Circus
Encyclopedia
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clown
s, acrobats
, trained animals, trapeze
acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers
, unicyclists
and other stunt-oriented artists. The word also describes the performance that they give, which is usually a series of acts that are told how to play music and introduced by a "ringmaster".A traditional circus performance is normally held in a ring 13m (42ft) in diameter. This dimension was adopted by Philip Astley to enable a horse rider to stand upright on a cantering horse to perform a series of acrobatic manoeuvres and to more easily retain their balance. Most modern circuses have a system of tiered seating around the ring for the public and since the late 19th early 20th century the performance has taken place under canvas and more recently plastic tents commonly called "The Big Top" .
"circus", which is the romanization
of the Greek
"κίρκος" (kirkos), itself a metathesis
of the Homeric Greek
"κρίκος" (krikos), meaning "circle" or "ring".
The first circus in Rome was the Circus Maximus
, in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills. It was constructed during the monarchy and, at first, built completely from wood. After being rebuilt several times, the final version of the Circus Maximus could seat 250,000 people; it was built of stone and measured 400 m in length and 90 m in width. Next in importance to the Circus Maximus in Rome were the Circus Flaminius
and the Circus Neronis, from the notoriety which it obtained through the Circensian pleasures of Nero. A fourth, the Circus of Maxentius
, was constructed by Maxentius
; the ruins of this circus have helped archaeologists to reconstruct the Roman circus.
For some time after the fall of Rome, Europe lacked a large and animal-rich circus. Itinerant showmen travelled the fairgrounds of Europe. Animal trainers and performers are thought to have exploited the nostalgia for the Roman circus, travelling between towns and performing at local fairs. Another possible link between the Roman and modern circus could have been bands of Gypsies who appeared in Europe in the 14th century and in Britain from the 15th century, bringing with them circus skills and trained animals.
The modern concept of a circus as a circular arena surrounded by tiers of seats, for the exhibition of equestrian, acrobatic and other performances seems to have existed since the late 18th century. The popularity of the circus in England may be traced to that held by Philip Astley
in London. The first performance of his circus is said to have been held on January 9, 1768. One of Astley's major contributions to the circus was bringing trick horse-riding into a ring, though Astley referred to it as the Circle. Later, to suit equestrian acts moving from one circus to another, the diameter of the circus ring was set at 42 feet (13 m), which is the size of ring needed for horses to circle comfortably at full gallop. Astley never called his performances a 'circus'; that title was thought up by his rival Charles Hughes, who set up his Royal Circus a short distance from Astley's 'Amphitheatre
of Equestrian Arts' in Lambeth, London. When Astley added tumblers, tightrope-walkers, jugglers, performing dogs, and a clown to fill time between his own demonstrations, he created a modern circus.
Astley was followed by Andrew Ducrow
, whose feats of horsemanship had much to do with establishing the traditions of the circus, which were perpetuated by Henglers and Sangers celebrated shows in a later generation. In England circuses were often held in purpose built buildings in large cities, such as the London Hippodrome, which was built as a combination of the circus, the menagerie and the variety theatre, where wild animals such as lions and elephants from time to time appeared in the ring, and where convulsions of nature such as floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have been produced with an extraordinary wealth of realistic display. Antonio Franconi
, the founder of the French circus, is credited by many to be a co-creator of the modern circus, along with Philip Astley.
The Englishman John Bill Ricketts
brought the first modern circus to the United States. He began his theatrical career with Hughes Royal Circus in London in the 1780s, and came over from England in 1792 to establish his first circus in Philadelphia. The first circus building in the U.S opened on April 3, 1793 in Philadelphia, where Ricketts gave America's first complete circus performance. George Washington
attended a performance there later that season.
In the Americas of the first two decades of the 19th century, the Circus of Pepin and Breschard
toured from Montreal to Havana, building circus theatres in many of the cities it visited. Victor Pépin
, a native New Yorker, was the first American to operate a major circus in the United States. Later the establishments of Purdy, Welch & Co., and of van Amburgh gave a wider popularity to the circus in the United States
. In 1825 Joshuah Purdy Brown was the first circus owner to use a large canvas tent for the circus performance. Circus pioneer Dan Rice
was probably the most famous circus and clown pre-Civil War, popularizing such expressions as "The One-Horse Show" and "Hey, Rube!
". The American circus was revolutionized by P. T. Barnum
and William Cameron Coup
, who launched P. T. Barnum's Museum, Menagerie & Circus, a travelling combination of animal and human oddities, the exhibition of humans as a freak show
or sideshow
was thus an American invention. Coup was also the first circus entrepreneur to use circus train
s to transport the circus from town to town; a practice that continues today and introduced the first multiple ringed circuses.
