Rethinking Ringlng '56: Costumes by Vertes Inject Erotica into Circus; Floats Dead on Arrival

When this photo first grabbed me by the eyeballs, I could finally understand why critics of John Ringling North had been accusing him of staging a "night club circus." The costume was designed by French artist Marcel Vertes, hired by North to color-coat the 1956 show. Not just colorize, but evidently sex it up a lot; you need only study some of the Vertes sketches, which Life Magazine published, to spot erotic shadings in various states of fleshy titillation. The dancer, above, appeared in the hot-off-the-moment pachyderm production shaker, "Ringling Rock N' Roll." The performance rarely captured the pagan abandon that simmers in the above rendering of a floridly sensual procession. More often, from visuals left behind, '56 costumes lent...

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Baraboo's Bob Dewel Votes for City-Wide Promotion

Whisper the name of this sleepy little town, and await the entrance of its most protective resident, retired Doc Bob Dewel, who once drilled for gold and now drills to restore the original luster to the grand Al Ringling Theatre. Not only he, but the faithful others proud of their backwoods paradise and not too amenable to the intrusive admonitions of characters like me. Most recently, in response to my latest outburst concerning the Circus World Museum's dogged preoccupation with circus wagon restoration over other things (one being the shamefully neglected old Thimble Theatre Fun House), a new round of hurt feelings lined up to deposit comments here (okay all two or three of them). In same article, I sprinkled provisional praise upon one...

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The Morning Midway: Kelly-Miller Circus Enjoying Big Bounce in Biz?

I am only speculating based upon my sole source, Steve and Ryan's blog. Now and then, my eyes skate quickly across the text to grab biz talk. Steve usually still sums up each day's human haul, and seems this year there are more full or near full houses, and some packed ones too, than I recall from last year.So, granting that who really knows what ANY circus is actually doing other than the office staff, I'd guess that Kelly-Miller is up by say 30 percent this season. If so, that's a good omen for John Ringling North II.[photo of Steve and "animatronic" Steve doll from his bl...

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Rethinking Ringling ‘56: Music Added Strings, Favored Frank Loesser Hits, Rocked and Rolled, Too!

Ringling’s last season under canvas was so fraught with high drama, somebody should turn it into a movie and NOW.For most Ringlingphiles (I plead guilty), anything about that sad tumultuous tour captures the imagination, stirs the heart, makes one cry out, “Why did it ever have to happen!?!?!?!>!” And you can’t stay away. Some are still in denial. Now comes, belatedly published in the latest issue of Bandwagon, an account of nearly the last two weeks by Faye O. Braathen, who followed the show with her husband, Sverre, staying in hotels along the way, spending most of their time jack-potting in the backyard and sometimes taking seats, or just standing, to watch the show, part of it not all. They were "with it" almost to the end. And...

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Morning Midway: Ringling Wants to Know what it's Customers Think of Big Apple Circus

This by way of an extensive survey received in my e-mail which I was invited to complete for Feld Entertainment; no doubt it was sent my way because I have booked tickets to their circuses on-line. In answering, I addressed Barnum's Funundrum, it being the last Feld show I attended.The same set of family-oriented questions asked about customer reaction to the Ringling show were later posed to me about Big Apple. Now, possible caveat here: perhaps because I had purchased a ticket on-line (Ticketmaster) to BAC back in 2005, that may have triggered the survey annex; and yet, when I was asked, "which of the following shows have you ever attended as a parent or grandparent (come to think of it, the question does not technically apply to me, does...

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In a Ringling Vice: Flashy Barnum's Funundrum Does Not Lack for Trying

Circus Review: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & BaileyBarnum's Funundrum!Oakland Oracle ArenaAugust 12, 7:30 PMThinking back, only two nights ago, upon my varied reactions to this latest effort from the Felds, I am struck by how it veers and lurches back and forth between brilliance and banality. Consider:* An aerial ballet so ingeniously original, so utterly enchanting and so sensitively scored, with the central focus given over to Duo Fusion from Argentina (seen in the photo above), that surely it would either bring the late great Barbete to tears of joy or bursts of envious rage. * Some of the most gorgeously atmospheric lighting effects I’ve come across at a circus.* By far the most embarrassingly fail-safe “high wire” act of protected...

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Circus World Musem’s Steve Freese -- the Barnum Baraboo Needs? ... He Leads "Water For Elephants" Research Parade

Call him a late-coming sawdust and spangles convert. While walking the movie set of Water For Elephants, which recently wrapped in Southern California, politician-turned-circus-museum-mogul Steve Freese, seen standing in the photo, felt a certain thrill watching the wagons he had loaned help recreate the look of a Depression era circus.Indeed, when this promising film is released next year, circus fans who care about detail may marvel at the authenticity on display. If reports are accurate, they can thank Circus World Museum, which provided valuable research assistance not just to author Sarah Gruen, upon whose novel the film is based, but to the film company as well. In fact, Mr. Freese's pro active involvement in getting old circus museum...

