An elephant set a small circus apart from competitors:
a large herd would bring status to a major circus.

Large circuses were often successful animal breeders: their animals were generations away from the wild.

Lucia Zora, "the bravest woman in the world," worked extensively with elephants. She used positive training only, based on observation and repetition.

Novelties like swallowing glowing neon tubes came into sideshows.

At the turn of the century the clown Chocolat took Paris by storm. Chocolat, née Rafael, was from Cuba. He was discovered while working the docks in Bilbao.

Forty million boxes are still sold every year.

Katie Sandwina, born to a circus family in 1884, lifted three men on a bicycle. She and her strong husband Max Heymann performed as the Sandwinas.

The shrine circus is still happening, with elephants even.

Ben Hur was featured in 1912. Biblical stories were popular.

RIngling also presented Cleopatra in 1912.

See, circuses are educational!

1913 brought Joan of Arc. It was advertised as including 1,200 characters, 300 dancing girls (who maybe changed costumes four times to make 1,200 characters).

Ottokar Bartik, ballet master for the Metropolitan Opera in New York, choreographed "Solomon and the Queen of Sheeba" in 1914.

In 1916 it was Arabian Nights: Persian, Indian, and Arabian stories allowed animals to have roles.

Ching-Ling-He and Tai Pen troupes (called Chinese but maybe Japanese) showed off distinctive styles of acrobatics, juggling, and bending.

Of the five Ringling brothers, only Charles and John were left. Charles ran the show until he died in 1926.

The circus missed only two performances. Rival circuses lent some of their acts.

Between 53 and 61 bodies were placed in a mass grave in Showman's Rest, a section of a cemetery near where I live. Over 1,500 mourners, mostly circus people, attended their burial.

Other circus people have been buried in Showman's Rest over the years. The plots are maintained by the Showmen's League of America. There were recent tributes on several graves when I visited this summer.

The parades snarled up traffic for hours, wore out the performers, and suffered accidents. In Boston a brake failed and 40 horses careened down Beacon Hill.

And the very elaborate parades may have begun to suppress ticket sales at the lot.

Falling into a net usually saved an artist's life, but hitting the net wrong could cause rope burns and bruises, and sometimes broken bones, including broken necks. Codona ended his career by injuring himself falling into a net...after his heart was broken by Lillian Leitzel's fall.

In 1924 Colleano, née Cornelius Sullivan, came to New York. He was known for his Latin persona, although he was actually from New South Wales. He learned his cape tricks from a matador.

8'6" Jack Earle was a star both in the circus and in silent films, like 1924's Jack and the Beanstalk.

• 1,600 people
• four trains, each with 100 cars
• 800 horses
• 1,000 other animals including giraffes, camels, and 42 elephants
• three rings and two stages, all of them in use almost constantly for two and a half hours
• no act longer than five minutes except for a few big stars
• no delays between the spec and the final chariot race
• 100 clowns continuously performing in the hippodrome track around the rings

Hugo stood in a cylinder inside the "gun," the gun was elevated, the cylinder slid down, and a blast of compressed air (175 lbs. per square inch for a man) slammed the cylinder forward. A booming charge and smoke were added for effect.

It was easier to fool people in those days... or was it? Think fake news. It was easier to fool most of the people...

Sarasota became Ringling's winter quarters.

In 1978 73-year-old patriarch Karl Wallenda was killed walking between two hotels in Puerto Rico, a stunt to sell circus tickets. A strong gust of wind swayed the wire and made him lose balance. He fell 100 feet to his death.

African albinos George and Willie Muse, who were billed as "Ambassadors from Mars, discovered near a crashed space ship in the Mojave Desert." First they were billed as "Sheep-Headed Cannibals from Ecuador," but being Martians was a better draw.

"Burmese Giraffe-Necked Women" permanently wore a stack of brass chokers that elongated their necks somewhat. They were advertised as "the greatest educational feature of all time!" People noticed the actual ladies weren't as long-necked as the poster showed, but the women were impressive enough. After two years they had earned the money they needed to return to Burma and build a mission.