In 1840 the equestrian Thomas Cooke
returned to England from the United States, bringing with him a circus tent. At this time, itinerant circuses were becoming popular in Britain. William Batty
's circus, for example, between 1838 and 1840, travelled from Newcastle to Edinburgh and then to Portsmouth and Southhampton. Pablo Fanque
, who is noteworthy as Britain's only black circus proprietor and who operated one of the most celebrated travelling circuses in Victorian England, erected temporary structures for his limited engagements or retrofitted existing structures. One such structure in Leeds, which Fanque assumed from a departing circus, collapsed, resulting in minor injuries to many but the death of Fanque's wife. Three important circus innovators were Italian Giuseppe Chiarini, and Frenchmen Louis Soullier and Jacques Tourniaire, whose early travelling circuses introduced the circus to Latin America, Australia, South East Asia, China, South Africa and Russia. Soullier was the first circus owner to introduce Chinese acrobatics to the European circus when he returned from his travels in 1866 and Tourniaire was the first to introduce the performing art to Ranga where it became extremely popular. Following Barnum's death his circus merged with that of James Anthony Bailey
, and travelled to Europe as The Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show On Earth where it toured from 1897 to 1902, impressing other circus owners with its large scale, its touring techniques including the tent and circus train and the combination of circus acts, zoological exhibition and the freak show. This format was adopted by European circuses at the turn of the 20th century.
The influence of the American circus brought about a considerable change in the character of the modern circus. In arenas too large for speech to be easily audible, the traditional comic dialog of the clown assumed a less prominent place than formerly, while the vastly increased wealth of stage properties relegated to the background the old-fashioned equestrian feats, which were replaced by more ambitious acrobatic performances, and by exhibitions of skill, strength and daring, requiring the employment of immense numbers of performers and often of complicated and expensive machinery.
In 1919, Lenin, head of the USSR, expressed a wish for the circus to become 'the people's art-form', given facilities and status on a par with theatre, opera and ballet. The USSR nationalized the Soviet circuses. In 1927 the State University of Circus and Variety Arts, better known as the Moscow Circus School was established where performers were trained using methods developed from the Soviet gymnastics program. When the Moscow State Circus company began international tours in the 1950s, its levels of originality and artistic skill were widely applauded, and the high standard of the Russian State circus continues to this day.
Circuses from China
, drawing on Chinese traditions of acrobatics
, like the Chinese State Circus
are also popular touring acts. The International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo
has been held in Monte Carlo
since 1974 and was the first of many international awards for circus performers. In the 1960s and 1970s, the circus began to lose popularity as the general public became more interested in alternative forms of entertainment such as movies, music, and TV shows. Some circuses stayed afloat by merging with other circus companies. However a good number of old-fashioned travelling circuses with their usual mixture of acrobat, clown and animal acts are still active in various parts of the world ranging from small family enterprises on the edge of survival to the three ring extravaganzas like Vazquez Hermanos Circus
in Mexico. Other companies found new ways to draw in the public with innovative new approaches to the circus form itself.
Contemporary circus
(originally known as nouveau cirque) is a recent performing arts movement that originated in the 1970s in Australia
, Canada
, France
, the West Coast of the United States
, and the United Kingdom
. Contemporary circus combines traditional circus skills and theatrical techniques to convey a story or theme. Compared with the traditional circus, the contemporary genre of circus tends to focus more attention on the overall aesthetic impact, on character and story development, and on the use of lighting design, original music, and costume design to convey thematic or narrative content. For aesthetic or economic reasons, contemporary circus productions may sometimes be staged in theatres rather than in large outdoor tents. Music used in the production is often composed exclusively for that production, and aesthetic influences are drawn as much from contemporary culture as from circus history. Animal acts appear less frequently in contemporary circus than in traditional circus.
Early examples of nouveau cirque companies include: Circus Oz
, forged in Australia
in 1978 from SoapBox Circus and New Circus, both founded in the early 1970s; the Pickle Family Circus
, founded in San Francisco
in 1975; Nofit State Circus
in 1984 from Wales
; Cirque du Soleil
, founded in Quebec
in 1984; and Archaos in 1986. More recent examples include: Teatro ZinZanni
, founded in Seattle in 1998; Quebec's Cirque Éloize
; Les 7 doigts de la main (also known as The 7 Fingers); and the West African Circus Baobab in the late 1990s. The genre includes other circus troupes such as the Vermont-based Circus Smirkus
(founded in 1987 by Rob Mermin
), Le Cirque Imaginaire (later renamed Le Cirque Invisible, both founded and directed by Victoria Chaplin
, daughter of Charlie Chaplin
), the Tiger Lillies
, Dislocate, and Vulcana Women's Circus, while The Jim Rose Circus
is an interesting take on the sideshow
. Swedish contemporary circus company Cirkus Cirkör
was founded in 1995. U.S. Company PURE Cirkus was founded in the subgenre of "cirque noir" in 2004, and in Northern England
, (United Kingdom), Skewed Circus combines punk, rap, dance music, comedy, and stunts to deliver "pop-circus" entertainment to young urban audiences.
