New "GOLDEN AGE" for American Big Tops Forecast by Circus Historical Society Ringmaster-in-Chief

 Bruce Hawley, Circus Historical Society President, goes all uptempo on the circus.

One thing can lead to another – like a nudge out of nowhere -- to a link to a You Tube --- to a dive into cyber worlds I have yet to swim. Such was my recent conversion into a new area of knowledge.   “Afer reading your interesting review of Circus Extreme” e-mailed Culpepper & Merriweahter’s Jim Royal “I thought of something you might enjoy hearing.”  He directed  me to a Hideaway Circus Podcast hosted by two smartly curious souls, Josh and Lindsay Aviner,  featuring an interview with the Culpepper & Merriweather owners, Trey and Simone Key.

Thus was I finally dragged into the world of the pods.   Minus the thrashing vulgarity and flying graphics of commercials, there is only a stone silent background. Is anyone really there? Hello!   Credit the saner silence, also the long-winded running time of these, on their freedom from corporate control.

After The Keys talked about the all-importance of the advance promotions, etc, Trey admitted to a certain loneliness out on the mostly vacant midways of yesteryear, where he is the last and only show out of Hugo to follow the red arrows.  I can feel a similar feeling out here on blogger land, where most of the circus circus blogs are long gone.  We enjoyed a brief shining moment in open discussion. If only circus fans could/would freely debate like sports fans do. Like musical theatre fans do.  Like movie fans do!

Enter the President

Down the list of other Hideaway Circus pods I gazed, settling upon their visit with the new Circus Historical Society president, Bruce Hawley.  He is old enough and yet not too old enough to be a very good bridge between we who have seen circus in its heyday and those much younger  who know it from Cirque du Soleil.  Above, Josh and Lindsay

Hawley and the Aviner’s had a good time wondering when circus came into being, which strikes me as something of a non issue. It was as if Astley had never happened, as if, somewhere back even before bloody Circus Maximum, there was the first circus.   Okay, have fun going nowhere with that.

Hawley sees the roots of circus in the relationship of a man to a horse which is, bingo, an unacknowledged tribute to Astley.  It is so hard for some Americans to fathom the idea that we did not invent circus. Example: One of the talking voices on that half-baked PBS circus special pointed to Rickets Circus in Philly as evidence of what America gave the world!.  Does PBS even care?  Even three rings was an idea initially dabbled in by the great Brit tenting impresario, Lord Sanger. Barnum is thought to have maybe seen his short-lived efforts with  multi-performance action.   But Barnum and Bailey made it work — Americans, I believe, tended to lead the way in what I call presentational showmanship. More than the one-act-at-a-time recital format.

And then came a  rainbow from Hawley, talking up the golden age of circus in the roaring 20s as having followed the carnage of the 19l8 flu epidemic.  He can see  a repeat of this about to happen, following the long grueling tyranny of Coronia’s shut downs and mask overs.

A golden age, but of what?  Barnum & Bailey? Five Fingers?

What really is this thing called circus?                                                                                                 

When people argue over definitions, often they confuse production for core elements.  In fact, since Astley and  up until the PETA smack-downs,  virtually every  circus carried  the same three essentials: Acrobats, Animals and clowns.  Critics of new staging styles down through the ages have blasted those that even contained all the staples.  Some old timers hated the new three-ring spectacle.   Too large, no talking clowns!.  But the clowns adapted and were still fanny, maybe funnier.  Some blasted John Ringling North’s theatricalized make over, co-starring the costumes. Too much like a night club, they flippantly complained. Above, Zefta Loyal at C&M.  

.
 But the same North imported some of the best talents in the world. (See the movie, Trapeze)  One season he paraded fifty five elephants around the rings.  He had a few dozen clowns out on the track. Whirling bodies over sawdust and in the air. The staples.  The staples.  The staples.   Some shows today are valiantly hanging on to them.  There is evidence of a public out there eager to patronize the real thing. This story is far from over.  

Trey Key and friend         

But this post should be, I suppose.  And where was I, if anywhere??  Oh yes, in podcast land.  Thank you Jim, for getting me there, and I am glad to hear, as you report in closing off, that “we are having a good season.” When last I checked, C&W still toured with a little cage act featuring a big live tiger.

This circus is still on parade!

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!

Amusement-Hungry Covid Survivors Pack U.S Circus Tents... Animals and Clowns Now Wowing the Crowds Won't Be Welcome on Ringling-Barnum's High Tech "Return" Next Year ...

Betting on the wrong America?  While the Felds plan to revive Ringling without clowns, without animals,  American circus producers who dare to present the real thing are finding gold, post-Covid euphoria, in places far removed from blue state insanity.  