"Ubangi Lipped Men" came from French Equatorial Africa. They were lured with promises of salt and jewelry. They brought the largest crowds in Ringling history. The men took control of the situation, including renegotiating their payment: after two years they went home and bought a cattle ranch.

Leitzel  was a third generation aerialist, born in Germany in 1892. When she was nine she joined in an aerial ballet. The tiny artist (only 4'9" when adult) stole the show and the circus became her whole life.

Leitzel wore silk tights and a diaphanous short-short skirt, and she had a bare midriff. Her tiny waist and feet contrasted with her muscular arms and shoulders. She was carried in by a giant man, attended by a "French maid" who picked up the red cape Leitzel threw off. Adoring crowds roared if Leitzel giggled.

She climbed up the web of ropes above the middle ring, and grabbed the Roman rings. After doing some tricks, she grabbed a rope and was raised to the top of the tent. She did not have a net.

She flipped herself over and over hanging from one wrist, doing a "full arm plunge." Her shoulder was dislocated as her body circled. The band played Flight of the Bumblebees and the audience ritualistically counted along, once up to 243 revolutions. Her hairpins would fall out, leaving her hair flowing "like a golden comet's tail."

Leitzel reported that she had to fight an urge to let go, a not uncommon experience among aerialists.

Under her wristband Leitzel's arm was bruised and raw, often festering. One doctor tried to persuade her to amputate her arm, but she just went from his office to the arena. She never admitted to, or complained about, the pain. She hid the sores under a scarf.

The first time she suffered a fall she continued her performance with sprained legs.

In 1931 Leizel's iron swivel ring apparatus broke in Copenhagen. She fell 40' onto her head and shoulders. She did not have a net, and did not survive long.

Leitzel married three times, the last time to the legendary, graceful Mexican Alfredo Codona, "the Adonis of the Altitudes." Codona was one of the few who ever achieved a triple somersault on the trapeze. The two spectacular, volatile artists sometimes performed in the same circus, but in 1931 they were countries apart.

When Leitzel fell, Codona rushed from Berlin to her side, but she said she was fine so he returned to Germany and was not with her at the end.

Codona never recovered from her death. He drank and became reckless. In 1933 he fell into a net, and could no longer fly. He married Vera Bruce, but in 1937 he killed his wife and himself in a divorce attorney meeting.

Alexander Calder loved seeing Leitzel in the spotlight.

Beatty was badly mauled by a lion and nearly died in 1932. He was working for Ringling: North postponed the opening show of the season until Beatty recovered enough to perform. Usually circuses didn't cover medical expenses, but Ringling did this time.

Alois Peters, "The Man Who Hangs Himself," had an act in which he jumped from a 75' platform with a noose around his neck. During one show things went badly awry.

Depression hobo "Weary Willie" was a star clown until the 1960s. He was partly inspired by a cartoon Kelly drew years ago. He started in the circus as an aerialist.

Things always went wrong for Weary Willie, but he kept a tiny hope. Kelly felt that he gave discouraged people a "second wind."

Kelly was performing at the Hartford circus when the big top caught fire in 1944.

I wonder what this sounded like.

Clarence Howerton, 3'6" tall, also appeared in The Wizard of Oz.

The Kentucky Derby was the theme just before the war, when the audience was feeling prosperous again.

New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia made a guest appearance in 1938. (To be honest, this picture of Fiorello with his grandson was taken at a different circus.)

Hindu Blacaman claimed he hypnotized cats and other beasts.

The big top became less oval so people at the ends could see the center ring. The stages were gone, but there were still very few solo acts, and often as many as 10 acts at once. The inside of the tent was painted dark blue so that the lighting effects worked in the day. They even tried to air condition the tent.

In 1940 he joined Ringling with his huge animal act: 14 assistants working with 60 animals in 18 species presented "Peace in the Jungle."

He fed chained animals at the end of a stick, gradually coming closer. He did whip animals but only for mistakes.

Walt Disney both celebrated and attacked the circus.

