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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Jacob, Pascal, author. | Kwint, Marius, writer of preface. | Dèorr, Augusta, translator. | Translation of: Jacab, Pascal. Histoire du cirque.

Title: The circus : a visual history / Pascal Jacob ; preface by Marius Kwint; translated from the French by Augusta Dèorr.

Other titles: Histoire du cirque. English Description: New York : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2018. | “First published in France under the title Une Histoire du Cirque by Pascal Jacob, 2016 âEditions du Seuil.” | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017046928 | ISBN 9781350043107 (hardback : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Circus–History. | Circus–History–Pictorial works. | Bibliotháeque nationale de France.

Classification: LCC GV1816 .J3313 2018 | DDC 791.3—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017046928 ISBN:

HB:

978-1-3500-4310-7

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THE

CIRCUS

PASCAL JACOB PREFACE BY MARIUS KWINT

TRANSLATION FROM THE FRENCH BY AUGUSTA DÖRR

A VISUAL HISTORY

CONTENTS 6

PREFACE

by Marius Kwint 9

INTRODUCTION A World Set in Motion

ORIGINS ANTIQUITY–1770

CHANGES 1880–1930

THE GRAND HIGHWAY

16

124

OF MEN AND BEASTS

A Day at the Circus…

16

124

Exoticism, Wild Beasts and Splendour, German-Style

The Foundations of the Grande Banque d’Occident : Jugglers, Entertainers and Acrobats

133

Hans Stosch-Sarrasani

21

134

Men and Beasts

Priests, Gypsies, Merchants: Travellers’ Tales

26

144

Claire Héliot

Fairs, Construction Sites and Rostrums: the First Performance Venues

30

150

A System for Mobility: the Big Top

Preparing the Ground for Western Acrobatics

42

160

America, America: the Towering Figure of America and its Influence in Europe

164

Phineas Taylor Barnum

178

‘Monsieur Loyal’: the Spoken Word Enters the Circus

182

Roger Lanzac

IMPACT AND DOMINATION 1770–1880 THE WEST CONQUERS THE WORLD

50

It All Began with a Circle…

50

Families and Troupes: the Great Dynastic Ventures

56

The Franconi Dynasty

58

A Huge Building Site: the Circus Joins the City

INFLUENCES 1930–2015 188

THE BIG PLUNGE

188

The Soviet Circus: the State Circus as a Vehicle for Propaganda

64

192

Margarita Nazarova

Equestrians Triumph throughout Europe

75

196

Karandash

Pauline Cuzent

80

200

The Chinese Acrobatic Theatre: a Renaissance

Pantomimes and the Emergence of Narrative in the Circus

204

Xia Ju Hua

82

206

The End of a World: the American Circus in Turmoil

Circus Bodies: the Advent of Spectacular Gymnastics

92

208

John Ringling North

212

The Circo Fellini: a Fresh Perspective on the Ring, in Italy and Elsewhere

218

The Revival of the Circus Arts in France, Quebec and Belgium

224

Annie Fratellini

Jules Léotard

102

Whiteface and Auguste Clowns

104

Foottit & Chocolat

116

233

FINALE A Circus for Today and Tomorrow 235

Glossary Select Bibliography Photographic Credits

Vertigo . . .

Nicole Croisille and Philippe Avon, 39th Gala of the Union of Artists, 14 May 1969.

Positive photograph, 23 x 26.4 cm BnF, Performing Arts Department, 4-PHO -22 (16)

Modern versions of classical myths are played out in the circus ring. Performers fly like Icarus or undergo metamorphosis like Circe or Proteus, wavering between the life and death instincts, Eros and Thanatos.

INTRODUCTION —8—

Parade

The Bow

Pablo Picasso, Family of Acrobats, 1954

Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Circus Arena with the Clown and Ballet Dancer, ca. 1893

Lithograph, 50 x 64 cm BnF, Prints and Photographs Department, DC -583 (A, 3)-FT 4

Images of circuses and acrobats haunt Picasso’s work from his earliest days as a painter, revealing his admiration for a world of boundless resources which existed on the margins of society.

Lithograph with gouache highlights, 23.5 x 46.5 cm BnF, Prints and Photographs Department RÉSERVE EF -100 (A)-BOÎTE -FOL

A painter close to the Nabis group, Henri-Gabriel Ibels was a regular visitor to Parisian circuses, which he used as a source of inspiration for works with a highly graphic quality. This is particularly evident in the composition of his posters, such as this design for a fan.

Here many archetypal figures, from the clown to the equestrienne, are grouped together in an unlikely configuration.