From Royal Hanneford to Culpepper & Merriweathe , the sight of seats filling up to overflowing offers indisputable evidence of a still viable market out there for what Ringling will be completely turning its back on.  

What do you see in these photos?  Be honest.  I see what I too often have not seen in ages, too many photos or videos showing circus rings surrounded by a sea of empty chairs.  We are not in a twilight zone episode. We are at Cindy Migley's  Circus Spectacular, in Aberdeen, South Dakota, in this very year, where the show packed ‘em in for all eight performances.  And where it did the same at several other SD dates. This, from Time Tegge, who ring-mastered. 

                                                                                                                                                      
When I reached out to ask Tim for his take on circus business in general, he shocked and dazzled me by talking up soaring spring patronage for Hanneford  “In around 90% of the dates,  we either filled or nearly filled the seats. And on a few, we turned them away.”  

Oh, really?  Now, please ... One must be leery of such pronouncements from a circus pro, ever mindful of job securities, etc.  So I asked for a little evidence, and it came. And Tim was not spinning.

 Another day.  Another avalanche.  In Detroit Lakes, MN

But he was also quick to temper and link the phenomenal biz to a pent up hunger among Americans, now mask-free, to get out and mingle and take in most any live entertainment that comes their way.  He reports of spotting forty- and fifty-year olds in the seats who have never seen a circus before (he spoke with some), suddenly discovering its primal magic.

Down in Mobile, Alabama, on a cold date under new blue Royal Hanneford  canvas, they sold out half the shows — how dare they! — with wild animals on the bill. Yes, those hated wild animals. Not there.  The earthy spectacle of a tiger dutifully burning bright leaping through a fiery hoop, nearly brought down the house.   So audiences still go for animal acts, Tim?  “They’re eating it up!” I love trainer Brunon Blaszak's dashing huzza jump.

Tim will tell you how PETA has charmed or bribed Hollywood celebrities into foisting its cause on the media, and how the media does the rest.  And of how many people who still wanted to go, were conned into guilt or discomfort.

Salvation in red. I can see our smarter shows concentrating in on smaller towns (as if they already aren't) where audiences are still receptive to real circus, and rebuilding a strong marketing base.  In time, this may trickle out to the larger blue cities currently paralyzed under woke-choke control.  
.
Back to the Felds, and to a circus that seems to be self-destructing before our eyes, when it could be cashing in on and leading the way in a rebounding public love of the ageless delight.  No clowns, No animals are words that land like a huge, suddenly popped balloon onto flat lifeless cement.  

Tim and I tried guessing what the latest Feld make over, far closer to Cirque than to Barnum,  may come off looking like.  So  “sterile,” in a word from  our visiting ringmaster,  as to  “look like a hospital ward when you get there.”  

I am still laughing.

So, perhaps the new Greatest Show on Earth, poop-free, will require the wearing of a mask at all times.   Give me the poop, the restless growl of native Africa, a messy patch of earth below, the death-defying arc of true daring-do above. Give me the circus.

END RINGERS: Art Concello's life getting major treatment in a new book by Maureen Brunsdale, due out from Roman and Littlefield next spring .... Speaking of which, Lane Talburt, writing on Concello’s attempt to wrest control of the Beatty Show in the 1950s, gives Bandwagon magazine a jolt of some pretty gritty stuff. ...What else? ... How unlike the elegant perfection of an iPhone is an Apple store.  My iPhone died, and I went in to see if they could revive it, ready to buy new.  Horrible experience.  Was assigned a “genius,” who turned out to be only one of several, each, in turn,  granting me restless attention, the last coming off like a mop up man.  NEVER AGAIN.  D+

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.

Ukrainian Circus Kids Safe and and Welcome in European Rings ... Barabao Back on Parade! ... Disney Caves to Gender Mania -- Snow White May Never Be the Same Again

6/14/22 2:01 PST: Late breaking from Douglas McPherson in London: "Latest news from Ukraine: in war-torn Kyiv the circus is back in business with horses, parrots and tigers, oh my."  Check out his blog, Circus Mania for more details.

                    From the Ukraine to Budapest, Hungary.      

Ukrainian circus boy in a strange and friendly land

    JOY OUT OF CHAOS  Circus kids of Ukraine, having fled  Putin’s slaughter, finding  comfort and cheer in neighboring nations. This reported to me by our London tipster, journalist and author  Douglas McPherson (Circus Mania).   “Hundreds of Ukrainian circus students have been taken in by circus schools across Europe. There have been donations of costumes and equipment to performers who left the country without them.” Stranded circus animals, too, are surviving on loads of food from Monte Carlo festival, flowing into the wastelands of Putin’s horrifying revenge.  