George Ballantine choreographed a "pachydermal extravaganza" to an Igor Stravinsky score. 50 ballerinas and 50 elephants wore pink tutus. Ballantine's wife danced on the premier elephant.

Two of the exits were blocked by cages being repositioned for the show. (The circus was undermanned because of the war. Many of the roustabouts were untrained teenagers.)
When the crowd tried to exit, there was trampling and suffocation.

There were 168 known deaths, but the fire was so hot that it acted as a crematorium and there may have been more.

Ringling paid out $5 million to the victim's families and started using fireproofing on their canvas. Ever after this event, circuses performing in Connecticut had to pay $7,000 for firemen standing by with loaded hoses.

Ironically, the clowns in this show performed the classic entreé where an old woman is rescued from a burning house.

Beatty was a famous animal trainer who bought the Wallace Brothers Circus and the Russell Bros Pan Pacific Circus. By 1947 he was the sole owner, and his circus travelled by rail.

Smart had 11 children who all had parts in the show. By 1958 the tent seated 6,000 and was televised in Britain. Smart died in 1966: in 1993 his grandchildren revived a one-ring circus.

...but it became more and more a spectacle geared to children. The clowns were more exaggerated, and the star performers were not well promoted.

A special aerial ballet...

Putting on circuses in air-conditioned arenas saved a lot of money.

The sideshow was presented only at Madison Square Garden.

A circus museum opened in Baraboo, Wisconsin, home to Ringling's original winter quarters.

Native Americans performed fancy dances in the Ringling Circus.

Europeans like Gunther Gebel-Williams and Cole Circus's Joseph Marcam presented non-confrontational interactions.

It was a good year in other ways though... a good time to be a college student.

However, most graduates failed to define a character. They just wore colorful costumes and repeated old gags.

Gebel-Williams joined the circus at 12 years old. He died in 2001, the last circus animal master.

I saw him at Shriner's circus in Chicago's Medinah Temple. There were polar bears. My, but they're tall when they stand on their rear paws...

Bill Irwin joined: he was the first clown to win a MacArthur fellowship.

Pickle was a not-for-profit co-op. Everyone at Pickle helped lots of ways. But the meetings were chaotic and they gradually had the sorts of problems co-ops often have.

Lorenzo Pisoni started performing in his parents’ circus when he was two. He had to sign a contract at six, and was a partner at 12.

He spent hours locked onstage in a 3' x 2' trunk waiting to pop out with balloons. He actually ran away from the circus, which he explains in his autobiography Humor Abuse.

(Mr. Bill has a Christmas Special.)

The circus was donated to Florida. Johnny Pugh had been managing the circus since the 1960s. He bought it from Florida and changed the name back to Cole Brothers Circus.

They were a big hit: and a big business. The sense of intimacy originally valued was gone. There was no sense of family or camaraderie among the cast.

Caron disliked the direction they were going and quit in 1988.

I decided to take a pass when they came to Chicago in the fall of 2017. I've been doing everything circus obsessively the past several months, but while I enjoyed Cirque du Soleil when I went a few years ago, they just don't say circus to me now.

I did, however, go see the bally act they put on by a giant cheesecake at the Taste of Chicago. A couple of sort-of-clowns wandered around, then two acrobats performed on an apparatus. I wanted to be in the first row so I stood at the fence so long I got quite sunburned. (I had a big hat but it didn't cover all of me.) I had no regrets.

Next to the dancers' car was the clown car: the clowns and dancers still work harder than anyone else as they entertain during rigging changes. There were three shows a day. Each show had an intermission: there were five or six costume changes for the dancers. The dancers worked very hard for their pay of $325 a week (which didn't include meals, there was no food tent like in the old days). They had to cart their personal clothes to laundromats.

Ashley thought there were about 350 people traveling with the show, including a doctor, a teacher, and several people to take care of the costumes.

Ashley started working toward being an aerial ballerina (the first step is doing 11 pull-ups), but she was never going to be a lifer. She loves that she had this experience, working with ringmaster Iverson and other stars, but she wanted to return to outside life.

Ashley and I plan to sit down with her circus treasure chest: stay tuned!