Sunday Morning with H.S.H. Princess Stephanie of Monaco: The Fullness of Circus

"It's nice to have other types of shows and cabarets and all, but we must keep a little tradition. And for me a real circus is live animals and clowns, not only aerial acts or very choreographed acts; you need a bit of everything. We have to evolve, of course, but I think the most important thing is keeping animals in the circus."-- as interviewed in Spectacle magazi...

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Friday Flashouts: Detroit Shriners Cry Homeless! Kelly-Miller Goes "First Time in America,” Ringling Menage, In Vitro, World Circus Day, in Premiere

John Ringling North II due in the states on Monday to monitor Kelly-Miller Circus rehearsals and opening dates in Texas late next week. Trucks painted all pretty may wear snowflakes when they reach the Lone Star state — assuming they can find roads out of snow-bound Oklahoma. (Promise; no jokes about you-know-what.) On paper, thanks to manager Jim Royal sending me information, show looks full of promising energy, comedy, novelty – a veritable fun fest in the making. Cast of some 20-plus performers include first time in America turns from Aussie aerialists Nikkie and Carla Oggle, plenty of animals, some from the Rices, the charismatic Poema Family of risley whirlwinds, along with returnees named Torales and Cainan and Oliveras. Costumes...

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The Morning Midway: Betty Hutton Before and After The Greatest Show on Earth

I had known almost nothing about Betty Hutton other than the sweet -- some would say cloyingly sweet -- role she played in Cecil B. De Mille's mega movie, The Greatest Show on Earth. Not until a few nights ago, when TCM aired one of her films, Red, Hot and Blue. Instant discovery! WHAT A FABULOUS TALENT! I'm talking fantastic energetic dancer, VERY funny performer -- two talents that are virtually no where to be found in her De Mille assignment. So, all these many years in my mind I have unfairly typecast her. And then, after that movie, Betty's career was fast fading. Interviewed in 2000 by Robert Osborn for Turner Classic Movies, and so far far away from the Hutton we knew (impossible to see the old Hutton in this Hutton), she talked from...

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The Morning Midway: Kelly-Miller Signs Aussie Thriller; Trucks Painted Pretty Set To Roll Next Thursday

Signed to bring thrills and chills to Kelly-Miller Circus audiences in 2010, Aussie aerialist Nikki Ogle is set to join the show. John Ringling North II first spotted her act on a DVD, and was "greatly impressed," per show manager James Royal in an e-mail to Showbiz David. "She performs a hair raising single trap with plenty of thrills," states Royal. In a second turn, Nikki executes a "superb double trap" with her identical twin sister, Carla.Getting visa approval, launched last November, took more time than the show expected, due to lost paperwork, among other details. The U.S. signed off only yesterday; Since the Ogle sisters are expected to arrive a little late, filling in for them during the interim will be Becky Ostroff.Royal reports, "everything is looking great." All trucks bear fresh...

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The Next Late Night Round: Who Will Rule -- Letterman, Leno or (No Kidding) O'Brien?

Jay Leno needs upgrades; Dave Letterman, humility; Conan O'Brien, a challenging network to reset his act.What drama we've just been through. Three late night competitors battling it out for ratings and media attention: Beleaguered Conan O'Brien, gone from The Tonight Show, essentially due to his own poor showing; Jay Leno, a failed prime time host about to return to the coveted late night spot he dominated for nearly 15 years, and the other guy -- acerbic David Letterman, who grudgingly believed all along that he should have landed the Tonight Show desk when Johnny Carson retired from it at age 66.It's been an amusinglgy bloody slug fest between these three entertainers. What prospects loom ahead? Moreover, who will now rule? Handicapping the...

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The Morning Midway: Sean Penn in the Big Cage? New Circus Movie Worth Dreaming About ...