    HOW TO ANSWER BACK, wonders a  world on edge, held hostage by a monster holding in his hand the nuclear option?   We are facing the ultimate nightmare.  My  heart aches for the people of Ukraine, worst of all if reports are accurate, little children, being gunned down in the streets. This is barbarism at its worst.  May the  Russians find the will and the way to eliminate this modern-day Stalin.

     BIG TOPS WITH BIG HEARTS  World Circus Federation director Jasmine Straga calling it  “the largest collaboration of circuses in history.” And a moving one, at that.  Notes Sir Douglas, “I guess it’s the art form with no borders.” Yes, indeed, as I can attest —  that most beautiful of all entertainments, where you can sit next to  people of many tongues and share, without words, identical sighs, gasps, laughs, moans, thrills —  every time I go.  Under big and little tops, audiences are truly one family for a moment in time.  And here, world circus is coming together as never before. 

     THEY STILL LOVE A PARADE  Let the summer not be another bummer down in Ringlingville, USA – not if Circus World has anything to do about it.  Ringmaster in chief  Scott O’Connell promising not just a new tent show, Yo-Ho at The Big Top, pirate themed but, better yet, the grand free Baraboo Circus Parade back in motion.   “We’re hosting our sails and getting ready for the grand adventure,” pipes Scott on the dot, spot on.  Okay, yes, so you’ve checked the “theme” box.  How about the acts, Scott?

 

    WATER STREET WONDERS,  2022: Topping the bill is our own born-in, made-in, and discovered-in America — Wesley Williams, the "One Ring Wonder" who knocks ‘em dead with his really really tall unicycle (a guineas record), coaxing the thing up and down stairs, and, who knows, maybe past security guards on ground level at mobbed airports.   Wesley, a big wow on both UK and USA Got Talent TV shows,  now comes with his own doggy act, Puppy Pals.  Should make him doubly appealing to budget-strapped circus owners daring, still, to present anything that doesn’t move on two feet.  Other acts include the German Wheel, a bungee bounce and Mr. Bill, a clown who, from a video I examined, may land a few half-laughs  ...  But hold your half giggles or doubts!  Shelve your snickers!  Elephants will be there, too.  Princess Stephanie would be all smiles...

     DISNEY BE DAMNED  Uncle Walt must be roasting in his grave ever his family brand being dragged through the gender wars of America the aberrant.  Current Disney CEO, Bob Chapek,  bending to  LBGTQ+2.5x-pending-further-notice, about to re-sexualize signage, characters and accommodations in order not to offend 0.6 percent of the population. Yes,  0.6 percent.  Media whores blowing the realities ludicrously out of proportion. Since when did 0.6 percent of America get to redefine the other 99.4 percent?  Whatever happened to, became of,  Normal?  The late Brit fringe sex snoop and  scholar  Havlock Ellis, would have gone giddy over the new Gender Is What You Make It mania.  

 His days may be numbered ...

       SNOW WHITE AND CINDERELLA, the new model couple?   Disney may have to  remake its cherished catalog of screen gems – Toby Tyler no longer an ordinary kid  falling for  the heretofore  acceptable  “opposite  sex.” Now opposite to what, pending, x+, or otherwise? We are going mad over here, and a restless majority is starting to wake up to liberal lunacy bent on demolishing norms anchored in biology.   If I were a parent, I would not place my child in a school hell bent on stealing away parental control and imposing its own agenda on the most fragile segment of the population — little people just learning how to read and speak and make friends.    

    BLOCKBUSTER BIBLE readings to the rescue: Believe it or not, a young well-meaning Catholic priest, Father Mike Schmittz of Minnesota, joining  bible author Jeff Cavins, began, first of the year,  reading 22 minutes a day from the sacred scriptures. His podcast is now ranked number 1 among some 2 million podcasts. Given the woke-choke attack on almost anything vaguely related to western civilization, a growing number of innocent citizens, desperate for a semblance of timeless continuity,  may be flocking to hear the good father’s readings.  

     END RINGERS IN VAIN: So-Cal based Circus Vargas looks stocked with a variety of grabbingly good action. And how I hope they’ll grab me up my way .... Royal Hanneford also looks boffo.... In eerie limbo: Big Apple ... Silence unbecoming: Ringling, about its promise last year to return next year ... Comes a monumental edition of Bandwagon, no longer edited out of Sarasota, but Baraboo, home to its editor Greg Parkinson. ... Better yet, on first scanning, it looks downright woke-free ... At this critical hour, could we ask for anything more? ...

