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The Big Top

Entrance of the Gladiators (also known as Thunder and Blazes, originally rendered in Czech as Vjezd gladiátoru) is a highly recognizable march composed in 1897 by the Czech composer Julius Fucík. Written for the calliope, the march has since become indelibly linked to clowns and the circus. Although the tune is widely recognized, its name and composer are relatively obscure.

From Rome To Ringling

From circus day in Pompey's Rome complete with lions, pachyderms and performances interspersed with chariot racing until modern day Cirque de Soleil, circuses remain the most enduring and endearing form of family entertainment in the world.

Early Roman circuses, in keeping with the morals of the day, featured wild and exciting athletes who fought to the death for their freedom; animal duels, daring equestrians and spectacular chariot races that provided entertainment for the gregarious Roman population.

As the dark ages settled into Europe, circus was forgotten. Groups of touring performers presenting at marketplaces trained animals, acrobatic feats and riders kept the circus fire kindling in the hearts of people. Out of the ashes the smoldering fire again ignited next in Britain, when a British cavalryman, Sergeant-Major Philip Astley, a much honored and talented officer of the British Cavalry was smitten with the excitement of performing fancy riding. After wandering about the countryside showing in the typical fashion of the day, Astley stopped near London and roped off a field for his fancy riding exhibition. Astley perfected the circus ring to enhance his ability to stand on the back of a cantering horse. Interrupting equestrian feats with clown antics, a creation of Philip Astley, became the formation of our modern circus. Later Astley covered part of the ring with a shed, then added seats. Astley soon learned the intricacies of elaborate advertising, and with increased popularity enlarged and improved his now famous Amphitheater Riding School. Later, adding tumbling, rope-dancing and juggling we see the basic ingredients of the circus.

A competitor of Philip Astley, Charles Hughes was not only famous for his English Royal Circus, but also his ability to train first-class trick riders. A pupil, John Bill Ricketts carried the spark of the circus to the colonies. An English cousin of George Washington, Mr. Ricketts gave exciting performances at the Riding School in Philadelphia. Billed as "performing great feats of horsemanship." the program also featured comic feats on horseback and ropedancing. America's first prominent circus man John Bill Ricketts trouped from Albany to Baltimore and enhanced his program with comic dances and tumbling. Ricketts Amphitheater was destroyed in a fire, discouraging him and sending him back to England. He and his ship were lost in a storm.

After the War of 1812, the old style, permanent equestrian type shows were generally replaced by rolling shows that pitched their tents on village greens. They were direct ancestors of the tented circuses we love today. These were basically all American in design and theory and were started by Old Bet, an African elephant. In 1815 Hackaliah Bailey purchased Old Bet from a sea captain for $1,000. Hackaliah had such success in presenting Old Bet to the local townspeople and farmers, he arranged to purchase additional exotic animals from other ship captains. Traveling at night to avoid free spectators, Hackaliah exhibited in barns or other buildings. "Uncle Nate" Howes acquired temporary possession of Old Bet and exhibited her in the first record of a round canvas top.

The world and American grew and changed as did the circus. From wagons, to trucks to trains, the circus continues to reward innovation and creativity. With an independent and capitalistic approach to business, the circus represents what is good and right with American spirit even today. For two thousand years the fire of the circus has burned deep in the hearts of performers as well as audiences and will continue to illuminate the world of entertainment as it continues its' evolution within the human spirit.

Excerpts and info from "The Circus From Rome to Ringling" Earl Chapin May

Sideshow

In America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair or other such attraction. Its proper name is a "Ten in One", referring to the practice of having a revolving show of ten acts under a single tent. When a single person or object is featured, it is known as a single-o.

The earliest account of a sideshow with a circus goes back to the 1850s and tells of a wax museum show trouping with a circus. Though these were sideshows, they were not the ten-in-ones. For the most part during it this time, the shows you would find at fairs and circuses were single-os. The irony is that this is how the traveling sideshow got it's start and this is how it has ended up today.

The circus sideshow really hit its stride when P.T. Barnum devoted his attention to creating a touring show. When his American Museum was destroyed by fire for a second time in the late 1860s, Barnum decided to take his show on the road. He went on tour with his circus. The problem was that the circus at this time was considered a low form of entertainment. They were often filled with ticket sellers that short changed the customers, Three Card Monte and Three Shell Game mobs and showmen that would slip out of town without paying their bills. In order to distance himself from being associated with all this, Barnum featured not only a circus, but also large tents that housed many other kinds of "enlightening" entertainment. These included a menagerie, a hall of freaks and even a collection of ancient statues! As time went on, the concept was streamlined down to just the freak show and menagerie touring with the circus. Barnum's show set a high water mark that other showmen worked to emulate.

Today only a few "Ten in One" shows remain active in the world. The Sideshow by the Seashore sponsored by Coney Island USA in Brooklyn, NY is perhaps the oldest. The anthropologist Jim Rose runs a modern sideshow called Jim Rose Circus. The Cut Throat Freak Show is another active modern sideshow based out of Phoenix, AZ. Other active SideShows include Ses Carny, Carnival Diablo, Brothers Grimm and many more. Most of todays SideShows consist mainly of 'working acts' and 'made freaks' as well as the classic curiosity displays. Their are also numerous solo SideShow artists performing across the US, mostly in spot engagements and corprate events.

The Club scene had been a boon for SideShows during 2002-2004 time period. This resurgence has been largely attributed to the rebelious image of SideShow. 2005 has seen a marked decline in spectater interest in SideShow on both the club and corprate events sceens. Opinions on the reasons for this decline range from too many poor quality performances (this issue is often raised in the New York area), to audience fatigue, or a "been there, done that" mentality among the college set. Intrestingly enough, the Jim Rose Circus continues to see large audiences, despite the general down-turn of the SideShow.

Sideshows of old had a hierarchy of performers in terms of prestige, with "Born Freaks", people with congenital physical peculiarities, at the top, followed by "Made Freaks" such as tattooed men and women, and Working Acts such as sword swallowers and fire eaters. Contrary to contemporary perceptions, which holds the term freak show to be pejorative, many of the Born Freaks were not looked down upon by their fellow performers, and many were in fact the owners and operators of the shows. Today the hierarchy is largly based on the abilities of the performers.

The last circus to carry a sideshow was the Kelly-Miller Circus, and it stopped that tradition back in 1995. The L.E. Barnes Circus took out a sideshow in the summer of 2001, but that circus only lasted a single season.

The Circus Age: Culture & Society Under the American Big Top A century ago, daily life ground to a halt when the circus rolled into town. Across America, banks closed, schools canceled classes, farmers left their fields, and factories shut down so that everyone could go to the show. In this entertaining and provocative book, Janet Davis links the flowering of the early-twentieth-century American railroad circus to such broader historical developments as the rise of big business, the breakdown of separate spheres for men and women, and the genesis of the United States' overseas empire. In the process, she casts the circus as a powerful force in consolidating the nation's identity as a modern industrial society and world power. Davis explores the multiple "shows" that took place under the big top, from scripted performances to exhibitions of laborers assembling and tearing down tents to impromptu spectacles of audiences brawling, acrobats falling, and animals rampaging. Turning Victorian notions of gender, race, and nationhood topsy-turvy, the circus brought its vision of a rapidly changing world to spectators

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