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. Browse more videos. James Bailey faces his stiffest competition yet and tries to hold on to his edge. Frantic people jumped off bleachers. Cincinnati Art Museum/Strobridge Lithographing Company/Bridgeman Images Robert Thompson: Barnum knew that in the end, if you really wanted to make it big, you had to appeal to a huge audience and that included women and children. Narration: Though the attractions were without rival, many came hoping simply to catch a glimpse of the owner. The more applause you get, the happier you are, and walking out of there makes you feel so good. Reporters were told she depended chiefly on housework to keep herself in shape. Al, Otto, Alf T., Charles, and John Ringling had seen their first circus in Iowa as children. It was supposed to be a little bit racy, a little bit dangerous, but you didn’t want it to be fundamentally disturbing. She got everything that he knew and she took it from there as a tiger trainer. She’s a robot. In the end, it’s a very small percentage, you know, maybe under twenty percent of the animals that you actually begin with are the ones you’re left with. Paul Ringling, Grandson, Alf T. Ringling: They were quite young when they started. Narration: Those five visionaries held a vision and never let go of it and made it real. Janet M. Davis: It transforms the circus into a modern industrial corporation, complete with manager systems, with bosses of different departments, contracting agents. After more than two years of almost constant travel, his circus had covered more than seventy-six thousand miles. Nigel Rothfels: Jumbo was a very, very big elephant. “They are Baraboo boys.”. It was really sort of a preposterous-looking thing. Cleveland Public Library They allow you to look the absurdity of your humanity and they allow you to laugh at yourself. Matthew Wittmann, Historian: It’s this incredible combination of entertainment. Performed by Merle Evans And His All-Star Band His likeness appeared on ads for cigars, dry goods, and spools of thread. Narration: It was the most remarked upon train journey of the decade. Ronald G. Becker Collection of Charles Eisenmann Photographs, Scrc, Syracuse University Libraries It was the focal point of his advertising. People ran away with the circus. And very early on, he wanted to be out of Baraboo, which he would call “Baraboobians,” and leave to go to Chicago. He quoted the prevailing price of hay in Tucson, and the cost of unroasted peanuts in Tallahassee…. [HUGHES:] At one point, P.G. Here is a wonderful excerpt from the American Experience special titled “The Circus”. Matthew Wittmann: One of the things that was most remarked upon was a flying mercury act. One of the most striking was Australian wire walker Con Colleano. A/V Geeks Llc Marjorie Cordell Geiger: How do you absorb this? Fred Dahlinger Jr.: If you were going to mess with one of them, you were gonna to mess with all five of them. James Bailey and P.T. It started with a trip to the sideshow tent, followed by a visit to the menagerie. In 1863, Forepaugh sold horses to a shady circus manager who proved unable to pay his bill. Narration: The most famous elephant in America came to a grisly end himself, though his death was accidental. And then if one show has six, one show has ten. Barnum's biggest competitor. Barnum hoodwinked the press and thousands of others who paid twenty-five cents see her. You got to make it look easy, look beautiful, and have them pay attention to you. Richard Reynolds, Circus Historian: The preachers would wail against that waste of time. You had to advertise, something new, something exciting to get people to come to the show. A typical circus might feature one advertising wagon a sixty-foot tent, and a dozen performers. From there, they traveled by steamship to Suez, by rail to Alexandria, by ship across the Mediterranean and then by train to Hamburg. Disgruntled at having to move the heavy seats, one-hundred-and-fifty working men demanded more pay. Shortly after Barnum’s death, a journalist predicted that the old man’s show was too centered on his remarkable personality to survive without him. Playing next. Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas At Austin Dr. Hugh Grant Rowell Collection of Somers Historical Society Titans of industry and Broadway stars dined at their home. “As a rule,” one journalist observed, “Leitzel fired the maid before and after each performance.”. But, you know, John Ringling North did it. But Barnum was not ready to give up. He had created a giant juggernaut that was just almost impossible to keep going whereas the Ringling Brothers had this efficient money machine that just kept making money day after day. In Boston, when his hoax finally stopped attracting paying customers, Barnum came up with another one. Bailey disagreed. Matthew Wittmann: The big thing that wowed Australian audiences was the size of the show. The show took place in a circular wooden arena constructed by a British trick rider named John Bill Ricketts. And if you see the posters, you see an unbelievably large elephant. He had this little buggy that he’d go around, and he’d put up the posters in the towns ahead of the route of the Robinson & Lake Circus to announce that it was coming. Janet M. Davis: Those essential elements of using the horse as kind of the centerpiece of the show, then clowning as part of the show too, and rope walking, those are defining elements of the circus. “Everything was perfect.” He had every reason to say so. You get brighter, more fluorescent colors. Janet M. Davis: In an age before radio, in an age before film, in an age before television, it offered audiences, in vastly different geographical locations, a common cultural experience. And so, they approached him and they wrote him and said, “Would you be interested in doing, you know, getting together with us?”