Based on the bestselling novel about circus life set in the Great Depression, Water for the Elephants is about to become a film, and Sean Penn is reported to be in the running to play "a charismatic but dangerous animal trainer."Penn might then co-star with Reese Witherspoon, herself cast as an alluring equestrienne and wife to the wild man in the Big Cage. And then there's Robert Pattinson (above), about whom I know nothing. Said to be a heartthrob, he would play a young veterinarian student hired to assist with the animals. The three figures become embroiled in a love triangle. Sounds promising, if not precariously melodramatic. Another mediocre circus movie trading on the usual cliches and spectacle? Few rise to the occasion. Even the Greatest...

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The Morning Midway: Does Big Apple Circus Need Better Marketing? Just Ask Forbes ...

I've never exactly regarded New York's own circus as in dire need of cash, although a look at its masthead in the program magazine resembles an out-of-control bureaucracy. Perhaps pink slips to half the staff would bring instant solvency.In fact, according to Forbes magazine, the economic downturn has hit BAC fairly hard, with the show discounting tickets to fill seats. "It has also had to initiate layoffs and pay cuts for its administrative staff. It is more important than ever for Big Apple, which advertises its shows through direct mail, traditional advertising and social media, to have an effective marketing plan."So Forbes last September assigned a marketing interventionist (my term) to examine the operation inside and out and make voluntary...

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The Morning Midway: Jay Leno's Tonight Show History in His Own Words ...

He ruled late night and was only 54-years old when NBC pressed him to step aside five years hence so that a far less-proven talent could take over The Tonight Show.How would you feel?I'm glad I stayed up on Monday night to watch Jay on his soon-to-be-history 10 PM slot, for, sitting behind his desk after the first commercial break, he talked to us without comedy or rancor or spin, simply and graciously discussing his own NBC history with straight forward honesty, taking a sharing approach that can only add to his image as being basically a nice guy.He never wanted to leave. He was Number One. NBC wanted him to leave so that Conan O'Brien, who was threatening to find a spot elsewhere, could be placated. Jay accepted the inevitable, and shortly...

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The Morning Midway: The Power of Humanity to Care ... Miraculous Rescue in Haiti Caught on Television

"She's there! She's alive!" shouts Raija in Haiti, after six days standing by the ruins of where his wife Jeannette worked, refusing all the while to give up. Believing all the while that she was still among the living.From out of the ruins, still trapped within, a voice that Raija has prayed for six days to hear cries out, "Even if I die, I love you so much. Don't forget!"So close to salvation, and yet so far, with no rescuers and equipment nearby to try freeing Jeannette. The greatest worry now was that an aftershock could cause the precarious ruins to sandwich into each other. The world was everywhere around, trying its best to help. And, just then, like a miracle, helped arrived --fire fighters from Los Angeles, and television reporters were calling it out as it happened:"They get her...

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Twitter Glitter, Twitter Litter ...Gods and Quads, Tigers and Teas ... Come On In, Please

Dreamy rain outside on Piedmont Avenue ... Ella Fitzgerald in here floating another great song over tea aromas ... Sunday morning soft at L’Amyx ...Circuses sleeping, and I’m hoping they all wake up again. Yeah, I get nervous around this time; I’m funny that way. Really, I want ‘em all to return, even those that may have let me down in times past. There’s always another season to make things right. Another tour to redeem and redream. A young Japanese singer in her own language crooning a country song and making it sound sooooooooooo beautiful, and so wonderfully not country. Yet for her to discover and mine: Rodgers & Hart ... Sorry, if anybody down there in Tex or Ok is reading this; call me a retro elitist, y'all. How tough is the tanbark...

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Sunday Morning With Octavie La Tour: The Courage of Circus to Soar ... The Courage of Ivo to Continue ...

In the spirit of honoring Ivo Silva, Jr., of the Flying Caceres, who completed a quad into the deft hands of catcher Danidel Simard, with Ringling-Barnum's new Funundrum during its first week in Tampa, I would like to quote from words written over one hundred years ago by a 20-year-old French girl, Octavie La Tour, who drove Barnum & Bailey's somersaulting auto, thrilling crowds with what one newspaper reporter called "automobile flights." In 1905, the daring "chauffeuse" La Tour contributed the following to the New York World . Her eloquent words, I believe, are a tribute to all great rings stars everywhere who, like Ivo, inspire us with the majesty and power of their super-human feats:"Human daring has but one limit: human imagination....

