Rethinking Ringling '56: The Acts

Widespread turmoil, from the striking Teamsters union to shaky management turnover, had engulfed Ringling-Barnum during the 1955 tour and was continuing to plague it as it headed into New York City for an April 5 opening at the Garden. As a consequence of all this, circus owner-producer John Ringling North had spent little time the previous summer, as was normally his custom, touring European cities for new acts.Nonetheless, the 1956 lineup included a number of "first time in America" imports: Victor De Jonghe's monkeys in "high flying antics;" comic acrobatics from Rebertes; jugglers Della Chiesas; and a five act display of diversified novelties, featuring the Three Canestrellis, the Five Verdus on "Giant Balls," head jumping Titos, high ladder...

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Tea Tent Tidbits: Ringling Train Goes Cho! Cho! ... Barnum Goes Bronze ... Baraboo Hosts Chinese Acrobats ... Carson & Barnes in Trouble?...

Okay, let’s get this Monday morning show on the road, the “show” being typed, or should I say hacked out, here on a hot Sunday morning in the L’Amyx tea tent ... Enter, leading my parade to wake you up in your cubicle, your bed, your lawn chair or cafe window seat -- P.T. Barnum! A bronze statute of the Great Showman standing all of 6' 3" was just erected to celebrate His 200th birthday and honor His Merry Suckerhood up there in Old New England, front of the Bethel Library. No, that's not the statue, I don't think; impossible to locate a photo just yet, but one I saw then lost was not nearly as impressive. Say what you may, P.T, our first great national spinmaster (or was that Mr. Jefferson?) built up a name that alone lured Americans by the...

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Sunday Morning with Francis Beverly Kelley

10/22/11 -- To members of the Kelley family: I am pleased that this post has brought you such pleasure, and thanks for sharing. I still feel lucky to have met Mr. Kelley, who so graciously agreed to pen a foreword to my first book, Behind the Big top."Spangled and big and red and gold, the circus smells of peanuts and cotton candy and pink lemonade and wild animals. It is as American as hot dogs.It pops up some gray gray morning with is billowing tents and flags whipping in halyards on a horizon that wasn't there a few hours ago. With sights and sounds to quicken the heartbeat, it makes its visitors kin to Alice at the moment when she stepped through the looking glass into the realm of pure fantasy.Here today and gone tomorrow, it is a state...

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Showbiz David Goes Video! -- Not? Rolla Bolla From China's Flying Acrobats Show in Beijing, 2010 ...

Update: No, answering my own question down there, it can't be this easy. No luck trying to load other videos I have. One came up overly cropped beyond running. And besides, the picture quality is very fuzzy.Very short video shot from my canon,and yes, not pro, but it was a test, and I'm too excited to hold it back, because ...Could it really be this easy? Dabbling this evening, wondering if I could show some videos of Chinese acts Boyi and I saw last April, first I went to You Tube, thinking that would be the only way. But way too complicated and confusing.And then, right here in my own blogger backyard -- the tools were there all the time!Here's a clip of a great act, in my opinion, seen at the Flying Acrobats Show. You'll see more and somewhat...

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Rare Disney Delight: Toby Tyler, the Movie, Revisited

I remember loving this 1960 film when it came out so many years ago, even though virtually every detail about it had vanished from my memory.When you revisit a favorite movie, a TV show, well anything that wowed you long ago, you risk a let down.Disney did not let me down. Remarkably, this "circus movie," based upon the 1880 children's book by James Otis Kaler, bears a most affecting story, giving us characters of depth rather than the usual cliches -- big top going bankrupt, con men on the tear, flyers recklessly competing for the center ring, you know the hooks.Toby, played to simple perfection by Kevin Corcoran, is an orphan living with his sweet aunt and cruel heartless uncle. He runs away to join the circus, making bests friends with...

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Garland and Paar in London: Two Fading Icons Cross the Stage. One Flickers Bright, the Other Hardly Tries ...

