Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. With his new Pavilion circus, he could travel from one small town to the next, stopping for just one night, if the local population was too tiny to justify a second one. He made it look so easy. Careful now you're bringing you're going to see I get choked up a little. Criticalpast Jackie Leclaire: Were in the dressing tent, and then all of a sudden, we become aware of hearing other voices and it got louder and louder. Mariboe Collection, Museum of Copenhagen Narration: While Barnum replenished the menagerie, the work of pulling the show together fell to W.C. Coup. Deborah Walk: Up to three miles long of animals, of beautiful ladies on incredibly beautiful horses, wagons of all sizes, bands, all would parade through your town creating gridlock. The Documentary Investment Group: When workers finally agreed to work for reduced wages, North tried to update an entertainment that had remained essentially unchanged for half a century. Where do we go from here, you know. Like many American circus owners, Barnum got most of his animals from the German dealer, Carl Hagenbeck. What are the times people work? Narration: From Australia, the circus toured the island of Java, where it picked up local musicians to play in the band. So, youre in a colonial to post-colonial era, and Americans are learning more about foreign cultures. As the fire raged, embers rained down on the Ringling Brothers circus, which was playing five blocks away. Emily Dickinson. More specifically, a myth or two: Pandora's Box, Persephone and the Underworld, King Midas, Athena and Arachne, and don't forget the Mythapalooza Slam Jam! The Top 100 Circus Songs by Sounds of the Circus South - Apple Music Known as the Adonis of the Altitudes, Codonas celebrity rested on his skillful execution of a triple somersault. Bridgeport History Center, Bridgeport Public Library Dominique Jando, Circus Historian: You saw extraordinary animals that you sometimes had never seen. Richard Reynolds, Circus Historian: The preachers would wail against that waste of time. In 1937, almost two million workers had gone on strike. And it was also, in essence, a zoo. Frank Wiggers - Vintage Footage Only the few best men could do that, and she was a woman! The writer laid his bets instead on five young men from Baraboo. As the profits rolled in, Forepaugh and Barnum divided up the country between them. Janet M. Davis Sometimes the rebounding wire left him paralyzed for days. Its really a remarkable, remarkable story. Brown Brothers Why? Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. In a decade when America was booming, the Ringling Brothers big top was the place to be. Narration: The show returned to New York in the middle of October having traveled as far west as St. Louis. It had been Forepaugh and Barnum for so long, that the death of that rival was significant. They became a class of people that they hadnt started out to be. On the evening of January 22nd, at the age of fifty-eight, the great showman passed away at home in Philadelphia. And they all march for suffrage.. And each had their own little ways about doing things. His first job was to clean up after elephants. Oklahoma Historical Society The Plays > The Wild Goose Circus Cover art by Hanna Moors The Wild Goose Circus Russell Davis Add to cart Performance Rights Play Description The story of a dysfunctional circus in which a fortuneteller has wrested control of the circus from her ringmaster. Freaks are called freaks and are treated as they are treated in the main, abominably because they are human beings who cause to echo, deep within us, our most profound terrors and desires. James Baldwin, Even the most hardened performers, never got used to the humiliation. Ronald G. Becker Collection of Charles Eisenmann Photographs, Scrc, Syracuse University Libraries As the circus roared into the mid-20s, large profits kept rolling in and the brothers found new ways to spend their money. With veteran showman Yankee Robinsons name to promote the show, the brothers opened the season in Baraboo in May 1884. So my grandfather and the rest of troupe, they snuck away quickly into the dressing room. Timothy Tegge Circus Archives The Big Top. Paul Ringling: I knew there was going to be a strike. The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation That touch is about a kind of separation of who you are and what the object is. A drama for teens about romance and family written by Tom Cavanaugh. He had this little buggy that hed go around, and hed put up the posters in the towns ahead of the route of the Robinson & Lake Circus to announce that it was coming. The National Archives (UK) It takes years and years, and dedication, mentally, physically. His father has a gymnasium in France, in Toulouse. The inventiveness born of such intense rivalrythe expanding menageries, the perilous new acts, the monstrous size of it allhad launched the American circus into its Golden Age. Jennifer Lemmer Posey: A lot of people would watch this wonderful show roll into town, a magical world filled of people doing extraordinary things and see that as a chance to jump out of their everyday, and follow that. Hed been heading up black circus bands ever since. Paul Fouquet, C.S.A Mabel Stark quickly became one of the most popular performers at the Ringling circus, yet the cat acts left some members of the audience dismayed. Narration: In the century since a skilled English equestrian had brought the first one-ring show to the United States, the circus had become