The most conspicuous success story in the contemporary genre has been that of Cirque du Soleil
, the Canadian circus company whose estimated annual revenue now exceeds US$810 million, and whose nouveau cirque shows have been seen by nearly 90 million spectators in over 200 cities on five continents. Despite the contemporary circus' shift toward more theatrical techniques and its emphasis on human rather than animal performance, traditional circus companies still exist alongside the new movement. Numerous circuses continue to maintain animal performers, including Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, UniverSoul Circus
, and the Big Apple Circus
from the United States, Circus Krone
from Munich, Circus Royale
and Lennon Bros Circus
from Australia, Vazquez Hermanos Circus
, Circo Atayde Hermanos, and Hermanos Mayaror Circus from Mexico, and Moira Orfei
Circus from Italy, to name just a few.
A traditional circus performance is often led by a ringmaster
who has a role similar to a Master of Ceremonies
. The ringmaster presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the show moving. The activity of the circus traditionally takes place within a ring; large circuses may have multiple rings, like the six-ringed Moscow State Circus
. A circus often travels with its own band, whose instrumentation in the United States has traditionally included brass instrument
s, drums, glockenspiel
, and sometimes the distinctive sound of the calliope
.
, gymnastics
(including tumbling
and trampoline
), aerial acts (such as trapeze
, aerial silk, corde lisse
), contortion
, stilts
and a variety of other routines. Juggling
is one of the most common acts in a circus; the combination of juggling and gymnastics is called equilibristics
and include acts like plate spinning
or the rolling globe
. Clown
s are common to most circuses and are typically skilled in many circus acts; "clowns getting into the act" is a very familiar theme in any circus. Famous circus clowns have included Austin Miles, the Fratellini Family
, Emmett Kelly
, Grock
and Bill Irwin
.
Daredevil stunt acts
and sideshow acts
are also parts of some circus acts, these activities may include human cannonball
, chapeaugraphy
, fire eating, breathing
and dancing
, knife throwing
, magic shows
, sword swallowing
or strongman
. Famous sideshow performers include Zip the Pinhead
and The Doll Family
. A popular sideshow attraction from the early 19th century was the flea circus
, where fleas were attached to props and viewed through a Fresnel lens
.
A variety of animals have historically been used in acts. While the types of animals used vary from circus to circus, big cat
s, elephant
s, horse
s, bird
s, sea lions, bear
s and domestic animals are the most common.
The earliest involvement of animals in circus was just the display of exotic creatures. As far back as the early eighteenth century, exotic animals were transported to North America for display, and menageries were a popular form of entertainment. The first true animals acts in the circus were equestrian acts. Soon elephants and big cats were displayed as well. Isaac A. Van Amburgh
entered a cage with several big cats in 1833, and is generally considered to be the first wild animal trainer in American circus history. Mabel Stark
was a famous female tiger-tamer.
groups have documented many cases of animal cruelty in the training of performing circus animals. The animal rights
group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
(PETA) contends that animals in circuses are frequently beaten into submission and that physical abuse has always been the method for training circus animals. According to PETA, although the US Animal Welfare Act does not permit the use of electric shock prods, whips, hooks, or similar instruments by trainers, these are still used today. According to PETA, during an undercover investigation of Carson & Barnes Circus, video footage was captured showing animal care director Tim Frisco training endangered Asian elephants with electrical shock prods and instructing other trainers to "beat the elephants with a bullhook as hard as they could and to sink the sharp metal bullhook into the animals' flesh and twist it until they screamed in pain."
In testimony in U.S. District Court in 2009, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
CEO Kenneth Feld
acknowledged that circus elephants are struck behind the ears, under the chin and on their legs with metal tipped prods, called bull hooks. Feld stated that these practices are necessary to protect circus workers. Feld also acknowledged that an elephant trainer was reprimanded for using an electric shock device, known as a hot shot or electric prod, on an elephant, which Feld also stated was appropriate practice. Feld denied that any of these practices harm elephants. In its January 2010 verdict on the case, brought against Feld Entertainment International by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 'et al.', the Court ruled that evidence against the circus company was "not credible with regard to the allegations".
On February 1, 1992 at the Great American Circus in Palm Bay, Florida
, an elephant named Janet (1965 – February 1, 1992) went berserk while giving a ride to a mother, her two children and three other children. The elephant then stampeded through the circus grounds outside before being shot to death by police. Also, during a Circus International performance in Honolulu, Hawaii
on 20 August 1994, an elephant called Tyke
(1974 – August 20, 1994) killed her trainer, Allen Campbell
, and severely mauled her groomer, Dallas Beckwith, in front of hundreds of horrified spectators. Tyke then bolted from the arena and ran through the streets of Kakaako
for more than thirty minutes. Police fired 86 shots at Tyke who eventually collapsed from the wounds and died.
In 1998 in the UK, a parliamentary working group chaired by MP Roger Gale
studied living conditions and treatment of animals in UK circuses. All members of this group agreed that a change in the law was needed to protect circus animals. Mr Gale told the BBC, "It's undignified and the conditions under which they are kept are woefully inadequate—the cages are too small, the environments they live in are not suitable and many of us believe the time has come for that practice to end." The group reported concerns about boredom and stress, and noted that an independent study by a member of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University "found no evidence that circuses contribute to education or conservation." However, in 2007 a different working group under the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
, having reviewed information from experts representing both the circus industry and animal welfare, found an absence of "scientific evidence sufficient to demonstrate that travelling circuses are not compatible with meeting the welfare needs of any type of non-domesticated animal presently being used in the United Kingdom." According to that group's report, published in October 2007, "there appears to be little evidence to demonstrate that the welfare of animals kept in travelling circuses is any better or any worse than that of animals kept in other captive environments."
