Sauk County Historical Society Jennifer Lemmer Posey: In their competition, Barnum and Forepaugh were both trying to elevate their own shows but also trying to demean their competitor. Oregonian Publishing Co. / The Oregon Journal Timothy Tegge Circus Archives Narration: Though the attractions were without rival, many came hoping simply to catch a glimpse of the owner. Narration: In time his roster would include gymnasts and magicians, fortune-tellers and snake charmers. Watertown Historical Society The State Art Museum of Florida, Florida State University Matthew Wittmann: In his typical fashion, the show was a blitz of publicity posters, news in the Harper’s Weekly. Streamline Films, Inc. James Bailey and P.T. I mean, the animal was big, but it’s Barnum’s publicity made him seem even bigger. Paul Fouquet, C.S.A Roger Smith, Wild Animal Trainer: I was four years old. It had become an annual tradition they loved. He ran around in that cage with such energy, and such projection, that he involved everybody. Louis Masur Houghton Library, Harvard University Fred Pfening III: A huge percentage of Americans saw electricity for the first time on a circus. You had all the variety acts you could ever want to see in your living room if you would sit there on Sunday night looking at Ed Sullivan. It took the inexperienced men twelve hours to accomplish their task. The ever-enduring wonders and controversies surrounding the tent circus, and the lives of Barnum, Bailey, the Ringlings, and other preeminent promoters, receive a comprehensive look in this "American Experience" presentation. More than ten thousand people died in September alone. Equestrians, sideshow performers, clowns, roustabouts, an enormous collection of curious beasts—all became figments of a glorious dream. La Norma Fox: And it happened. Narration: Colleano was rivaled on the wire only by a German act, the Wallendas. Dagli Orti/Bridgeman Images It took firefighters more than an hour to arrive. American Antiquarian Society They were both big stars and they knew it. Jennifer Lemmer Posey, Curator: There are so many crazy acts that have happened under the circus tent. They called it Ca’ d’Zan, House of John. Narration: His show included a ropewalker, clowns, acrobats, as well as Helena Spinacuta, an equestrian who galloped on two horses at once. Narration: The most famous elephant in America came to a grisly end himself, though his death was accidental. H. Crowell Pepper If you bought an animal from Hagenbeck and it died soon after arrival, as they tended to do, he would replace it. Its magic is universal and complex…. I’m damn sure, pardon my French, I’m not ashamed of it, I can tell you that. They mounted a joint show under canvas in Philadelphia. Fred Pfening Iii: He was the first circus to have two tents. In Europe they had a little place, just a small building. He falls in love with elephants, and he learns how to train them. Oddball Films She was, Bailey claimed, the first elephant born in the West since the Roman Empire. For me, that is the essence of circus. Barnum by the London Zoological Society caused an uproar in England. In December the show packed up and headed home. Narration: The loss of the cat acts didn’t affect the Ringlings’ bottom line. That’s Clyde Beatty.” He came running toward us, and began to crack the whip and in came these animals that I had never seen. Edward Hoagland: The people who were watching the performance, some of them rather hoped that someone would fall. After quarantines shuttered performances several days in a row, they packed up the Ringling show two weeks early. Narration: Without their eldest brother’s firm hand at the helm, the Ringlings struggled. Hotel Circus Circus Las Vegas - forum Parcs nationaux de l'Ouest américain - Besoin d'infos sur Parcs nationaux de l'Ouest américain ? When the first flickering fingers of flame, they called it, went shooting up and everybody realized there was a fire in the big top. G.E. And if you include the number of people milling about the grounds and the circus folk as well, it’s probably the largest collection of people that they had ever witnessed. The PBS Distribution documentary American Experience: The Circus will come out on digital Oct. 9 on iTunes and on DVD Nov. 6.. For instance, a tight wire, it’s a steel wire and it’s hard like rock. And an elephant can take the penny from your hand. With the Barnum show setting out from New York and the Ringling show starting its season in Chicago, the two circuses traveled more than twenty-six thousand miles altogether, stopping in almost 320 towns and cities across the nation. Barnum stoked the media frenzy. Matthew Wittmann: The circus was a kind of back door into American popular culture for black musicians, who didn’t have a whole lot of avenues available to them. Marjorie Cordell Geiger Victoria And Albert Museum, London Dominique Jando: American circus entrepreneurs, from the very beginning, went to get their talent in Europe. Paul Ringling, Grandson, Alf T. Ringling: They were quite young when they started. Narration: After a lackluster 1930 season, Alfredo Codona and Lillian Leitzel headed to Europe to perform for the winter. That just had to have been just an absolutely slam bang season for him to do that and it was because of Jumbo. Narration: It took five years of failed attempts before Colleano successfully executed a front somersault. Acres of billowing canvas appeared mirage-like on the outskirts of town. In 1874, he copied Barnum by introducing a second ring and vastly exaggerating his line-up of performers. The frail and aging Yankee Robinson died half way through the season. Jennifer Lemmer Posey: In 1903, with the return of Barnum & Bailey’s show they want to make sure that they’re competitive. Mary Jane Miller, Aerialist: At night