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The Morning Midway: But Why Bash Jay Leno?

NBC exec Dick Ebersol on Conan O'Brien: "An astounding failure."And there's Jimmy Kimmel spoofing Jay Leno. I agree, Leno's opening hand shake ritual is sooooooo second-coming smarmy.Look. I've never been much of a fan of any of them. I've gone back and forth between Jay and Dave, rarely watching either of their shows all the way through. Sometimes I think Letterman has the better monologue, but other times Leno.This big media ruckus is rather ridiculous, and not a little contrived. But what a comedy harvest; both Letterman and Leno are hitting the heights tossing wicked little darts at each other, mostly at the brain-dead NBC guns who engineered this programming chaos. Latest, arising out of Conan O'Brien's uppity refusal to go on after midnight,...

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The Morning Midway: Circus King Irving J. Polack From Out of the Past ...

Remember Polack Bros. Circus? The two men who produced it, Irving J. Polack and Louis Stern, were mid century American circus giants, re-introducing audiences to superlative one-ring entertainment.They have been shockingly overlooked by most historians and writers. They were a major force leading up to the gradual evolution back to a single ring. I am continually amazed at how many historians who should know better, as well as some highly touted "experts" and fact checkers, seem not to have understood the part they played. Neither Polack nor Stern seem to have been honored within that dubious circle of paid-for recognition in Sarasota.This is such a wonderful photo (circa, 1948), sent to me by a Polack family insider who wishes to remain discretely...

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The Morning Midway: Tale of Two Circus Museums -- Anonymous+ Checks In ...

Note: I'm bringing this one, submitted by Anonymous, out onto the platform, it deserves a barker's attention -- SD.Opening a CIRCUS museum in this millennium? You must be joking. I agree with your prediction that the best it can hope for is to attract some geriatric circus fans. Has anyone seen ANY evidence that the citizens are clamouring to know more about the past of a business they care little about in the present.Prior to the 80's, there were numerous specials and/or weekly circus shows on TV, "Ringling's opening in St Pete was an annual special, as was the Monte Carlo Festival, Bert Park's circus show, Circus of the Stars (I know, I know, much reviled by performers) every show from the 'Mod Squad' to 'The Lucy Show' had circus themed episodes. Kids toys had circus themes, books were...

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The Morning Midway, taaaaaaaaaa -- tweet! This Vincente Minnelli Book -- Is It "Junk" ???

Hold onto my earlier praise for the book on Vincente Minnelli by Emanuel Levy. Was I too deceptively impressed? Half way through, can't believe this writer, (Ph.D from Columbia, a teaching post at UCLA) would not understand the significance of Lerner and Loewe's first hit, Brigadoon. He berates it, arguing that critics failed to understand its "secret charms." Wait a minute, sir. When it opened on Broadway in 1947, it landed UNANIMOUS raves from nine first night critics, among them the fussy Brooks Atkinson. Mr Levy: Read Opening Nights on Broadway and believe. Levy is on firmer ground slighting a weak film adaption, though I'd argue not nearly as bad as he makes it out. One more big blunder: Levy places Brigadoon as a "mediocre ... creative slowdown in the acclaimed duo's work." ...

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Twitter Me Tuesday ... Memo to Leno: Take Back "Tonight " Title or OutFox NBC

They've jerked around a guy who brought them big ratings. Who was beating Letterman night after night. So he flopped in prime time. Does that mean that the irritating prince of unfunny, Conan, deserves to hold The Tonight Show title when he draws half of what Leno drew? My guess: if Leno does not get it back, he's taking his act over to Fox. He can't afford another newfangled contortion, as in a half hour format without the show title he deserves. NBC is close to total nocturnal suicide. One expert called Leno at 10 "the biggest disaster in television history." The second would be anybody thinking that O'Brien had any talent in the first place, do they ever learn? ... Know what I think I like about Jay? -- although most everything else about his show I hate: I think compared to Letterman,...