Sweden
, Austria
, Costa Rica
, India
, Finland
, Singapore
, Switzerland
, and Denmark
have already restricted the use of animals in entertainment. In response to a growing popular concern about the use of animals in entertainment, animal-free circuses are becoming more common around the world. Israel
has banned any animal from performing in any circus. In 2009, Bolivia passed legislation banning the use of any animals, wild or domestic, in circuses. The law states that circuses "constitute an act of cruelty." Circus operators had one year from the bill's passage on July 1, 2009 to comply.
", and was composed in 1904 by Julius Fučík
. Other circus music includes "El Caballero", "Quality Plus", "Sunnyland Waltzes", "The Storming of El Caney", "Pahjamah", "Bull Trombone", "Big Time Boogie", "Royal Bridesmaid March", "The Baby Elephant Walk", "Liberty Bell March", "Java", Strauss's "Radetsky March", and "Pageant of Progress". A poster for Pablo Fanque
's Circus Royal, one of the most popular circuses of Victorian England, inspired John Lennon
to write Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
on The Beatles
' album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
. The song title refers to William Kite
, a well-known circus performer in the 19th century. Producer George Martin
and EMI
engineers created the song’s fairground atmosphere, one that epitomizes the feel of the entire album, by assembling a sound collage of collected recordings of calliopes and fairground organs, which they cut into strips of various lengths, threw into a box, and then mixed up and edited together randomly, creating a long loop which was mixed into the final production.
In 2008, Britney Spears
released an album entitled Circus
. It sold 505,000 copies within the U.S and 814,000 copies worldwide within the first week of its release. The album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200
chart. The feat also earned Spears a place in the Guinness Book of World Records due to Spears becoming the youngest female artist in history to have five number one albums. The album spawned hits like Womanizer
and Circus
. Circus
sold close to 5 million copies worldwide.
Plays set in a circus include the 1896 musical The Circus Girl by Lionel Monckton
, Polly of the Circus written in 1907 by Margaret Mayo
, He Who Gets Slapped written by Russian Leonid Andreyev
1916 and later adapted into one of the first circus films, Caravan written in 1932 by Carl Zuckmayer
, the revue Big Top written by Herbert Farjeon
in 1942, Top of the Ladder written by Tyrone Gutheris in 1950, Stop the World, I Want to Get Off written by Anthony Newley
in 1961, and Barnum
with music by Cy Coleman
and lyrics and book by Mark Bramble
.
Following World War I
, circus films became popular; in 1924 He Who Gets Slapped
was the first film released by MGM
; in 1925 Sally of the Sawdust (remade 1930), Variety, and Vaudeville were produced, followed by The Devil's Circus in 1926 and The Circus starring Charlie Chaplin
, Circus Rookies, 4 Devils
; and Laugh Clown Laugh in 1928. German film Salto Mortale about trapeze artists was released in 1930 and remade in the United States and released as Trapeze
starring Burt Lancaster
in 1956; in 1932 Freaks
was released; Charlie Chan at the Circus, Circus (USSR) and The Three Maxiums were released in 1936 and At the Circus
starring the Marx Brothers
and You Can't Cheat an Honest Man in 1939. Circus films continued to be popular during the Second World War, The Great Profile starring John Barrymore
was released in 1940, the animated Disney
film Dumbo
, Road Show and The Wagons Roll at Night
in 1941 and Captive Wild Woman in 1943.
The film Tromba, about a tiger trainer was released in 1948 and in 1952 Cecil B. de Mille's Oscar winning film The Greatest Show on Earth
was first shown. Released in 1953 were Man on a Tightrope and Ingmar Bergman
's Gycklarnas afton released as Sawdust and Tinsel in the United States; Life is a Circus; Ring of Fear; 3 Ring Circus
and La strada
an Oscar winning film by Federico Fellini
about a girl who is sold to a circus strongman; Fellini made a second film set in the circus called The Clowns in 1970. Films about the circus made since 1959 include B-movie
Circus of Horrors
, musical Billy Rose's Jumbo
, A Tiger Walks a Disney film about a tiger that escapes from the circus and Circus World
starring John Wayne
. In the film Jungle Emperor Leo
, Leo's son, Lune, is captured and placed in a circus, which burns down when a tiger knocks down a ring of fire while jumping through it.
The TV series Circus Humberto, based on the novel by Eduard Bass
, follows the history of the circus family Humberto between 1826 and 1924. The setting of the HBO television series Carnivàle
, which ran from 2003 to 2005, is also largely set in a traveling circus. The circus has also inspired many writers. Numerous books, both non-fiction and fiction, have been published about circus life. Notable examples of circus-based fiction include Circus Humberto by Eduard Bass
, Cirque Du Freak by Darren Shan
, and Spangle
by Gary Jennings
. The novel "Water for Elephants
" by Sara Gruen
tells the fictional tale of a circus veterinarian and was made into a movie with the same title starring Robert Pattinson
and Reese Witherspoon
.
