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| Ca'D'Zan Photo: Ileana Johnson Oct. 2015 |
In 1927, John Ringling moved the winter quarters of the
Ringling show from Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Sarasota County where it
remained for over 60 years. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
now rehearses their new show in Tampa.
P.T. Barnum (1810-1891) chose Bridgeport, Connecticut, as
his home where he built three mansions, Iranistan, Waldemere, and Marina.
Iranistan was modeled after George IV’s Royal Pavilion in Brighton, England,
with furniture made expressly for every room. It burned to the ground in 1857
during renovations. Waldemere (1868) was
a Victorian-style structure overlooking the Long Island Sound in which he lived
for 20 years, surrounded by treasures collected from around the world. He built Marina next to Waldemere three years
before his death.
P.T. Barnum built a highly successful circus that grossed
$400,000 in its first year and was proclaimed in 1872 “The Greatest Show on
Earth.” He partnered in 1888 with James A. Bailey to form the Barnum and Bailey
Circus.
Ca'D'Zan courtyard Photo: Ileana Johnson Oct. 2015
This visit was a fascinating incursion into the secrets of
the circus of long time ago. There is a starry-eyed child in each of us who
loved the circus growing up and remembered with fondness the big top acrobats,
elephants, tigers, the daredevils, the tight rope performers, and perhaps clowns.
People have fantasized about running away with the circus, to see the world
through their lifestyle, and some did.
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| Calliope Photo: Ileana Johnson Oct. 2015 |
The circus dates back to the period of 2000-1750 B.C. in
many cultures, showcasing unusual skills and abilities of the human body. Jugglers appear on the wall of a 4000-year old
Egyptian tomb.
Traveling groups and later troubadours brought with them music,
poetry, jugglers, news, acrobats, dancing bears, trained dogs, the strange
wonders of the world, and exciting shows from outside of their small world.
Country fairs in the 16th century England and the
18th century Commedia dell’Arte in Italy with its Harlequin dressed
in multi-colored patched costumes would set the stage for the modern circus
(1750-1840).
“In 1768, a retired British cavalry officer, Phillip Astley
(1742-1814) joined together feats of horsemanship with acrobatics, balancing,
juggling, and comic acts and the modern circus was born.” Astley performed in
London at the Royal Amphitheater of the Arts where shows were lit by three
great chandeliers with five hundred candles. (Museum Archives)
The father of modern clowning is Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837).
Born in London, Grimaldi gave clowns the nickname of “Joey.” His character, “Clown,”
was a mischievous and malevolent trickster.
Isaac Van Amburgh (1808-1865), a New Yorker, was the
greatest animal trainer of his day. He
entered a cage of lions and tigers dressed as a Roman gladiator and was said to
have been the first man who put his head in a lion’s mouth.
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| Circus wagon Photo: Ileana Johnson Oct. 2015 |
The period of 1870-1938 is considered the Golden Age of the
American Circus. It reached the greatest size under a tent and it capitalized
on the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad to move faster across
the country.
Traveling up to 15,000 miles and performing in 150 towns,
the show needed 1,300 workers and artists, 800 animals, equipment, human food
for 3,900 meals a day and grain, meat, and vegetables for all the animals in
the menagerie.
At the turn of the 20th century, there was a
Circus Day in every town, an annual tradition that often closed schools and
factories to allow everyone to enjoy a few moments of escape from the everyday
drudgery.
The excited crowds were treated to the sights, sounds, and
smells of the circus, with the whistle of the calliope, the ticket sellers,
concession booths with popcorn, hot dogs, cotton candy, soft serve ice cream
and soda, pennants, dolls, live lizards to wear on your sleeve, and the
colorful wagons with whimsical drawings of animals and fantastic characters.
Sword swallowers, Fire Proof Man, the Human Pin Cushion,
dancers, Tiny Town performers lured the public to purchase tickets. For just a
few cents, tickets were sold to side shows called “ballyhoo.”
Entrance to the Ringling property Photo: Ileana Johnson Oct. 2015
The circus was the first place where many Americans saw
animals from other continents. The menagerie had elephants, lions, zebras,
hippopotami, giraffes, orangutans, macaws, kangaroos, and polar bears. The cage
wagons were beautifully and intricately carved with decorative figures and
scrollwork. Panels would cover the bars to protect animals during travel.
Goliath, the giant sea elephant, weighing in a three and a
quarter tons, was the main attraction, traveling in his specially-built water
tank and consuming 150 pounds of fish per day.
P.T. Barnum had an elephant called “Jumbo,” who was 10 feet 10 inches
tall. Zebras were occasionally seen in circuses but were much harder to train
than horses. Asian elephants have been part of Ringling Bros. for 141 years.
Clyde Beatty worked with large cats, lions and tigers. He “styled”
them and trained them to do certain tricks but, as he said often, one can never
tame them completely.
The domesticated animals such as dogs and cats were usually
adopted from the pound. Horses and other hooved animals had their own
blacksmiths. Four hundred baggage horses pulled wagons and heavy canvas and
helped raise and tear down the tents.
The centerpiece of the circus was the Big Top. Raised in
less than four hours, with six center poles, 74 quarter poles, 122 sidewall
poles, 550 stakes, and 26,000 yards of canvas, the centerpiece of the circus
was ready to enchant thousands of spectators each day.