. And I think that’s one of the moments of these places that’s magical. The following year, Ancillotti was joined by the sensational Mauricia de Tiers and her dip of death. “I used to think when I got old my feelings wouldn’t get hurt, but I was wrong.”, Matthew Wittmann: Respectable people would skip the sideshow tent because it did have a reputation. He’d soon find a new one at the circus. At one point, he got whales in a big aquarium. You overpromise, but as long as people show up, it doesn’t really matter. Educational documentaries . To meet the demands of the military conflict, President Woodrow Wilson took control of the railways, prioritizing the movement of troops and materiel. 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. Their profit for the year was $602,000. Acres of billowing canvas appeared mirage-like on the outskirts of town. NIGEL ROTHFELS: A lot is made of Jumbo being essentially taken from the British and that is in a way a metaphor for America’s rise. Nigel Rothfels, Historian: His original market was in the city of Hamburg but then, very quickly, he became known by circuses as somebody who could supply animals. Robert Thompson, Historian: This is a village, a village of entertainment, a place that Peter Pan goes, the land of the Lost Boys. Narration: The cost of creating an impressive menagerie was exorbitant. John and Mable designed a fifty-six room Venetian palace next door. Roger Smith: The show was underway. “She was a storm center every day she lived,” one aerialist remembered. The Circus: Trailer. The American Federation of Actors, representing both performers and labor, had forced circus management to agree to a wage increase. Stark had started out as a nurse. It was a small, inconsequential circus. At least one of them, an indigenous Australian named Tambo Tambo, was brought to America against his will. You’re just human. Over several winters, performing in small town halls, the Ringlings saved a thousand dollars, enough money to buy three secondhand wagons and a tent that could seat a few hundred. But larger tents meant greater profits so the three rings became a permanent fixture. Narration: “One of the very best ways to lose a lot of money and to lose it quickly,” a reporter for Fortune Magazine observed, “is to start a circus.” Every year through the 19th century, circuses proved the point, surviving one season or maybe two before going belly up the next. PBS Documentary ‘American Experience: The Circus’ Due on Digital Oct. 9, DVD Nov. 6. 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. Narration: When Lowery had started out, black circus bands mostly played minstrel music. This was like a town. Oklahoma Historical Society Narration: Noting how a collection of animals elevated their businesses in the eyes of local authorities, most circuses added menageries. And they had topical songs, which were about political events, about something that everybody was speaking of. Michael Lancaster: They had rules for everything. 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. 56:40. It was a United Nations before the United Nations. The Outpost at WGBH, Advisors Janet M. Davis: The date was inauspicious, September of 1929. Even the most basic commodities were in short supply. Voices Casting Schools closed. Disc #1 -- American Experience: The Circus 1. Even today, it’s a rarity. Matthew Lawler It’s also quite literally a form of colonialism and imperialism because they are being acquired, transferred, shipped back to New York City through diplomatic agencies. Performed by The United States Army Band Narration: “If you think circus life is glamorous,” said one performer, “spend your honeymoon in the married people’s car, which carries 64 persons.”. Even in Manhattan you could see the Empire State Building. “Although nothing new has been added in the death-defying way,” wrote one critic, “the Greatest show on Earth is greater than ever this year. And then there’s the “them” that we’re looking at. Dominique Jando: It’s one of the most extraordinary circus productions ever, and for me I have a tenderness for it. So they did not mount these large spectacles. New York Public Library Samuel Thompson, Photo and Map Animation Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, Music We all love miracles. Fred Pfening Iii: Coup realized that, “We could really make a lot more money if we could skip the small towns and just play the big ones.” By train, you could go up to, you know, a hundred and twenty-five, a hundred and fifty miles a night. The success of the tour had shaken up the established wisdom in the show trade. Over the course of the 1860s, the nation’s network of railroads had almost doubled to more than fifty thousand miles. By the end of the year, Ringling publicists boasted that their show was back on track. Minnesota Historical Society There’s a large dimension of racialization running through. It doesn’t accomplish any concrete purpose. His cast was so huge, he claimed, a second ring was all but essential. 