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All the World's a Circus: Laotian Elephants to China; German Bathtub Acrobats to Edinburgh; U.S. Billposting War Lithos to Shelburne

Covington Connected, here are a few juicy finds around the globe:Bathtub acrobatics: Edinburgh Festival crowds were left "open mouthed" by the rare spectacle of scantly clad circus type performers cavorting as much in water as out of. Circle of Eleven, a German produced show that just completed a two-year run in Berlin (where else?), sends its sexy stars flipping and flopping, turning somersaults and hand stands over and around bath tubs. Will a shower circus be next? Here, in the photo, is Fernando Dudka, whose splashy exploits are described by The List, "a perfect balance of strength,precision and wet muscles. Show is said to give off "more louche cabaret tone."Here's a kid in Laos (heck, he looks like he could be from Hugo, Oklahoma)...

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The Evidence that Animals Think and Feel Grows ...

Most interesting, a scientific chap on the Charlie Rose Show, talking about studies made of behavior among apes, etc., showing more and more the intricate thought and emotional interactions among these and other animals. The element of social "cooperation" is also discussed.Circuses, I am more and more considering, are the perfect forum in which to teach children, as always they have, about the wondrous interactions between humans and the four-legged s...

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Morning Midway: Glimpses and Guesses About Semi- Elusive Cole Bros. Circus of Stars in 2010

Their updated website is fresh, vibrant, dazzling, intimately engaging. The lineup looks fairly promising -- not exactly content heavy, but covering some strong basics and culminating in a power fest down the home stretch.I wish I'd seen Cole Bros. Circus of the Stars at Brooklyn. Like so many shows, it takes sleuthing or inside connections (sometimes a guessing game) to ferret out these shows well enough in advance to slate rails east. If you live in California, most of them are way east. Anyway, I spotted a brief nod for Cole at Brooklyn under "things to do" in NY Time Out. Inspired me to revisit their website, and here are some images.A photo of the tent looks like it's been expanded in size, which, if so, suggests business is up. ...

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Time Out NY Reviews Ringling's Illuscination

Note: I found this review, which appeared a few weeks ago on the website Time Out NY, to be independent and worth passing along. The writer is Raven Snook:Like last summer’s eye-popping Coney Island Boom-a-Ring!, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s latest seaside spectacle fits right in with the colorful neighborhood. Cool (if familiar) feats—juggling, tumbling, swinging and lion taming—inspire ooos and ahhs, but it’s the interactive preshow that really wows kiddos. That’s when wide-eyed kids can step right into the ring to try jump-roping, balancing and tightrope walking (don’t worry, it’s close to the ground!); don rhinestone-studded costumes and gawk at the animals up close. It’s certainly a great family photo op and definitely a circus...

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Monday Misc. Leno Shows New Promise; Ringling's Coney Biz a Breeze? Fired Idol Judges, Good Riddance! BTW: Who Really Runs Big Apple Circus Now?

Late Night Needy: Okay, I’m making the rounds of the late night talk shows again, and coming up, ready?, Leno. On two nights this week, what a difference without that innocuously irritating ex-band leader named Kevin Eubanks, who drew away too much of Jay’s eye contact during the opening joke fest, as if Leno were playing more to Kevin than to me, the viewer. New music man Rickey Minor remained majestically silent, and I pray he stays that way. Then, more promising news: After the first break, Jay's desk bit was a howler; he spoofed ill-fated company mergers by holding up dispirit products and the oddball creations they produced. I was LOL. Now, if Mr. Jay will just stop his jay walking bits, he might have a future. Here's the anti-kicker: Leno's ratings in steady free fall since he returned...

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Circusgoing in Santa Rosa, 1869 on Rails from the East ...

(A circus comes to nearby Petaluma, circa 1900)From Gaye LeBaron's "Insight" column in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, March 14, 1982:Dan Costello, another clown who had traveled with the great P.T. Barnum, brought to Santa Rosa his Circus and Menagerie "Overland from the Atlantic to the Pacific!" in August,1869 ... bringing together "all under one roof and one price of admission" wild animals including "the first hart-beast ever exhibited," Dan Costello himself and his "educated equines," the acrobatic Victorella Brothers from circus rings of Paris and London, and a Brazilian family of bareback riders.Reported an editor in the Press Democrat, the show "was an immense sensation to these parts. It seemed as if the people of all the surrounding...

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