INTRODUCTION — 12 —

THE GRAND HIGHWAY A DAY AT THE CIRCUS… No blood has yet been spilt and already the crowd is baying; ten pairs of gladiators face each other on the sand-covered arena and the clash of weapons resounds throughout the immense stone enclosure. At this early hour, the velaria, or awnings, have not yet been put up, but when the blazing sun begins to beat down on the tiers of marble seats the spectators will be shielded by these huge canopies. Erected by an arrangement of rigging and poles in the topmost section of the amphitheatre, they are skillfully raised by a team of sailors. In the relative cool, the public will be able to withstand the dust and the acrid smell of blood which soaks into the sand after every combat. Later, the wild beasts will be brought in to rip condemned captives to shreds. These individuals are delivered to the animals unarmed, attached to crucifixes or simply provided with sticks, an act of refined cruelty designed to draw out the moment of their death just a little longer. The crowd roars, bursts out laughing, applauds, but rarely reacts with horror… This is an ordinary day of festivities in Rome. The official in charge of the games has promised that a venatio (or wild animal hunt) will take place the following day, and everyone hopes that the event and its trappings will live up to expectations.

The entertainments hosted in Roman circuses and amphitheatres by wealthy individuals were instruments

of power, a means of ensuring the goodwill of the citizens of Rome and its Empire towards the host, and for this reason several hundred such constructions were built in Italy, France, Spain and North Africa.

Chariot races, a legacy of the Greeks and Etruscans, often took place in such arenas. Following the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410, a small number of trickriders (known as desultores), animal trainers and joculatores (professional entertainers) managed to maintain the fragile legacy of their prowess by setting out from these arenas and into the world, in order to display their skills at inspiring awe, astonishment and laughter. These talented riders, trainers and jugglers, like so many tumblers and acrobats in the making, were to play their part in establishing a new order.

This marked the origin of an extraordinary, multibranched ‘tree’ of disciplines, anticipating the advent of the modern circus some thirteen hundred years later.

Classical Antiquity in Paris Poster for the pantomime Néron shown at the Hippodrome de l’Alma, Paris, Émile Lévy Printing House, 1891

ANTIQUITY•1770 ORIGINS — 16 —

Lithograph, 190 x 130 cm, 2 attached sheets BnF, Prints and Photographs Department, ENT DN -1 (LÉVY, Émile / 4)-GRAND ROUL

JULES

LÉOTARD 1838–1870

T

he crowd holds its breath, and for the first time since Icarus’s attempt, a man hurls himself into the air, hoping to achieve flight. The athlete whipping up the audience’s enthusiasm for this impressive display at the Cirque Napoléon is just twenty-one years old.

Jules Léotard was born in Toulouse in 1838. On 12 November 1859, he first presented ‘Les merveilles gymnastiques ou la course aux trapèzes’, a spectacular prelude to the history of the flying trapeze. The story goes that one day, Léotard was training in the family gymnasium when his father entered, having just discovered that his son had not been attending his law classes. To escape his father’s wrath, Léotard threw himself forward onto his trapeze. What we do know for certain is that this phenomenal athlete achieved worldwide fame with impressive speed. The idolised and capricious Léotard

took to wearing a signature tight-fitting bodysuit, the revealing cut of which showed off his muscular physique to best advantage. He gave his name to this garment, and the costume worn by trapeze artists and acrobats is of course still known as a leotard to this day. He published his memoirs in 1860 at the age of just twenty-two. More than just a reflection on trapeze acts, these included accounts of his various romantic conquests, and were illustrated by a caricature of Léotard flying above the rooftops of Paris with a crowd of female figures in hot pursuit. He also posed half-naked for the photographer PaulÉmile Pesme; the resulting images were a great success as well as a scandal.

His string of performance triumphs made his fortune, and after Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie attended his penultimate show, the young acrobat left Paris to embark on a world tour. He went on to perform before the court of Frederick of Prussia in Berlin, Tsar Alexander II in Moscow and King Victor Emmanuel II in Rome.

In London, Charles Dickens declared himself astounded by Léotard’s skills, having watched him perform on five trapezes in a single act. Music was written and composed in the acrobat’s honour. In 1867, the song ‘The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze’, created by George Leybourne, became a popular hit; this went on to be performed a century later by none other than Bruce Springsteen. Jules Léotard died of smallpox in 1870.