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Sunday Silly: Ringling Reviews Ringling; Walker, Circus Sarasota and Barbette ... All on the Inside!

Out through the moors of Oakland (as in fog), for rice tea and "berry black," a new try too close to English Lipton ... Covington challenged, here I go, I think:I read a so-called review of the new RBBB Funundrum, in a Tampa paper by a local reporter. Why suspicious? She didn't mention a single act by name. I'll wait for the New York Times or the White Tops(is it still being published?) ... This new RBBB edition uncorked by that new producing team of the Feld sisters, Alana and Nicole. Go, gals, I guess ... Sure, now somebody make something of that. My mind is really on Coney; Will they or won't they? You know, the Gold Unit going back, and even if it does, I fear being disappointed the second night around (it sounds too Feldian for me)....

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The Morning Midway, Tweet! Tweet! Judy, Stop Singing and Get Help! ...

Am reading a great tome, Vincente Minnelli: Hollywood's Dark Dreamer, fresh off the presses by Emanuel Levy. Highly recommended to readers of such stuff. Minnelli directed hands down the top three singing-dancing flicks out of Hollywood: -- Gigi, The Bandwagon, American in Paris.He, a "bisexual" (oh, sure) but really a homosexual, married volatile Judy Garland, then a pill-popping star star star who, once wed to a lovingly dotting Vincente, gradually self-transferred into a psycho wreck, jealous of her husband's rich attention (sexual, she dreaded) to Gene Kelly on the ill-fated bomb, The Pirate, convinced he downplayed her part, when in fact, this great director for a spell, it seems, loving Judy and wanting to be a family man (or was that another script self-directed???) did everything...

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Broadway Blows Birdie, Shrek, Ragtime & Rainbow Out the Doors: South Pacific set to Break Rodgers and Hammerstein Revival Record ...

On Broadway these days, new work is trumping yesterday's glories. In fact, a few ambitious new tuners that came to town last year may turn out to fare better than a hapless parade of revival contenders from the so-called "golden age." New York gave a chilly shoulder to Guys and Dolls, Bye Bye Birdie, and score-rich Finian's Rainbow(adored by the critics), all blockbusters when they first wowed the crowds half a century ago. Blame it on stupid direction, bad casting, or outdated materials failing to click with modern ticket buyers. A more recent show trying to capture a bigger market the second time around is the cardboard history lesson in plodding verse and ersatz Andrew Lloyd Weber anthems called Ragtime, which hardly ranks as a bygone age...

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A Tale of Two Circus Museums: The Rape of an Estate

Part 2 in a Series: Tibbals versus Ringling Two Exhibitions Clash as Irreconcilable Differences Only Grow Worse; It's Time for Divorce If you were to build a circus museum, would anybody come? Surely a handful of die-hard fans. Possibly a horde of curiosity seekers. How many of them would stay? Return? Bottom line, would you make any money?Back in 1948, Sarasota circus fan John L. Sullivan discovered on the grounds of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, then owned and run by the State of Florida, a number of old circus wagons and equipment stored in various garages. He thought — why not swing open the doors and offer the public a circus museum? Great idea, agreed museum director A. Everett Austin, himself a magician who was...

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Sunday Silly: Jumbo -- It's A "Go!" ... Sarasota Plagued by Seedy Greedy Gardens; The "Quad" in Comeback? Shake Hands with a Goat ...

Another decade, Another charade: Playing, or I should say plaguing Sarasota to boos and ejecting fists are those shameless scam artists, father and son team of Dick and Niles Garden ... They brought you the infamous Toby Tyler ultra-portable seat thrill ride, they brought me a “circus” so wretchedly awful, that I fled three bankrupt rings midway through the first half of hack hell. Blame Ringling’s eventual exit, conspiracy theory, yes, from the Cow Palace (SF) on that weekend in Gardenferno about 10 seasons ago ... Now their latest appearance: They've been arrested (Niles, that is) in of all places the town that John Ringling built, arrested on a felony charge of “attempting to swindle merchants and vendors.” Multiple Garden variety events were canceled “without notification or for exhibit...

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