the most popular of American entertainments, appealing to presidents and farmers, teachers and coal miners, grandparents and school children. The more applause you get, the happier you are, and walking out of there makes you feel so good. Janet M. Davis: Local kids served as teamsters. In 1860, he was working as a bellboy at a hotel in Pontiac, Michigan, when Fred Bailey, an advertising man for the Robinson & Lake Circus came to stay. Johnathan Lee Iverson, Ringmaster: The danger acts, they just remind us that were alive. Matthew Wittmann, Archival Materials Courtesy of Narration: When all the protests failed, Jumbo was shipped in a crate aboard a British vessel, and greeted by crowds at New Yorks Castle Garden pier. In America, if you travel and do two shows a day and move every day, there is no time for a rehearsal. Narration: It had taken nerves of steel and months of meticulous planning to pull off. Playing out in two acts, it included a ballet, a grand oriental procession, and a battle on the ramparts of Jerusalem. And whats more is he had five tents housing five separate attractions. He was at Charless side when his brother died. Matthew Wittmann: It really, really stunned people to see women doing these things. They had scrambled out of the house before dawn to meet a steamboat carrying a travelling show up the Mississippi River. That really is the most beautiful thing. Its not a great scientist or someone who actually had achieved, you know, a breakthrough to improve humankind. Narration: By the time the show reached Rutland, Vermont in the middle of June, the promotion had so saturated the area that visitors came by the thousands from villages in neighboring New York State. Richard Reynolds: They had those big cat tunnels across the hippodrome track. Carrie Phillips. Jennifer Lemmer Posey: North brings in Norman Bel Geddes, who is a well known industrial designer and who helps resurface all of the presentations of the circus. Soon he was executing the stunt over rivers, between buildings. Colorlab Neither Barnum nor Bailey attended, but they took note. Some 15,000 people poured into a big top as long as three city blocks, to see sixty-six acts perform in four rings and one stage. When they got to San Francisco, James Bailey decided to keep on going. The crowd would count each one. Role of Narrator taken by Class Teacher. Narration: As the herds got bigger, and trainers tried to outdo each other with more sophisticated tricks, the strain on circus elephants increased. The perfect man has more than the professors brain and a good deal of the performers legs., Friday I tasted life. Michael Lancaster: They had rules for everything. Louis Masur This idea of colonialism became very interesting, how the Western world could bring its influence to other lands. You are a performer, and you stay a performer until the day you die. This play includes 18 children's songs in both vocal and instrumental versions. I shall see that they are presented with fancy articles and small allowances monthly.. Even so, many performances were late and forty-two were canceled . She had this wonderful charisma and charm. It was a defining part of my life, yes. Still outraged by the violence, Sen. Michael Bennett joins John Heilemann for a look at preparation for the trial and Alex Wagner speaks with an . Stanley Kubrick For Look Magazine / Museum of The City of New York/Sk Film Archives He just did it totally naturally. Dominique Jando: In a performance, you see one extraordinary feat after another. Estimated run time: 1 hour 13 minutes. If you fall badly on that, youll really hurt yourself. Samuel Thompson, Photo and Map Animation You couldnt run a traveling circus the way you had. Composed by Russell Alexander Fred Dahlinger Jr.: Al Ringling was really part of the fabric of Baraboo. Mrs. Bailey put her brother in charge of the circus. Narration: Over the next three years, the Barnum & Bailey show performed in almost three hundred towns across Germany, Hungary, Austria, Holland, Belgium, France, and Switzerland. Mark Mandler And they had topical songs, which were about political events, about something that everybody was speaking of. The kindest treatment I believe in is a steel lashed whip.. The circus crashed in on everyday life, loud and brash, then vanished like an illusion, leaving some child dreaming of a different life. Mary Jane Miller And then, it also serves as a grand entre into the performance itself. The crowded circus lot was a perfect breeding ground for pickpockets. Janet M. Davis, Historian: The audacity of this move was spectacular. Narration: For generations, the story was familiar. At thirty, he is running a circus. I used to think when I got old my feelings wouldnt get hurt, but I was wrong., Matthew Wittmann: Respectable people would skip the sideshow tent because it did have a reputation. Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, the first flight at Kittyhawk; these things happened and live in books. The scene in Manchester was repeated in towns across England. There's no elephant on a bicycle but there are the Greek Geeks and have they got a story or two to tell. After an extraordinarily successful run in Brooklyn, the circus set off on a six-month tour of the Northeast. The Con Colleano Home Movie Collection, Deposited with The National Film & Sound Archive, Australia, Courtesy Dr Mark St Leon, Sydney The circus is coming to town, but P.G. That was the differentiating factor between a big and a little circus. Bailey spent 1877 touring his show around Australia.