Jules Léotard, photograph

by Léon Crémière, 1867 Positive photograph, 23 x 18 cm BnF, Prints and Photographs Department, EO-43 (1)-PET FOL

— 102 —

The Greatest Show on Earth Photo report on the Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1906–1908 Positive photographs, 13.8 x 8.9 cm and 13.7 x 9.6 cm BnF, Performing Arts Department, 4-ICO -CIR -46

AMERICA, AMERICA: THE TOWERING FIGURE OF AMERICA AND ITS INFLUENCE IN EUROPE John Bill Ricketts reached America in 1793. He had previously worked as an equestrian performer for Philip Astley’s rival Charles Hughes, and he now opted to try his luck in the New World. Faithful to the principles established in Europe a few years earlier, he began by building a permanent circus in Philadelphia.

This was known as the Art Pantheon and he presented equestrian and acrobatic spectacles there. The American circus was born.

In 1816, a cattle trader named Hachaliah Bailey bought a young African elephant, named her Old Bet and exhibited her in the villages around Somers, New York State. As befitted such a novelty, the venture was a success and Bailey was able to acquire more animals.

Other farmers were inspired to do the same, and so the first American menageries took to the road. Ten years later, Joshua Purdy Brown, a cousin of Hachaliah Bailey, erected his first ‘umbrella’ tent, thereby inventing the big top.

The American circus was characterised from the outset by exhibition and self-reliance. Supported by intrepid

entrepreneurs, its developments differed from those of the European circus, due to its lack of dynastic origins. Having no heritage or obligations, American performers were free to adopt their own formats. The circus’s main focus was on the efficiency and mobility of its companies. Its first shows greatly resembled those one might see in London or Paris – a mixture of equestrian vaulting and acrobatics performed on the ground, enlivened with a touch of comedy. However, the shows gradually began to incorporate exotic features, accentuating a marked taste for the curious.

A few decades later, the number of circus troupes had increased, but their method of functioning changed little. Powerful personalities made their mark on the American circus scene, each playing their part in shaping the basis of its development. All of a sudden, the pace of life in a small world taken up with the daily routine of its tours would be accelerated. This was triggered by a letter, a touch of lunacy and a great desire to make a splash.

1880•1930 CHANGES — 160 —

— 161 —

On the road Photo report on the Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1906–1908 Positive photographs, 8.6 x 13.9 cm, 9.7 x 13.7 cm and 8.8 x 13.9 cm BnF, Performing Arts Department, 4-ICO -CIR -46

A world away from the caravans of Europe, life in the American circus was lived in the shade of tents and on board trains. The walks alongside the railway tracks, the aroma of coffee made every morning for a thousand people, the scent of hay and fresh sawdust, of resin and horses, the singing of the teams that assembled the big top all had a truly unique character.

In 1870, Phineas Taylor Barnum, a brilliant impresario and trickster, received a strange letter from a certain William Cameron Coup. It suggested that he and his business partner Dan Castello should join forces with Barnum to create ‘P.T. Barnum’s Great Travelling World’s Fair’, a gigantic venture intended to instantly revive Barnum’s popularity. Convinced that horses were already a thing of the past, Coup proposed taking advantage of the developing railway. And so, from 1872, the circus was ‘on track’ for modernity.

This was a complex project, but it very soon proved profitable. The American circus discovered hypermobility, and in the space of a few years, dozens of enormous circuses crossed the United States. Great

swathes of land were covered in temporary canvas worlds, the air was filled with curious smells and vast quantities of pink lemonade were produced. The events attracted thousands of spectators before disappearing into the night, already en route to the next stage of the tour. The 1870s were a period of expansion; circuses were now able to transport considerable amounts of material, and accordingly they widened the surface area of their tents with quarter poles. These intermediary tent poles provided space for many extra rows of seats. In 1873, P.T. Barnum’s Grand Travelling Museum, Menagerie, Circus and Hippodrome added a second ring and increased its audience numbers still further.

1880•1930 CHANGES — 162 —

In mid air Miss Bird Millman, tightrope walker, photograph from the Rol Agency, April 1917 Glass plate negative, 18 x 13 cm BnF, Prints and Photographs Department, EI -13 (545)

Following page double spread

An American dream Posters for the MacCaddon Circus, Paris, P. Vercasson and Cie., 1905 Photomechanical print, 78 x 59 cm BnF, Performing Arts Department, Jean Villers archive, AFF -17876 and 17877

Joseph Terry MacCaddon (1859–1938), the brother in law of James Anthony Bailey, established his own enterprise in France, based on the gigantic circus that he had once directed. It was modelled on the system of three rings set side by side, with a large menagerie and a substantial troupe of performers. The venture was short-lived however. It succumbed to relentless competition from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1905.