you pulled your curtain shut. New arrivals and homegrown talent did their best to keep the circus tradition alive, but the nation was vast and sparsely populated. Dominique Jando: Leotard was a gymnast. Sam had him escorted out. Then for the first time since launching their circus decades before, the brothers sent the Ringling circus to winter, not in Baraboo their hometown, but in Bridgeport, Connecticut with the Barnum show. They showed up to see how the operation worked. Entertainment was a luxury few could afford. Bailey’s publicity men countered with some hyperbole of their own. For a space it enables us to lose ourselves, to dissolve in wonder and bliss, to be transported by mystery. Janet M. Davis: Areas on the route are facing quarantine, and show dates have to be abridged. Fred Dahlinger Jr.: You had the Barnum show, and you had the Ringling show. Many of those people that run away, they run away to—to look for their dreams, to make their dreams come true. Whether it was the lighting, or the herd of ten elephants, or the nighttime parades, Cooper and Bailey turned away crowds at stop after stop. James W. Cook: He knew that the circus had a morally suspect reputation on many different levels, and what he does really, in a remarkable way, is create a kind of marketing campaign with testimonials from clergy, from famous writers, and other celebrity figures, who attest to the wholesomeness of his circuses. Family was extremely important to them. There was a double horned black rhinoceros from Abyssinia, four large African lions, six Bengal tigers, a pair of leopards, and, according to The New York Times, a “wilderness of monkeys.”. Lowery becomes this pillar in the African-American community. Janet M. Davis: The iconic power of the tented city spread over nine acres, during the Gilded Age and the years thereafter, had taken hold in the American imagination to such a degree that people around the country viewed that form of circus as the only circus. Out of its wild disorder comes order; from its rank smell rises the good aroma of courage and daring; out of its preliminary shabbiness comes the final splendor.” E. B. Barnum join together to great the greatest show of all. Fred Pfening Iii: It turns out, that’s completely untrue. Edward Hoagland: The clowns act out the resentment that we all feel towards people who are more successful than we are. Then he took Heth on tour through New England. Narration: With Heth, Barnum had made himself famous for humbuggery. Her record was 240 rotations. P.G. “Circus Polka” He never played it again. Chapter 1 [:35] 2. American Experience: The Circus is a four-hour, two-part documentary airing 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 8-9 on… Lenox Library Association, Library of Congress Fred Dahlinger Jr.: They mounted his skeleton and his hide, both, and they were presented in one of the tents of the show. Roger Smith We all love miracles. Like many American circus owners, Barnum got most of his animals from the German dealer, Carl Hagenbeck. Narration: There was never anything easy about life with the circus. Disgruntled at having to move the heavy seats, one-hundred-and-fifty working men demanded more pay. Al. Narration: Within the big top, as nowhere else on earth, is to be found Actuality. PBS - American Experience - Jimmy Carter (2002) 1of4. When the accounts were tallied for the 11,000-mile tour through nineteen states, they showed the circus had made more than $1.1 million. We think about the Harlem Renaissance, but the circus musicians were coming a generation before. Sakina Hughes Gaumont Pathe Archives It was an adult form of entertainment. And yet, you are. The Circus, Part 1. Narration: Almost everywhere the circus went it met with disapproval. Narration: North was determined that his second season would be a success. A few weeks earlier they’d held their first votes-for-women meeting. That was the differentiating factor between a big and a little circus. After more than half a century in the entertainment business, the last of the Ringling brothers was gone. À la découverte du cirque américain, qui évolua du spectacle sur une piste circulaire à un événement culturel, pour finalement incarner une espèce en voie de disparition. And the brothers’ big top had never been so full of such extraordinary talent. This title is not available to stream on Netflix in the United Kingdom “Why that’s all bosh. So the circus is always trying to toe this line of, “What can we put in the sideshow tent that titillates but isn’t going to get anyone arrested?”. James W. Cook, Historian: Barnum was the most widely visible and widely known American of the 19th century. Immigrants of German descent in the Middle West, Latino in the South, Jewish in New York, they all had and could understand the same circus. There was all kind of big wagons with machine shops, and it was humongous. That’s why you had to have so many acts going on at the same time. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Elisha Whittelsey Collection Codona hastened to her side. Was this review helpful to you? Jumbo’s death, which made headlines across the country, was a huge financial blow to Barnum. Samuel Thompson, Photo and Map Animation It’s kind of unimaginable that there’s this animal several tons in weight that can take a penny out of your hand. Known as the Adonis of the Altitudes, Codona’s celebrity rested on his skillful execution of a triple somersault. Richard Reynolds: The thing that struck me most, I can still see it, are the elephant men, big old burly elephant men strapping these pink tutus around the hindquarters of the elephants. With veteran showman Yankee Robinson’s name to promote the show, the brothers opened the season in Baraboo in May 1884. Royal Collection Trust/Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth Ii/Bridgeman Images It was a decision that would split the family apart. Scranton Times-Tribune That ever-expanding network was fueling an unrivaled period of industrialization and innovation. The show closed on September 14th, the earliest date in its history. I think a lot of people are so surprised when they see elephants move, how graceful they are and how quiet their step is. It was the biggest lay-off in circus history, and an ominous sign of things to come. In just three years, they had completely transformed the circus business. “Just put a little electricity in your blood,” Barnum urged Coup, “and we will beat the world.”