4.4.2022

     JOY OUT OF CHAOS. Circus kids of Ukraine, having fled  Putin’s slaughter, finding  comfort and cheer elsewhere  This reported to me by our London tipster, journalist and author  Douglas McPherson (Circus Mania).   “Hundreds of Ukrainian circus students have been taken in by circus schools across Europe.” Stranded circus animals, too, getting loads of food donations from Monte Carlo festival, flowing into the wastelands of Putin’s terrifying revenge.  How to answer  back, wonders a  world on edge, held hostage by a monster holding in his hand the nuclear option?   We are facing the ultimate nightmare.

     BIG TOPS WITH BIG HEARTS.  World Circus Federation director Jasmine Straga caling it  “It’s the largest collaboration of circuses in history.” And a moving one, at that.  Notes Sir Douglas, “I guess it’s the art form with no borders.” Yes, indeed, as I can attest —  that most beautiful of all entertainments, where you can sit next to  people of many tongues and share, without words, identical sighs, gasps, laughs, moans, thrills —  every time I go.  Under big and little tops, audience are truly one family for a moment in time.

     THEY STILL LOVE a parade: Let the summer not be another bummer down in Ringlingville, USA – not if Circus World has anything to do about it.  Ringmaster in chief  Scott O’Connell promising not just a new tent show, pirate themed (if that matters).  Better yet, the grand free Baraboo Circus Parade will be back in motion.   “We’re hosting our sails and getting ready for the grand adventure,” pipes Scott on the dot, spot on. . Okay, yes, so you’ve checked the “theme” box.  How about the acts, Scott?

    WATER STREET WONDERS,  2022: Toping the bill is our own born-in, made-in, and discovered-in America — Wesley Williams, a lean kid who knocks ‘em dead with his really really tall unicycle (a guineas record), coaxing the thing up and down stairs, and, who knows, maybe past security guards on ground level at mobbed airports.   Wesley, a big wow on both UK and USA Got Talent TV shows,  now comes with his own doggy act, Puppy Pals.  Should make him doubly appealing to budget-strapped circus owners daring, still, to present anything that doesn’t move on two feet.  Other acts include the German Wheel, a bunge bounce and Mr. Bill, a clown who, from a video I examined, may land a few half-laughs  ...  But hold your half giggles or doubts!  Shelve your snickers!  Elephants will be there, too.  Princess Stephanie would be all smiles...

     DISNEY BE DAMNED  Walt must be roasting in his grave ever his family brand being draged through the gender wars of American the Aberational.  Current Disney CEO, Bob Chapek,  bending to  LBGTQ+2.5x-pending-further-notice, about to re-sexualize signage, characters and accommodations in order not to offend 0.6 percent of the population. Yes,  0.6 percent.  Media whores blowing the realities ludicrously out of proportion. Since when did 0.6 percent of America get to redefine the other 99.4 percent?  Whatever happened to, became of,  Normal?  The late Brit sex snoop and  scholar  Havlock Ellis, would have gone giddy over the new Gender Is What You Make mania.  

     SNOW WHITE AND CINDY, the new model couple?   Disney may have to  remake its cherished catalog of screen gems – Toby Tyler no longer an ordinary kid  falling for  the heretofore  acceptable  “opposite  sex.” Now opposite to what, pending, x+, or othrwise? We are going mad over here, and a restless majority is starting to wake up to liberal lunacy bent on demolishing norms anchored in biology   If I were a parent, I would not place my child in a school hell bent on stealing away parental control and imposing its own agenda on the most fragile segment of the population — little people just learning how to read and speak and make friends.   

    BLOCKBUSTER BIBLE readings to the rescue: Believe it or not, a young well-meaning Catholic priest, father Mike Schmittz of Minnesota, joining  bible author Jeff Cavins, began, first of the year,  reading 22 minutes a day from the sacred scriptures, and is now ranked number 1 among some 2 million podcasts. Given the woke-choke attack on almost anything vaguely related to western civilization, a growing number of innocent citizens desperate for a semblance of timeless continuity,  may be flocking to hear the good father’s readings.  

     END RINGERS IN VAIN: So-Cal based Circus Vargas looks stocked with a variety of grabbingly good action. And how I hope they’ll grab me up my way .... Royal Hanneford also looks boffo.... In eerie limbo: Big Apple ... Silence unbecoming: Ringling, about its promise last year to return next year ... Publishing Snobery of the highest order:  My book, Roller Skating for Gold, was penned when it looked like the sport I once called my own was close to an exhibition spot at the German summer Olympics of 1972. The Germans finked out at the last moment.  My book was rejected by dozens of houses, and then taken up by Scarecrow, an “academic” press, one of whose editor-in-chiefs once described the books they printed as “anything not commercial.”  Still in print following a decent roll out, last year they sold a single copy for. $69.00 – a bargain compared to used copies going for more. Which earned me $6.90.   Moral of story, stay true to thine own stupidity?  Actually, there is none, but I have to wrap this somewhere.  Sixty nine dollars, boy what a steal somebody got.