On 10 March 1880, Hebe, a female elephant in the Great London Circus owned by Bailey, Cooper and Hutchinson, gave birth to the first baby elephant to be born in captivity in America. The animal, named Little Columbia, immediately became the focus of an intensive publicity campaign. Naturally envious, Barnum offered 100,000 dollars for both animals. The response was swift and sharp: the telegram sent by the most famous impresario of all time was incorporated into his rivals’ advertising posters, accompanied by the comment: ‘What Barnum Thinks of the Baby Elephant!’ Recognising that he was dealing with people cut from the same cloth as himself, Barnum approached James Anthony Bailey. Their alliance was forged in 1881, giving Barnum the opportunity to capitalise on the excellent image developed and consolidated by his former rival. In 1888, the addition of a third circus ring was soon followed by that of four stages. These were interposed between the three rings, each of which had a diameter of thirteen metres!

The increased number of performance areas would now be a feature of the American circus, and in the eyes of the public it determined the quality of the show. Barnum and Bailey’s ‘Greatest Show On Earth’ was established as a company with a bright future.

The circus very soon became big business, and a mass

of new logos appeared on the scene with bewildering speed. In 1902, the United States boasted ninety-six travelling circuses and menageries. Thirty-eight of these used one or more trains for their journeys, and seven had a tour schedule that involved crossing the entire country. One of these thriving enterprises would soon upset the hierarchy, challenging the key players in the American circus. The Ringling brothers launched their venture in 1884 in Baraboo, a small town in Wisconsin. Within a few decades, it had grown big enough to worry most of their competitors, and would even go on to rival The Greatest Show On Earth.

On 7 April 1891, Phineas Taylor Barnum collapsed at his desk at Waldemere, his magnificent Bridgeport residence. He died with a record of receipts in his hand. A man who had played a key role in shaping the entertainment scene of the twentieth century was no more, but his legacy would long survive him. Bailey, now alone at the helm, decided to return to Europe on a grand tour that would last several years. As ‘Barnum and Bailey’, the huge circus travelled through Germany, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia,

— 165 —

Italy and France from 1897 to 1902. It planted notions of immensity and one-upmanship in the minds of circus directors. Interestingly it was the Germans, the instigators of the vogue for exoticism in the European circus, who were in turn inspired by these lavish American spectacles. Within a few years, genial fairground entrepreneurs would transform themselves into travelling circus tycoons.

The influence of American practices wreaked havoc in the Old Continent. Caught in the modernity trap, a number of fairground owners and circus directors were carried away by the mania for huge-scale operations.

Although they sometimes succeeded in making a genuine profit, none lasted more than a few seasons.

MacCaddon in France, Kludsky in Czechoslovakia and Krone and Gleich in Germany also increased the number of their arenas and endeavoured to fill them with ever-greater quantities of performers and animals.

In 1905, it was the turn of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West

Show to visit Europe. The spectacle took place in a vast canvas structure, three sides of which contained covered stands, the fourth being hung with a large tarpaulin bearing the painted image of a mountain landscape, which served as a backdrop. The whole ensemble, a wooden and canvas stadium, suggested an open-air arena. However, it was all the additional features that really kindled the spectators’ curiosity.

There were tepees decorated with traditional motifs, covered wagons – those ‘prairie schooners’ used by pioneers of the American Far West – and a multitude of tents, all of different sizes, which together formed a mysterious and fascinating encampment. Mesmerised visitors could wander through stables that housed dozens of horses. Some of these, the small Appaloosas used by the Plains Indians, had distinctive and exotic markings. Highly-strung, powerful animals, they were one of the show’s major attractions, bringing a unique touch of colour to the charges and skirmishes where

1880•1930 CHANGES — 168 —

Winning the Wild West Portrait of Buffalo Bill, signed A. Prunaire, from the Album Mariani, Paris, (un-numbered), 1911 Colour wood engraving, 12 x 9 cm BnF, Prints and Photographs Department, NA -65 (B)-4, t.I

Poster for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, from a drawing

by Jules Goodman, Paris, the Chaix Printing House, 1905 Photomechanical print, 76 x 52 cm BnF, Performing Arts Department, AFF -15299

cowboys and Indians fought each other with all their might and main.

The show’s triumph was as momentous as the figure that inspired it. Carl Hagenbeck had certainly anticipated the practice of exhibiting cultural groups, with the presentations he had held in his circus and tierpark at Stellingen. However, the powerfully evocative image of a mythical Wild West embodied by warriors resplendent in war paint and feathered headdress had suddenly become accessible. The attraction was contagious, and Krone, Sarrasani and Gleich were all quick to incorporate ‘Far West spectacles’ into their shows.