. He ordered the design and production of eighty-two different lithographs and then sent his publicity team out on three advance cars to plaster the route with posters. Narration: It had taken nerves of steel and months of meticulous planning to pull off. He remembered practicing as many as seven hours a day, determined to perform a feat on the wire no one else had ever accomplished: a front somersault. By 1928, eight years after the first commercial radio broadcast, a quarter of American households had radio sets. Disc #1 -- American Experience: The Circus 1. Narration: Local communities had other legitimate concerns. Every season men were injured or killed. They became a class of people that they hadn’t started out to be. Fred Dahlinger Jr., Circus Historian: It turned out he had a great knack for it, and eventually over the next thirty years, ended up being one of the finest showman in America. “I have lived so long on excitement, pepper and mustard,” he admitted to a friend, “that plain bread don’t agree with me.”. and get comfy back on sofa with the dogs.It's an interesting, well researched and respectful insight into the origins of the circus and well done. As the profits rolled in, Forepaugh and Barnum divided up the country between them. In St. Louis, Forepaugh hung twenty-two thousand posters; Barnum and Bailey put up twenty-three thousand. Fred Pfening Iii: Jumbo made a fortune for Barnum and Bailey. The next year their problems only multiplied. He loved it himself, and I took it from him. My grandfather standing on the top of a chair with his wife standing on his shoulders, while he was on a bar that was balanced between Joe Geiger and his brother Herman. And then there’s the “them” that we’re looking at. “I feel like an outcast from society,” a bearded lady said. American Experience: The Circus (PBS Distribution) is a four-hour, two-part documentary exploring the colorful history of this popular, influential and distinctly American form of entertainment. What a brilliant documentary too really interesting and well put together.As a lifelong lover and owner / trainer of dog and horses I've always had an interest in the origins of the circus even if the animals and the training techniques used are devastatingly sad to realise now. I thought, “I'm better than anybody else. Dominique Jando: May Wirth was obviously extraordinary. Narration: In the spring of 1835, Barnum bought the rights to exhibit a frail enslaved African-American woman named Joice Heth. While Forepaugh could rival Barnum for size, The Great International Circus, could not. Johnathan Lee Iverson: What makes America great is … When the strongwoman came on the Javanese were so astounded, they stopped playing completely. Stephen Mccarthy, Archival Researchers 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. Narration: More gigantic, elaborate and daring every year, the warring circuses would battle over audiences. There was a menagerie, and then there was the main tent where the performance took place. By the time the circus played its final stop, it had made an unheard of half a million dollars in profit. Matthew Wittmann: It proves very, very popular, both in terms of the advertising and people that go to the show seemed to be fascinated by these things, and pretty soon, other shows get on board and start staging their own specs. Jennier And Millette Families Over the next two years, Barnum contracted with people from Asia, Australia, Europe, the American West, and Africa. AMERICAN EXPERIENCE “The Circus,”New Four-Hour Documentary Premieres Monday and Tuesday,October 8-9 on WOUBThe Fascinating History of a Uniquely American Form of Entertainment“The Circu Jennifer Lemmer Posey: In the first two decades of the Ringling Show, the brothers were really committed to the circus performance, to the purest form of circus, the circus that they had grown up with. Fred Dahlinger Jr.: If you were going to mess with one of them, you were gonna to mess with all five of them. So, it starts with the street parade and amazing floats and barges and the elephants that are draped in beautiful rich blankets and all of the other animals paraded through the street. Richard Reynolds: There’d be the boss canvas man and he’d say, “You boys want to see the circus?” “Oh yes, sir, sure we do.” “Well, listen, if you help put up these side poles here, and pull out this canvas, you’ll get a free ticket.” And that’s how that worked. Narration: Bailey toured the United Kingdom for two seasons, before taking his circus to the European continent. The following year, with posters from both great shows festooning the outside of Madison Square Garden, the two impresarios combined their circuses for an opening run in New York. on two discs. “Most people spend their lives trying to dodge trouble,” he said, “The best fun in the world is dodging trouble you’ve made for yourself.”