“In 1926 the program
for each Ringling show lasted two and a half hours, without intermission, and
included more than 800 artists performing in 22 displays.” The show ran
concurrently in the three rings, on the four stages, around the hippodrome
track or in the air above the rings. Seating could accommodate 15,000 people
but, if all seats were sold, straw was spread in the front to make extra room
for children in the “straw house.” (Museum Archives)
Museum of Art courtyard Photo: Ileana Johnson Oct. 2015
The performers spent their time before and between
performances in the backyard and in their own tents. The more famous the star,
the more amenities from home they commanded.
The circus was set up on empty lots adjacent to train
stations and, on Circus Day, most towns doubled their population. More than 150
wagons had to fit on flatcars and it was the trainmaster’s duty to use the
space properly. Before the show ended, the Flying Squadron was already on its
way to the next stop where the circus was to perform. The logistics was so
intricate that even the military watched them closely to copy their complex
organizational skills.
Agile acrobats, fearless flyers, tumblers, foot jugglers,
Russian bar acrobats, trick cyclers and teeterboard pushed the boundaries of
athletic ability, timing, execution, spectacular charisma, and skill. Lillian
Leitzel performed a record 249 one-arm “planges” high above the center ring
before she fell to her death in 1931 in Copenhagen.
Italian statuary in the museum gardens Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015
Nik Wallenda, seventh generation member of the famous
Wallenda family, set the Guinness world record in 2008 for the longest distance
and greatest height ever traveled by bicycle on a high wire. His achievements include: walking across the Allegheny River in 2009,
walking over Niagara Falls in 2012 and in 2013, and crossing the Colorado River
Gorge near the Grand Canyon on a two-inch steel cable, 1,500 feet above the
river.
The leotard is named after Jules Leotard, the first to
perform the flying trapeze. Brian was the first human arrow to launch from a
self-made crossbow. In the 1920s Con Colleano was famous for his dancing and
forward somersaults on the wire.
Hugo Zacchini, the Human Cannonball, flew more than 200 feet
from a cannon. It is one of the most dangerous stunts at the circus. Daredevils
use weighted projectiles to test their equipment before performance.
An empty lot was magically transformed in a few hours into a
wonderland of color and spectacular showmanship, but, as soon as it arrived, it
disappeared with all its clowns, props, tents, trapeze artists, and animals,
and the lot became vacant once again.
The famous clown Irvin Feld (1918-1984) founded in 1968 the
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College to preserve the art of
clowning. A year later, Reggie Montgomery (1948-2002), the first black clown, graduated
from said college. Michael “Coco” Poliakovs (1923-2009) helped create in 1963 the
famous fast food mascot, Ronald McDonald. Pinto Colvig made his television debut
in 1948 as “Bozo the Clown.” Emmett
Kelly’s “Weary Willie” character became the mascot for the Brooklyn Dodgers in
1956. Otto Griebling (1896-1972) and Emmett Kelly (1899-1979) portrayed hobo
characters, surviving the difficulties faced by many Americans in the Great
Depression. (Museum Archives)
Clowns could be scary to some, but their circus characters
exaggerated the quirks and foibles of everyday people, a grandma, a country
bumpkin, a rube, a policeman, a hobo, or a tramp/wanderer. More than 1300 clown
graduated from the RBBB “Clown College.”
Interestingly, “electric light appeared in a circus big top
in 1879, the same year Thomas Edison developed his incandescent bulb.”
Parallel with the circus, the “Wild West” shows traveled the
country and the world, re-enacting daring rescues, heroic battles, Native
American dances, and runaway stagecoaches. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows, Pawnee
Bill, and The Miller Bros. 101 Ranch fascinated audiences far and wide. These
shows were uniquely American, romanticizing life on the Western Frontier based
on James Fenimore Cooper’s five novels and the real life hunter and scout
William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody. The stereotyped life in these shows was
later picked up by the motion picture industry.
Howard Tibbals Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015 from Museum Archives
Howard Tibbals created the most accurate replica of the
canvas city called the Howard Bros. Circus, modeled after the Ringling Bros.
and Barnum & Bailey circus. He used historic photographs and measurements
from existing equipment. The 3,800 square foot model depicts the American
tented circus from the 1919-1938 period of the Golden Age.
Section of Tibbals' miniature Photo: Ileana Johnson Oct. 2015
Howard Tibbals began work in 1956 on his Howard Bros. Circus
model in the basement of his Tennessee home, using photographs he had
collected. In 1958, Tibbals met Harold Dunn,
a skilled model builder whose miniature circus was displayed around the
country. Tibbals built his miniature circus working at least 20 hours weekly
for fifty years. He continued to add elements to his masterpiece even after the
completion of the installation in 2005.
The Howard Bros. Circus miniature made its premiere in 1982
at the World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee. Howard Tibbals began the
installation of his miniature in November 2004 in the Circus Museum’s Tibbals
Learning Center and it took him over a year to finish his labor of love.
Cirque du Soleil, founded in 1984 in Quebec, the Big Apple
Circus, founded in 1977, and Kenneth Feld’s Ringling Circus empire, delight
audiences with masterpiece extravaganzas. The circus is still very much part of
the American pop culture to this day, with performances under tents, in arenas,
and in theaters. As long as there are
children who are dazzled by the magic, the lights, the costumes, the pageantry,
and the breathtaking aerial acrobatics, the circus will live on.
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