The Bouglione family even created a ‘Captain Buffalo Bill Stadium’ in the early 1920s, having acquired a batch of original Wild West Show posters accidentally left behind at a printer’s. In 1928, the walls of Paris were plastered with illustrated posters announcing the grand return of Colonel Cody at the head of a three-ring circus – despite the fact that Cody had died in 1917! At the same time the Périé family were running a ‘Barnum Circus’ that likewise bore little resemblance to the original.

William Frederick Cody (1846–1917), known as Buffalo Bill, started his circus career in 1872. He launched his greatest adventure ten years later, when he created a travelling spectacle presenting the action and mystery of the American Wild West. It featured genuine Indians, bison and, of course, Colonel Cody himself.

When the real Greatest Show On Earth returned to America after its triumphant European adventure, the Ringling brothers had firmly established themselves as its chief rivals. The two giants met often as they travelled throughout the country, and a power struggle had well and truly begun. But Bailey’s death in 1906 put an end to tensions, when his widow sold the enterprise to the Ringling brothers. The two circuses were run separately until the close of the 1918 season.

The following year, they merged to form a single establishment as the two troupes amalgamated, together with their equipment and, most importantly, their logos. ‘The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus’ was now permanently established as The Greatest Show On Earth. Set for total domination, the enterprise plainly declared itself ‘Alone in its Greatness!’.

It was determined to maintain its position as ‘The Big One’, and see off all opposition.

The American circus had already come a long way since its beginnings in 1793, having transformed itself into a unique sector of activity that was highly attractive to young entrepreneurs. Jeremiah Mugivan, the son of two Irish immigrants, was born in Knightsville, Indiana in 1873. He undertook a variety of jobs before he found his true calling. In 1896, while working on a railway, he fell into conversation with a passenger.

This episode changed the young man’s destiny, and was to have a great impact on American circus history.

The passenger was John Robinson, the director of one of the largest circuses then operating in the United States. Enthralled by the meeting, Jeremiah Mugivan set out on a circus career. He undertook various roles in different establishments, before, through a mixture of entrepreneurial flair and luck, he began to acquire circuses in the same way that others bought paintings.

In 1921, together with two associates, he officially founded the American Circus Corporation. This

1880•1930 CHANGES — 172 —

Previous page double spread

A litany of logos The Barnes-Sells-Floto Combined Circus, 1937

Unusual mounts

Positive photograph, 7.7 x 13.3 cm BnF, Performing Arts Department, 4-PHO -22 (32)

Posters for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, Hartford (Connecticut), Calhoun Print Co., ca. 1890 Lithograph, 105 x 70 cm BnF, Prints and Photographs Department, ENT DN -1 (CALHOUN )-FT 6

powerful organisation was behind the biggest shake-up in circus history, which occurred ten years later.

In 1929, as he was ready to sign the contract to open a new season at Madison Square Garden, John Ringling was informed that the Friday evening slot was unavailable. Affronted, he decided to open his season elsewhere. The American Circus Corporation, on the other hand, signed the contract and prepared to announce a sensational spectacle that would bring together the very best acts from its many circuses. In response John Ringling did the only thing he thought reasonable in the circumstances: he bought the American Circus Company for a little under two million dollars – the equivalent of twenty-three million dollars today. In signing the cheque, he became more or less the sole owner of the entire American circus industry.

Later that year the stock market crashed, triggering a terrible economic crisis that would last for the next decade. John Ringling began to close his circuses, one after the other. The monopoly he had felt compelled to take on had proved disastrous for him. Shattered

Cover of Circus magazine, featuring the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1935 Photomechanical print, 25.4 x 18 cm BnF, Performing Arts Department, Géo Sandry archive, 4-COL -182 (boîte 21)

by that dreadful chain of events, the Great Depression and the Second World War, the American circus never fully recovered.

The excessive scale of the American operations required flawless organisation. Due to the structure of the shows themselves, which were split up between the different arenas and all took place simultaneously, the presence of a ‘guide’ was crucial. The ringmaster, a key figure in the midst of this daily ‘chaos’, maintained order and ensured that transitions were accomplished smoothly.

A distant cousin of the equestrian director who presided over the modern circus in its early incarnations, the ringmaster is the chief architect of the show’s dramatic composition. Above all, he is just as powerful a symbol as the dainty equestriennes and the good-natured elephants. He is a master of ceremonies, a lecturer or ‘Monsieur Loyal’, according to different traditions and cultures; his voice fills the arena, suggesting an intuitive connection with the theatre. With his arrival, the spoken word took its rightful place in the circus ring.

1880•1930 CHANGES — 176 —

The Circus: A Visual History 9781350043107 | Hardback Publishing 9th August 2018 £30.00 | $40.00 | AU$60.00

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