DVD Discovery: The Jack Paar Collection, Disc 3.She needed the spotlights to live. He needed more than that, for one thing, the continuity and comfort of a family life up in Connecticut.She threw everything she had into her music once the lights found her in costume, ready to grasp, caress and possess another audience. He seems to have grown weary of public adoration, restless for new places to go, new faces to amuse him.Away from the lights, she was one of the saddest stars in the universe. On Jack Paar's TV Show taped at the Prince Charles Theatare in London on December 11,1964, Judy shared something few stars would ever dare reveal, admitting to the loneliness of celebrity once a curtain came down and the fans went home.“They treat you...

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Morning Midway: Carson & Barnes Snapshot from Colorado

The following comment, by Michael from Longmont, Colorado, was left on the post I put out last year, "Two Views of Carson and Barnes Circus." Michael has just seen the show. Though rather downbeat, it strikes me as an unfortunately accurate reflection of what I've, too, experienced. And it makes me wonder, how does this circus manage to survive, year in and year out?"Sept. 16, 2010 went to the Carson and Barnes Circus. My wife and I felt bad for the entertainers because you got a feeling that this circus was not going to be around much longer. The show was very poor for adults. My children really enjoyed it. I am glad we had received BOGO on the tickets, otherwise I would have been really disappointed. Half the show had entertaining feats, but the rest seemed to just be going through the...

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Fred D. Pfening, Jr., Bandwagon Editor and Publisher, Leading Recorder of American Circus History

With regret, today I learned that long-time Bandwagon editor, Fred D. Pfening, Jr. passed away last night.We knew he was ill. We sensed that his last season may have arrived. Nonetheless, he will be greatly missed. For 49 years, he edited the journal of the Circus Historical Society, a bi-monthly magazine that will forever be associated with his name and well-deserved reputation for excellence in honoring circus history through an unstinting fidelity to truth. Perhaps more than any other soul, Pfening helped compile, edit and preserve an untold wealth of big top history and lore, and this he accomplished with a quiet respect for the subject he loved. In recent times, I have particularly admired his courage to tackle some rather messy...

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Glory to the Big Top: Photo of Kelly Miller Tent in Storm by Ryan Easley Inspires Monte Carlo Judges

Especially in the days of Leaf -- real canvas then -- I loved the sway of the big top, a living breathing thing, an extension of the earth itself, and so right for the very real world of circus. Elephants belong on dirt and grass, not over cold alien concrete and white parking lot lines. There always was something a little messy about an older fashioned tent show that gave it that extra dose of distinctive atmosphere. Even the newer plastic tops lend that certain magic we look for. How right and wonderful, then, that this Currier and Ives-like image of the Kelly Miller tent in a snow storm, snapped by the show's assistant Big Cage kid Ryan ("Radar") Easley, should nab a prize at the recent photo contest hosted by Monte Carlo's Princess...

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Sunday Morning from China: Otherscapes

The gold fish of BeijingIn the world's largest city, Shanghai: to your right, old town; to your left across the river, newCountry walk to Boyi's village in TaishanBoyi was raised in the charcoal brick house, second one up the path"Downtown" (or maybe "uptown") two or three miles from Boyi's village (a village being about ten or twelve houses and the farmland worked by the familys).Shades of neglect beneath the bridgeFigure in red, out a rainy window on a bus ride backHigh riders of TaishanAlong a freeway enroute to Hong KongA Hong Kong bridge. This tall and modern and chrome city felt so far away. So anonymous. So alien. So many skyrise apartment buildings stacked so close together, the place felt so hopelessly lonely. Especially a night....

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Big Top Bittles: "Banana" Hits the Road ... Kelly Miller in the Rain Wows Monte Carlo Photo Fest ... BTW, Monte Carlo, Your PR Dept. Sucks

SUNDAY UPDATE ... SUNDAY UPDATE! ... Ryan's winning Kelly-Miller snowed-in-big-top photo, which I discuss below, has been forward to me from Margaret of Circus Anonymous, and WILL BE posted here this week. A fanfare is in order ... WAIT FOR THE BIG ONE! UPDATE TO THE UPDATE, FROM DON COVINGTON, regarding my remarks about the verbiage, driven mainly out of my frustration over the press release lacking any photos. But fair is fair: Clarifies Don, "The flowery description, by the way, was required because of the premise of the contest that required that each of the photographers explain why their photo captured the spirit of the circus." Thanks, Don. I trust the respective winners feel a well-deserved pride.No shame in being a Broadway Flop, None at all. Step right up and fall on your face...

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