In other countries, purpose-built circus buildings still exist which are no longer used as circuses, or are used for circus only occasionally among a wider programme of events; for example, the Cirkusbygningen (The Circus Building) in Copenhagen, Denmark or Cirkus
in Stockholm, Sweden.
Clown
Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
s, acrobats
Acrobatics
Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports...
, trained animals, trapeze
Trapeze
A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances...
acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers
Juggling
Juggling is a skill involving moving objects for entertainment or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling, in which the juggler throws objects up to catch and toss up again. This may be one object or many objects, at the same time with one or many hands. Jugglers often refer...
, unicyclists
Unicycle
A unicycle is a human-powered, single-track vehicle with one wheel. Unicycles resemble bicycles, but are less complex.-History:One theory of the advent of the unicycle stems from the popularity of the penny-farthing during the late 19th century...
and other stunt-oriented artists. The word also describes the performance that they give, which is usually a series of acts that are told how to play music and introduced by a "ringmaster".A traditional circus performance is normally held in a ring 13m (42ft) in diameter. This dimension was adopted by Philip Astley to enable a horse rider to stand upright on a cantering horse to perform a series of acrobatic manoeuvres and to more easily retain their balance. Most modern circuses have a system of tiered seating around the ring for the public and since the late 19th early 20th century the performance has taken place under canvas and more recently plastic tents commonly called "The Big Top" .
Etymology
First attested in English 14th century, the word circus derives from LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
"circus", which is the romanization
Romanization
In linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman script, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system . Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written...
of the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
"κίρκος" (kirkos), itself a metathesis
Metathesis (linguistics)
Metathesis is the re-arranging of sounds or syllables in a word, or of words in a sentence. Most commonly it refers to the switching of two or more contiguous sounds, known as adjacent metathesis or local metathesis:...
of the Homeric Greek
Homeric Greek
Homeric Greek is the form of the Greek language that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. It is an archaic version of Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other dialects, such as Aeolic Greek. It later served as the basis of Epic Greek, the language of epic poetry, typically in...
"κρίκος" (krikos), meaning "circle" or "ring".
Origin
In Ancient Rome, the circus was a building for the exhibition of horse and chariot races, equestrian shows, staged battles, displays featuring trained animals, jugglers and acrobats. The circus of Rome is thought to have been influenced by the Greeks, with chariot racing and the exhibition of animals as traditional attractions. The Roman circus consisted of tiers of seats running parallel with the sides of the course, and forming a crescent around one of the ends. The lower seats were reserved for persons of rank; there were also various state boxes, e.g. for the giver of the games and his friends. In Ancient Rome the circus was the only public spectacle at which men and women were not separated.The first circus in Rome was the Circus Maximus
Circus Maximus
The Circus Maximus is an ancient Roman chariot racing stadium and mass entertainment venue located in Rome, Italy. Situated in the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills, it was the first and largest stadium in ancient Rome and its later Empire...
, in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills. It was constructed during the monarchy and, at first, built completely from wood. After being rebuilt several times, the final version of the Circus Maximus could seat 250,000 people; it was built of stone and measured 400 m in length and 90 m in width. Next in importance to the Circus Maximus in Rome were the Circus Flaminius
Circus Flaminius
The Circus Flaminius was a large, circular area of land in Rome that contained a small race-track reserved for mysterious games, and various other buildings and monuments. It was located in the southern end of the Campus Martius, near the Tiber River. It was ‘built,’ or sectioned off, by Flaminius...
and the Circus Neronis, from the notoriety which it obtained through the Circensian pleasures of Nero. A fourth, the Circus of Maxentius
Circus of Maxentius
The Circus of Maxentius is an ancient structure in Rome, Italy; it is part of a complex of buildings erected by emperor Maxentius on the Via Appia between AD 306 and 312...
, was constructed by Maxentius
Maxentius
Maxentius was a Roman Emperor from 306 to 312. He was the son of former Emperor Maximian, and the son-in-law of Emperor Galerius.-Birth and early life:Maxentius' exact date of birth is unknown; it was probably around 278...
; the ruins of this circus have helped archaeologists to reconstruct the Roman circus.
For some time after the fall of Rome, Europe lacked a large and animal-rich circus. Itinerant showmen travelled the fairgrounds of Europe. Animal trainers and performers are thought to have exploited the nostalgia for the Roman circus, travelling between towns and performing at local fairs. Another possible link between the Roman and modern circus could have been bands of Gypsies who appeared in Europe in the 14th century and in Britain from the 15th century, bringing with them circus skills and trained animals.