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. By the time the Civil War broke out, he had turned to horse-trading, making a fortune supplying the Union Army with cavalry mount. Send in the clowns! Featured among the fifty big top performers that season were acrobats, equestrians, strong men, aerialists, and Monsieur D’Atalie, the man with the iron jaw. G.E. Entertainment Industrial Complex [11:27] But even as they did, forces beyond their control began threatening to push the circus from the center of American life. Barnum preps this for six months as he gets more and more excited about the whole operation. The story of the circus as an American experiment and entertainment. That just had to have been just an absolutely slam bang season for him to do that and it was because of Jumbo. That’s why you had to have so many acts going on at the same time. That’s how you make bigger money. Was this review helpful to you? Matthew Wittmann: Jumbo delivers, by all accounts. Partez à la conquête du nouveau monde grâce à notre catalogue de recettes de grandes marques aussi vaste que les USA ! Narration: There was never anything easy about life with the circus. And people piled up on those things. Determined not to lose his opening venue to the competition, Ringling bought out the entire American Circus Corporation, comprised of five substantial circuses. Even so, many performances were late and forty-two were canceled . Living players play with living. Frank Wiggers - Vintage Footage Barnum took home two hundred thousand dollars himself. That feeling of confidence wouldn’t last very long. Fred Dahlinger Jr.: They mounted his skeleton and his hide, both, and they were presented in one of the tents of the show. This sounds like the coolest place. They recognized him in the thousands of Americans who are out of work. Wazee Digital Score: 7.8 of the 10. She was, Bailey claimed, the first elephant born in the West since the Roman Empire. Dominique Jando: Their marriage was very tempestuous, as any marriage with Lillian Leitzel would be with anybody, and they both had a gigantic ego. Then in 1825, a circus owner decided to commission the construction of a canvas tent. Lillian Leitzel was the most famous circus performer of her day — with a temper that matched her talents. Edward Hoagland: You were the celebrity, not just the performers. It was extraordinarily frustrating because the act was clownish. Découvrez des commentaires utiles de client et des classements de commentaires pour American Experience: The Circus sur Amazon.fr. Eric Brown Narration: After the packed first show a critic wrote, “the performances were very creditable considering the boys had never had any practice.”. The early travelling tented shows were modest outfits. “I feel like an outcast from society,” a bearded lady said. It’s one of the draws of the circus, is this idea that you try things that people would never imagine trying. When workers finally agreed to work for reduced wages, North tried to update an entertainment that had remained essentially unchanged for half a century. Matthew Wittmann: One of the continuing attractions of the circus is that more often than not you’re going to see something that you didn’t expect to see or had never seen before. “Eclipse Galop” Leitzel had demanded her own private dressing tent, fresh flowers daily, and a maid to go with it. John Ringling was a teenager. In 1921, ninety thousand spectators had watched Jack Dempsey knock out his opponent to retain the heavyweight title. It’s just peaceful. In 1884, there were almost fifty. If you bought an animal from Hagenbeck and it died soon after arrival, as they tended to do, he would replace it. Jumbo’s death, which made headlines across the country, was a huge financial blow to Barnum. Some thirty-five other circuses toured the country that summer. Gretchen Stone Cook Charitable Foundation Matthew Wittmann: Everyone that was a performer in the show would put on a costume, get on a horse, ride in to this thundering music, some kind of march, and just parade around the ring. They had scrambled out of the house before dawn to meet a steamboat carrying a travelling show up the Mississippi River. He lived his entire life in public. Composed by Igor Stravinsky Fiscal Sponsor When she finished her act, he would yell to his drummers, “Drummers, take cover!” because Leitzel would go after them. 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. Oregonian Publishing Co. / The Oregon Journal It’s not that if they had the power to cause someone to fall they would have exercised it, but they kind of hoped someone would fall, you know, that there’d be a disaster. For her, it was a way to make money. When Ringling refused to sign the contract, his most formidable rival, veteran showman Jerry Mugivan, stepped in. While Al grew to be loved on the lot, his younger brother John came to be feared. Almost immediately, she began taking attention away from her jealous mother. They're just on the ground.” It just lifts you beyond anything you can imagine. Harry Ransom Center, The University Of Texas At Austin It was a part of my life. Narration: I think he was crying about two things, not only the loss of his favorite brother, but also the loss of the camaraderie that the five Ringling brothers had held together. Written, Produced and Directed By There were your circus acts: jugglers, wire acts, animal acts, trapeze, whatever Sullivan had. The circus is a tiny closed off arena of forgetfulness. So, naturally, we had a lot of people on the lot. She had this wonderful charisma and charm. You could not get white working men to work alongside black working men. P.G. H. Crowell Pepper Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library No one did that better than Emmett Kelly, a former cartoonist, who first drew his hobo character Weary Willie in 1920.
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