. I used to love to pick a few people there and smile especially at them. Lowery’s band is going to be here playing.” It was a really big point of pride. The story of those who brought it to life. Then all those people came pouring out. And he ordered a dozen new tents including a big top that Barnum claimed could seat thirteen thousand people. There’s nothing in the world like it. On the evening of January 22nd, at the age of fifty-eight, the great showman passed away at home in Philadelphia. Technically it was okay. The next day, passersby came to stare at the ruined building encased in ice. In the process, a camel slipped and broke its back. Their mortality rate is pretty high as they transition to captivity. And to my understanding, it’s the first and last time that a show has ever been stopped for fifteen minutes of applause waiting for the Wallendas to come back to the ring. In early 1908, John Ringling toured Europe to scout circus talent. Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, The Circus follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus and brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town and its stars were among the most famous people in the country. ... American Experience: From Women’s Suffrage to the ERA. He was thoroughly disheartened. Even so, many performances were late and forty-two were canceled . Audiences were dismayed to discover that the acts were now spread across three rings not two. PBS American Experience _The Circus 2of4. Australian National University 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. Narration: “It wasn’t that they were so smart,” a nephew said, “but that there were so God-damned many of them.”. Scores of circus folk went to pay their last respects, including two of the Ringling brothers. Dominique Jando: Their marriage was very tempestuous, as any marriage with Lillian Leitzel would be with anybody, and they both had a gigantic ego. American Experience: The Circus DVD. 1872, we could talk about big circus. He would do melodramas. Ronald G. Becker Collection of Charles Eisenmann Photographs, Scrc, Syracuse University Libraries At around 4am on Christmas Eve, a fire broke out in the building, destroying the performers’ costumes, instruments, and almost the entire menagerie. You have to have six. PBS American Experience _The Circus 3of4. Fred Dahlinger Jr. Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Senior Contracts & Rights Manager Though elated by the success of their first combined season, the Ringlings were struggling with sad news on the home front. Church leaders claimed that hard work was virtuous and entertainment of all kinds sinful. Richard W. Moore Circus Lantern Slide Collection They got trapped in there. Narration: In Europe, circus family have their own circus and created circus performer long before circus school. You woke up early, and you worked through the day. Narration: For almost a century, Americans across the country looked forward eagerly to the cherished rituals of Circus Day. Some observers doubted Bailey was up to the task. Then you have to ship them to Europe. Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. They're just on the ground.” It just lifts you beyond anything you can imagine. Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin Dominique Jando: Ricketts was by all accounts, even while he was still in England, quite an extraordinary equestrian. Nobody ever accused Forepaugh of not being able to make a buck. He spent a little over forty thousand dollars on having thirteen parade wagons built. “American Experience: The Circus” is a four hour PBS mini series that tells the story of the American circus. When the time came time to sign the traditional four-week lease at Madison Square Garden, Ringling discovered the Garden insisted on reserving Friday nights for prize fighting. James W. Cook: The Ethnological Congress is an expansion of the sideshow. By mid-July, the operation was one million dollars in the red. And it meant that you had to have a crew that was either all white or all black. © 2018 WGBH Educational Foundation When they did, it was so cold the water from their hoses froze. Composed by Igor Stravinsky Wazee Digital Hundreds of thousands of words spent trying to make sense and trying to understand what it was to think about P. T. Barnum’s significance and legacy for American culture. Eulogies in newspapers across the country praised Bailey for his many achievements, most notably taking American culture to the rest of the world. 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. It took nine hours to extinguish the flames. Janet M. Davis: The circus took possession of the towns in which they showed, life stops. “It is large,” wrote one reporter, “excellent in character and eminently calculated to impress the sight-seeing mind. A/V Geeks LLC Their most surprising innovation was the addition in 1897 of a dark canvas tent they called the black top . Henry Paprill, J.W. Everybody felt that the main guy had really died that day. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). Lowery says, "You know, sometimes people say that" "The circus is a bad place for us" "But for equal treatment and for sure pay," "Give me the circus." Group of clowns, early 20th century. Narration: DOMINIQUE JANDO: But she had this immense charisma and in a place like the Ringling tent with these thousands of seats, everybody was totally hypnotized by what she did. Narration: In response to the gloomy mood of the country, the clowns seemed to have taken over at the circus in the late 1930s. Lowery is going to be here. In two years, attendance at the movies dropped a third. The show American Experience: The Circus was released in 2018. When the 1908 circus season began, the two shows toured separately. One African American newspaper said, “And all the white people got wobbly, too.”. Narration: He plastered New York with posters advertising the old woman as George Washington’s 161-year-old nursemaid.
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