 

Chicago Circus Museum on the Auction Bloc:

When the Museum of Science and Industry Circus Exhibit opened in April of 1973, MSI president Daniel M. MacMaster called it “a spectacular addition to the museum's attractions” in a Hyde Park Herald article. He went on to say that it would be as popular as the Coal Mine, U-505 submarine and other major holdings.

Arthur M. Wood, chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Co., which presented the miniature animated circus, hailed it as “a part of Americana that could have been lost to future generations.”

Originally displayed in the great rotunda of the museum's east pavilion,  suggesting a big top, the 22,000-piece circus collection showcased scenes of circus life of years past, both public and behind the scenes. Highlights included motorized dioramas, starting with the Ringling Brothers Circus Street Parade featuring twenty-six carved models of circus wagons, performers and animals, all moving on a long snake-like winding track. The Big Top, the menagerie, the sideshow and the dining tent were among the other dioramas, which were augmented by intricate circus signs, fun house mirrors, and interactive “peep shows” that allowed visitors to see themselves as a tattooed man, a clown and so on.

The circus exhibit was subsequently moved to a 3,000-square-foot space at the center of the museum, and Kathleen McCarthy, director of collections and head curator, said that everyone who comes to the museum—”tens of millions of people”—has walked through it. 

They won't be able to in the future, however. The circus exhibit closed for good on Sept. 6, and the entire collection is being auctioned off on Sept. 24 by Potter & Potter Auctions on the North Side. 

“The exhibit was a nostalgic look at circuses of yesteryear and, after 50 years, it was time to find a new home for it,” McCarthy said. “We wanted to use the space for newer technology, to tell more contemporary stories related to Chicago manufacturing.” 

First up, slated to open by the end of the year and stay up at least a year, is a show about Mold-A-Rama, the Chicago-based company that makes machines that turn out injection-based souvenir molds on the spot.

McCarthy explained that the decision to replace the circus collection was made by an internal committee of the president and staff from across the museum to get a variety of viewpoints. “It's never easy to take down a beloved exhibit, but I think everyone was in agreement that it was necessary to keep the museum relevant and inspiring for our audience,” McCarthy said. 

So much for donating collections to museums – this isn’t the first time this has happened nor will it be the last.  Sad

 

              Jan

don marcks too!

Covington connected,  down the shute of shame and comes this from the windy city, which has grown tired of circus history and wants to give more space to today. 

 

Princess Stephanie Honors Ukraine Circus Students at Her Monte Carlo Festival on April15-16

Refugees in Hungary, the students of the circus schools of kyiv and Kharkiv were invited to perform at the Monte-Carlo Circus Festival by Princess Stephanie of Monaco. At the start of the war in Ukraine, the students managed to flee. They were welcomed into the teams of the Circus of Budapest. “When we learned that the Ukrainian students were refugees with their teachers, I remembered having attended the final evening last year after the exams of the kyiv circus school and the quality of this show”, explains Urs Pilz, artistic director of the Monegasque festival at beautiful morning before adding: I thought of these students, that it gave them pleasure to be able to do this show in Monaco and to make it a charity.

Massive London circus planned for park near Oxford Street this summer

From My London, Via Covington Connected, to quote: 

  A huge festival with cabaret performers and kids entertainers could be held over three months in the summer

A huge circus could return to central London this summer in a move to draw in thousands of visitors to the West End. Entertainment company Underbelly wants to build a giant big top in a park near Oxford Street and host a three-month festival with cabaret performers, kids' entertainers, musicians and comedians.

Underbelly has sent plans to Westminster City Council for a wood and canvas spiegeltent for 600 people, a box office, two bars, seven food stalls and outdoor seating at Cavendish Square. The Underbelly Festival first opened on the Southbank in 2009 and was held at Cavendish Square last year between June and October.

This year's event would have capacity for 2,000 people at a time from April 28 to July 31. A planning report says: "The festival provides London with affordable live entertainment available to all ages and importantly those that might not otherwise attend traditional theatre.

"The 2021 event was a successful event which generated vibrancy and vitality in the local area, in a manner which was sensitive to nearby neighbours. The proposal would result in the provision of a cultural and visitor attraction which would have the ability to attract a wide range of people, as well as provide numerous job opportunities."

 

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