A Visit to Ca'D'Zan and to the Ringling Brothers Museum

Ca'D'Zan Photo: Ileana Johnson Oct. 2015

On a beautiful October day, we finally experienced Ca’D’Zan, the House of John, the 1920s Venetian Gothic palace on Sarasota Bay, home of John and Mable Ringling, their Museum of Art, and the beautiful gardens decorated with replicas of Italian statues. Located in Sarasota, Florida, the property was bequeathed to the state of Florida in 1936.

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.

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 16^th century England and the 18^th 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.

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 20^th 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.

 

 

Historic Spanish Point

Little Sarasota Bay

On a balmy late October day, the sunny, sparkling white beaches of Siesta Key came into view.  The eight-mile long island off Sarasota with its snow-white quartz sand churned by the force of the emerald ocean into a fine powder is home to miles of canals, tropical vegetation, herons, pelicans, sea gulls, wild parrots, and bottlenose dolphins. The occasional ‘do not feed the alligators’ sign reminds mesmerized travelers that there are more creatures in the surrounding waters than the gentle dolphins and the flying fish.

In 1907 Siesta Key, originally known as Sarasota Key, was renamed by Harry Higel and his partners in the Siesta Land Company, Captain Louis Roberts and E. M. Arbogast. Since there was only access by ferry to the island, the first bridge was built in 1917.

According to archeological discoveries, five thousand years ago people lived in the area now known as the Historic Spanish Point. These early Floridians were avid fishermen who harvested “huge quantities of seafood,” hunted deer and raccoons, lived in thatched huts, and used tools made from shell, bone, and wood. The 30-acre preserve dating from 3000 B.C. to 1000 A.D. contains a burial mound and two middens or shell mounds,  excavated by the Smithsonian and archeologist Ripley Bullen looking for clues of the long-ago inhabitants and their daily lives.

Shell midden

According to museum archeologists, the middens were built by pre-Columbian people during a period called the Late Weeden Island period. Shells and refuse were layered in the sand until the land rose 18 feet above sea level, jutting into the Little Sarasota Bay. One of the shell midden sections is preserved inside a specially constructed building as evidence of Florida’s early inhabitants.

When the Europeans arrived in the 1500s, the Pensacola, the Apalachee, the Timucua, the Ais, the Tecobaga, the Calusa, the Mayaimi, the Jeaga, and the Tequeata made their home in Florida. According to historians, when native people “fell prey to disease and warfare,” Indians from Georgia and Alabama, Seminoles and Miccosukees, moved into the Florida peninsula. (Historic Spanish Point Museum Archives)

As the climate warmed, “most large Ice Age animals became extinct, people became less nomadic and the population grew. These archaic people occupied Historic Spanish Point about 4,000 years ago.” (Museum Archives)

Boat house with Spanish Moss

John and Eliza Webb, with their five children, arrived here in 1867 from Utica and claimed 145 acres under the Federal Homestead Act. Because a Spanish trader had guided them to this elevated land extending into the bay, the Webbs decided to name it “Spanish Point” in his honor. For forty years the Webb family farmed 10 acres of citrus fruit. The Packing House has been restored to its pioneer era.

Citrus fruit was brought originally to Florida by Spanish explorers from Southeast Asia in the 16^th century.  Spanish missionaries gave seeds to the local Indians who planted orange trees around their communities. Groves of wild oranges were found 200 years later on hammock lands in north central Florida. D.D. Dummitt grafted sweet orange branches onto the wild trees, obtaining the now famous Indian River variety.

During its interesting history, hard freezes, pests, and disease, the citrus industry thrived and by 1980 there were more than 690,000 acres in production, making it the leading agricultural crop in Florida with “146 million boxes of oranges and fifty-five million boxes of grapefruit.” (Historic Spanish Point Museum Archives)

The proximity to so much sea water allowed growers to wash oranges covered with mold or fungus. Some fruit was perfect straight from the grove but most needed washing. The original Webb Citrus Packing House was built around 1870.

Mary's Chapel

A tiny white chapel, adjacent to the pioneer cemetery where the Webb family is buried, was built in the middle of the lush tropical jungle walk. Mary’s Chapel was named after Mary Sherrill, a young woman from Kentucky suffering from tuberculosis, who had come to the Webb’s Winter Resort in 1892 in hopes that the warm Florida sun would cure her. She died five weeks later. The New England Conservatory of Music, class of 1891, donated in 1895 the church bell in memory of their former classmate and graduate.

The flora and fauna found both in temperate and tropical climates offer a unique look to the area. Hardwood forests and hammocks cover about 20 percent of Florida. On the hammock trail one can find oaks, pignut hickory, red cedar, hickory, wax myrtle with its aroma of the crushed leaf and fruit and its candle-making wax, and magnolia trees but also tropical cabbage palms and soapberry trees. On the forest floor there are shade-loving plants such as wild coffee, sea-oxeye (along the border of mangroves), saltwort, and white stopper.



Bridge and mangrove

Garden

Branching trees hide insects, songbirds, owls, toads, and epiphytes, plants that grow on other plants such as the butterfly orchid, wild pine, and resurrection fern. Spanish moss, a member of the bromeliad or pineapple family, is an epiphyte that uses trees for support but draws nourishment from the air, the sun, and the rain. Spanish moss literally blankets the area, hanging like nature’s Christmas ornaments.

Mangrove

Red mangroves, found along the seaward edge of the coast, are one of the few trees that can grow and thrive in salt water. Their roots trap silt and eventually build up islands. The black mangroves grow further inland. The white mangroves grow on the highest elevations. The mangroves form a dense habitat that only wildlife can penetrate.

The Gumbo Limbo is a fascinating tree nicknamed the tourist tree because its red bark peels like sunburn.  A large shade tree, the Gumbo Limbo sap is used as a liniment and made into varnish, while the leaves can be brewed as tea.

The bay on the east side of Siesta Key is an estuary, a place where saltwater and freshwater meet. Surrounded by mangroves that prevent shoreline erosion, the rainfall waters mixed with saltwater become a perfect nursery for marine life and wildlife.

Aqueduct surrounded by huge fern

The entire 30-acre Spanish Point preserve with its fern flooded aqueduct, the mangroves, the plantation house, the packing house, the boat shed, Mary’s Church, and the cemetery  are a fascinating walk into the wilderness that used to be Florida, and its rich history. The outdoor museum with the sunken gardens and the pergola are a restful escape from the noisy world into the natural world. The pathways built of seashells crunched underfoot. I got a sense of stepping on history millions of years old.



© Ileana Johnson Paugh 2014
  

Mary's Chapel original bell