Development
Philip Astley
Philip Astley was an English equestrian, circus owner, and inventor, regarded as being the "father of the modern circus"...
in London. The first performance of his circus is said to have been held on January 9, 1768. One of Astley's major contributions to the circus was bringing trick horse-riding into a ring, though Astley referred to it as the Circle. Later, to suit equestrian acts moving from one circus to another, the diameter of the circus ring was set at 42 feet (13 m), which is the size of ring needed for horses to circle comfortably at full gallop. Astley never called his performances a 'circus'; that title was thought up by his rival Charles Hughes, who set up his Royal Circus a short distance from Astley's 'Amphitheatre
Astley's Amphitheatre
Philip Astley opened Astley's Amphitheatre in London in 1773. * The structure was burned in 1794, then rebuilt. With increasing prosperity and rebuilding after successive fires, it grew to become Astley's Royal Amphitheatre and this was the home of the circus...
of Equestrian Arts' in Lambeth, London. When Astley added tumblers, tightrope-walkers, jugglers, performing dogs, and a clown to fill time between his own demonstrations, he created a modern circus.
Astley was followed by Andrew Ducrow
Andrew Ducrow
Andrew Ducrow was a British circus performer, often called the "Father of British circus equestrianism" and "the Colossus of equestrians" he was the originator of horsemanship acts and proprietor of the Astley’s Amphitheatre. Ducrow was trained by his father who had immigrated to England from...
, whose feats of horsemanship had much to do with establishing the traditions of the circus, which were perpetuated by Henglers and Sangers celebrated shows in a later generation. In England circuses were often held in purpose built buildings in large cities, such as the London Hippodrome, which was built as a combination of the circus, the menagerie and the variety theatre, where wild animals such as lions and elephants from time to time appeared in the ring, and where convulsions of nature such as floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have been produced with an extraordinary wealth of realistic display. Antonio Franconi
Antonio Franconi
Antonio Franconi was an Italian equestrian.He started as a juggler and wandering physician, then arranged bullfights in Lyon and Bordeaux...
, the founder of the French circus, is credited by many to be a co-creator of the modern circus, along with Philip Astley.
John Bill Ricketts
John Bill Ricketts , an Englishman who brought the first modern circus to the United States, began his theatrical career with Hughes Royal Circus in London in the 1780s, and came over from England in 1792 to establish his first circus in Philadelphia.He built a circus building in Philadelphia in...
brought the first modern circus to the United States. He began his theatrical career with Hughes Royal Circus in London in the 1780s, and came over from England in 1792 to establish his first circus in Philadelphia. The first circus building in the U.S opened on April 3, 1793 in Philadelphia, where Ricketts gave America's first complete circus performance. George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
attended a performance there later that season.
In the Americas of the first two decades of the 19th century, the Circus of Pepin and Breschard
Circus of Pepin and Breschard
The equestrian theatre company of Pépin and Breschard, American Victor Pépin and Frenchman Jean Baptiste Casmiere Breschard, arrived in the United States of America from Madrid, Spain , in November 1807. They toured that new country until 1815...
toured from Montreal to Havana, building circus theatres in many of the cities it visited. Victor Pépin
Victor Pépin
Victor Pépin was an American circus performer and circus owner most famous for being a partner in the Circus of Pépin and Breschard. Victor Adolphus Pépin, the eldest son of André Pepin, a Canadian who fought for the Americans in their Revolution against the British, was born in Albany, New York...
, a native New Yorker, was the first American to operate a major circus in the United States. Later the establishments of Purdy, Welch & Co., and of van Amburgh gave a wider popularity to the circus in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In 1825 Joshuah Purdy Brown was the first circus owner to use a large canvas tent for the circus performance. Circus pioneer Dan Rice
Dan Rice
Dan Rice , was an American entertainer of many talents, most famously as a clown, who was pre-eminent before the American Civil War. During the height of his career, Rice was a household name...
was probably the most famous circus and clown pre-Civil War, popularizing such expressions as "The One-Horse Show" and "Hey, Rube!
Hey, Rube!
"Hey, Rube!" is a slang phrase most commonly used in the United States by circus and travelling carnival workers , with origins in the middle 19th century. It is a rallying call, or a cry for help, used by carnies in a fight with outsiders...
". The American circus was revolutionized by P. T. Barnum
P. T. Barnum
Phineas Taylor Barnum was an American showman, businessman, scam artist and entertainer, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the circus that became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus....
and William Cameron Coup
William Cameron Coup
William Cameron Coup was a Wisconsin businessman who partnered with P. T. Barnum and Dan Castello in 1871 to form the "P. T. Barnum’s Museum, Menagerie and Circus". Previously Barnum had a museum at a fixed location in New York City and the traveling circus allowed him to bring his curiosities to...
, who launched P. T. Barnum's Museum, Menagerie & Circus, a travelling combination of animal and human oddities, the exhibition of humans as a freak show
Freak show
A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with both male and female secondary sexual characteristics, people with other extraordinary diseases and...
or sideshow
Sideshow
In America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair or other such attraction.- Types of attractions :There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:...
was thus an American invention. Coup was also the first circus entrepreneur to use circus train
Circus train
A circus train is a modern method of conveyance for circus troupes. One of the larger users of circus trains is the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus , a famous American circus formed when the Ringling Brothers Circus purchased the Barnum and Bailey Circus in 1907.In 1872 the P.T...
s to transport the circus from town to town; a practice that continues today and introduced the first multiple ringed circuses.
