a deep sadness for the American Circus, at a time when it struggles to reverse an ominous downward trend, and so, the best I can do is to end this on a note of admonition, to quote from my musical, Those Ringings:

The show must go on,

must be moved every night

If you love it, you shove it,

you push, you pull,

and you fight! 

Ringling Homecoming in Baraboo Gives Circus Alumni an “Electrifying” Show to Remember

 
A couple of months after the official final performance of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey on Long Island, another show that felt to some like the real last show took place in the very town in which the famed circus  was born.  Baraboo.

How I would love to have been there when a tent packed with Ringling alumni, in town for the circus days celebration, were given a private show on the grounds of the Circus World Museum..  

On the eve of the annual Baraboo bash, former Ringling employees shared hugs and tears and cheered ecstatically during the special performance

What a heart warming close to arguably the most famous circus name in the world  – under a small tent not so different in size from the one under which the five Ringling brothers gave their first circus, back in 1884,

Said Circus World executive director Scott O’Donnell to the Baraboo News Republic “So many people who attended said that that show almost meant more to them than the last show of Ringling Brothers ... It was an electrifying night under the big top.”

Ringmaster David SaLoutos and the performers sang and danced between their acts.  As cheers rang through the tent, tears flowed across grateful eyes. At least 16 standing ovations stopped the show during the private performance.

O’Donnell described it, one of the most “raw, emotional” shows he had ever seen.

Can you feel what I feel?

Here is where the Ringling brothers began their legendary ascent to the rise of American circus kings.

And here is where (thank you, circus Gods of the State of Wisconsin), the wonderful  Ringling story and  history will continue to be kept passionately alive for many seasons to come.  There should be a Congressional degree mandating the permanence of Circus World

 “They hooted and hollered — you never felt so much love in your life,” recounted SaLoutos, above, summing up the rapturous reception.  “It was like getting 500 hugs. We were on such a high after that performance I don’t know if anybody slept that night.”

You might say that a circle of history was closed.  The symmetry alone is a beautiful thing.

Au Revoir ...

Baraboo

Ringling

Circus

The Greatest Show on Earth

Big Top Typewriter is Coming to the Circus World Museum

Excited to announce that my new book, Big Top Typewriter, will be coming to Circus World’s gift shop, ready for the summer crowds and the opening of the circus show on May 19.

I can't think of a more idyllic setting for the book and buyer to meet.  The enchanting town of Baraboo itself.   The walk down Water Street past original Ringling brothers buildings, and onto the grounds, where the magic of what the five brothers gave us lives vividly on.

Here is where the most famous circus title in the world was born.

Also the perfect setting, given that the young up and coming circus kings make a rare and rousing cameo in my book -- a cameo that I could never have imagined when I set out to begin writing it many drafts ago.

While working on the very last draft, but still mired in a critical chapter that I believed needed a stronger ending, suddenly there it came, from out of nowhere --  the nowhere of my mind — Al,  Alf T,  Charles, Otto, and John entering to deliver it:  They were just beginning a glorious new chapter in their own remarkable rise to  the top of the big top.  How surprising it all happened – exactly what the chapter needed! Exactly what we all need now, I believe, as we face the depressing day of a world without Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.

So, what better place on earth than Baraboo to purchase your copy of the book -- or, if you already have, maybe an extra copy or two for others, come birthdays or holidays?

Thank you for the honor, Circus World!

Out of the Past: A Midway of Boyhood Ghosts ...

Carnies enjoy early morning coffee and donuts.


A peek at my favorite ride, The Whip. Watching it being laid out and assembled was a production. I loved the harsh heavy industrial music of its moving parts, the sudden jerking thrust of the cars rumbling around corners.




The old Ferris wheel turned with an almost graceful lilt.


My favorite attraction was the quaint Thimble Theatre fun house. The spooky dark walk-through labyrinth on the top floor. The grinding shuffle boards below. The air blast under skirts, and the collapsing floor section just before exit.


The classic Tilt-A-Whirl, about as perfectly designed a thrill ride as ever hit the midway, justly survives into the modern era. Its genius to me is shared by very few rides -- it delivers unpredictable action.


Instant fan: Thunderbolt of surprise for my friend Boyi, who knew virtually nothing of my model building and had never seen this when he's visited me, because the rides have been packed away for over three years. After work last Sunday he dropped by, having only been told "I think you will be surprised." I turned a switch and Century of Thrills came to life, five rides simultaneously. Boyi was ecstatic. "A triple triple plus!!!!!" he exclaimed, overcome with my scratch-built quarter-inch spectacle. What a pleasure when somebody so joyfully overwhelmed appreciates what you've achieved. And what a bummer: I had his immediate reaction on a video, I thought. But I hadn't clicked my camera onto the film icon!


Four rides -- The Whip, Tilt-A-Whirl, Ferris Wheel and Swings operate perfectly. 100% More than I could ever say for my Big Dipper roller coaster, a grand champ of derailments. Once upon a time, it might circle the track nine out of ten times. Not lately. I've accepted its chronic imperfections, but still soldier on, fixing this over here only to be vexed by that over there. BTW: Among others, Paul Horseman was of immense help to me on the Whip and the Wheel when I built the park (1990-2003). I'd like to add a boat ride, if I could bring off a little big splash when it hits the water. And figure out a way to get the tubs back around and connected to the lift chain.


I'm keeping Century of Thrills open up until my niece Lisa and her little boy Noah visit in August. Then down it goes so that I can lay out the roller coaster, section by section, and embark yet on a new set of prospective solutions to make the track and the train that travels it more compatible partners. Finally, I've accepted the coaster as being a permanent "work in progress." The impossible dream lives on ...

Originally posted on July 21, 2010 

Below: My New Laff in the Dark, completed in May, 2015