In 1840 the equestrian Thomas Cooke
Thomas Cooke
This page is about the instrument maker. For other persons named Thomas Cooke, see Thomas CookeThomas Cooke was a British instrument maker based on York. He founded T. Cooke & Sons, the instrument company-Life:...
returned to England from the United States, bringing with him a circus tent. At this time, itinerant circuses were becoming popular in Britain. William Batty
William Batty
William Batty was an equestrian performer, circus proprietor, and longtime operator of Astley's Amphitheatre in London. Batty was one of the most successful circus proprietors in Victorian England, and helped launch the careers of a number of leading Victorian circus personalities, such as Pablo...
's circus, for example, between 1838 and 1840, travelled from Newcastle to Edinburgh and then to Portsmouth and Southhampton. Pablo Fanque
Pablo Fanque
Pablo Fanque was the first black circus proprietor in Britain. His circus, in which he himself was a performer, was the most popular circus in Victorian Britain for 30 years, a period that is regarded as the golden age of the circus...
, who is noteworthy as Britain's only black circus proprietor and who operated one of the most celebrated travelling circuses in Victorian England, erected temporary structures for his limited engagements or retrofitted existing structures. One such structure in Leeds, which Fanque assumed from a departing circus, collapsed, resulting in minor injuries to many but the death of Fanque's wife. Three important circus innovators were Italian Giuseppe Chiarini, and Frenchmen Louis Soullier and Jacques Tourniaire, whose early travelling circuses introduced the circus to Latin America, Australia, South East Asia, China, South Africa and Russia. Soullier was the first circus owner to introduce Chinese acrobatics to the European circus when he returned from his travels in 1866 and Tourniaire was the first to introduce the performing art to Ranga where it became extremely popular. Following Barnum's death his circus merged with that of James Anthony Bailey
James Anthony Bailey
James Anthony Bailey was the creator of the modern circus.-Biography:He was born James Anthony McGuiness in Detroit, Michigan. Orphaned at the age of eight, McGuinness was working as a bellhop in Pontiac, Michigan when he was discovered by Fred Harrison Bailey as a teenager...
, and travelled to Europe as The Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show On Earth where it toured from 1897 to 1902, impressing other circus owners with its large scale, its touring techniques including the tent and circus train and the combination of circus acts, zoological exhibition and the freak show. This format was adopted by European circuses at the turn of the 20th century.
The influence of the American circus brought about a considerable change in the character of the modern circus. In arenas too large for speech to be easily audible, the traditional comic dialog of the clown assumed a less prominent place than formerly, while the vastly increased wealth of stage properties relegated to the background the old-fashioned equestrian feats, which were replaced by more ambitious acrobatic performances, and by exhibitions of skill, strength and daring, requiring the employment of immense numbers of performers and often of complicated and expensive machinery.
In 1919, Lenin, head of the USSR, expressed a wish for the circus to become 'the people's art-form', given facilities and status on a par with theatre, opera and ballet. The USSR nationalized the Soviet circuses. In 1927 the State University of Circus and Variety Arts, better known as the Moscow Circus School was established where performers were trained using methods developed from the Soviet gymnastics program. When the Moscow State Circus company began international tours in the 1950s, its levels of originality and artistic skill were widely applauded, and the high standard of the Russian State circus continues to this day.
Circuses from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, drawing on Chinese traditions of acrobatics
Acrobatics
Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports...
, like the Chinese State Circus
Chinese State Circus
To say the Chinese State Circus is merely a show is grossly to underestimate it; it is the embodiment of a traditional art form which can trace its history back over 2000 years. The presentation lives and breathes with the enthusiasm of its acrobatic artistes whose whole lives centre in the...
are also popular touring acts. The International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo
International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo
The International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo, known as Festival International du Cirque de Monte-Carlo in French, is an annual festival held since 1974 in Monte Carlo, Monaco. The festival includes the awarding of the Clown d'Or award as well as awards for other circus skills...
has been held in Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
since 1974 and was the first of many international awards for circus performers. In the 1960s and 1970s, the circus began to lose popularity as the general public became more interested in alternative forms of entertainment such as movies, music, and TV shows. Some circuses stayed afloat by merging with other circus companies. However a good number of old-fashioned travelling circuses with their usual mixture of acrobat, clown and animal acts are still active in various parts of the world ranging from small family enterprises on the edge of survival to the three ring extravaganzas like Vazquez Hermanos Circus
Vazquez Hermanos Circus
Vazquez Hermanos Circus is a big-top American-style travelling circus with three performance rings, one of the big five out of more than eighty Mexican circuses....
in Mexico. Other companies found new ways to draw in the public with innovative new approaches to the circus form itself.
Contemporary types
Contemporary circus
Contemporary circus, or nouveau cirque , is a genre of performing art developed in the later 20th century in which a story or a theme is conveyed through traditional circus skills. Animals are rarely used in this type of circus, and traditional circus skills are blended with a more character-driven...
(originally known as nouveau cirque) is a recent performing arts movement that originated in the 1970s in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the West Coast of the United States
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
, and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Contemporary circus combines traditional circus skills and theatrical techniques to convey a story or theme. Compared with the traditional circus, the contemporary genre of circus tends to focus more attention on the overall aesthetic impact, on character and story development, and on the use of lighting design, original music, and costume design to convey thematic or narrative content. For aesthetic or economic reasons, contemporary circus productions may sometimes be staged in theatres rather than in large outdoor tents. Music used in the production is often composed exclusively for that production, and aesthetic influences are drawn as much from contemporary culture as from circus history. Animal acts appear less frequently in contemporary circus than in traditional circus.
Early examples of nouveau cirque companies include: Circus Oz
Circus Oz
Circus Oz was founded in December 1977, with its first performance season in March 1978. Circus Oz was the amalgamation of two already well-known groups - Soapbox Circus, a roadshow set up by the Australian Performing Group in 1976, and the New Ensemble Circus, a continuation of the New Circus,...
, forged in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1978 from SoapBox Circus and New Circus, both founded in the early 1970s; the Pickle Family Circus
Pickle Family Circus
The Pickle Family Circus was a small circus founded in 1974 in San Francisco, California, USA. The circus formed an important part of the renewal of the American circus. They also influenced the creation of Cirque du Soleil in Montreal...
, founded in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
in 1975; Nofit State Circus
Nofit State Circus
NoFit State Circus is a contemporary circus company based in Cardiff, Wales.Formed in 1986, NoFit State Circus have been a mainstay of new and contemporary circus in the United Kingdom since their inception, and have toured tented and theatrical shows at home and abroad...
in 1984 from Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
; Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
, founded in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
in 1984; and Archaos in 1986. More recent examples include: Teatro ZinZanni
Teatro ZinZanni
Teatro ZinZanni is a circus dinner theater that began in the neighborhood of Lower Queen Anne in Seattle, Washington. It has since expanded to a site on the waterfront at Pier 29 on the San Francisco, California The Embarcadero....
, founded in Seattle in 1998; Quebec's Cirque Éloize
Cirque Éloize
Cirque Éloize is a Quebec-based nouveau cirque troupe. It was founded in 1993 by Jeannot Painchaud, Daniel Cyr and Julie Hamelin. Having created seven original productions so far, it has presented more than 3000 performances in more than 375 cities and 30 countries...
; Les 7 doigts de la main (also known as The 7 Fingers); and the West African Circus Baobab in the late 1990s. The genre includes other circus troupes such as the Vermont-based Circus Smirkus
Circus Smirkus
Circus Smirkus is a non-profit, award-winning, international youth circus founded in 1987 by Rob Mermin. Based in Greensboro, Vermont, the mission of Circus Smirkus is to promote the skills, culture and traditions of the traveling circus and to inspire youth to engage in life-changing adventures in...
(founded in 1987 by Rob Mermin
Rob Mermin
Rob Mermin is the founder of the award-winning international touring youth circus Circus Smirkus.Rob Mermin ran off to join the circus in 1969...
), Le Cirque Imaginaire (later renamed Le Cirque Invisible, both founded and directed by Victoria Chaplin
Victoria Chaplin
Victoria Chaplin is an Anglo-American actress, the daughter of actor/comedian Charlie Chaplin and Oona O'Neill Chaplin, and the granddaughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill....
, daughter of Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
), the Tiger Lillies
Tiger Lillies
The Tiger Lillies are a three-piece band, formed in 1989 and based in London. They have toured worldwide and won acclaim with their opera Shockheaded Peter....
, Dislocate, and Vulcana Women's Circus, while The Jim Rose Circus
Jim Rose Circus
The Jim Rose Circus is a modern-day version of a circus sideshow. It was founded in Seattle by Jim Rose in the early 1990s. The sideshow came to prominence as a second stage show at the 1992 Lollapalooza festival, then called the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow...
is an interesting take on the sideshow
Sideshow
In America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair or other such attraction.- Types of attractions :There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:...
. Swedish contemporary circus company Cirkus Cirkör
Cirkus Cirkör
Cirkus Cirkör is a Swedish circus company, and is today Scandinavia's leading performing circus company within the art form of contemporary circus. Cirkus Cirkör has toured the world with a number of successful and praised circus shows...
was founded in 1995. U.S. Company PURE Cirkus was founded in the subgenre of "cirque noir" in 2004, and in Northern England
Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...
, (United Kingdom), Skewed Circus combines punk, rap, dance music, comedy, and stunts to deliver "pop-circus" entertainment to young urban audiences.
The most conspicuous success story in the contemporary genre has been that of Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
, the Canadian circus company whose estimated annual revenue now exceeds US$810 million, and whose nouveau cirque shows have been seen by nearly 90 million spectators in over 200 cities on five continents. Despite the contemporary circus' shift toward more theatrical techniques and its emphasis on human rather than animal performance, traditional circus companies still exist alongside the new movement. Numerous circuses continue to maintain animal performers, including Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, UniverSoul Circus
UniverSoul Circus
The UniverSoul Circus is a single ring circus founded and run since 1994 by Cedric Walker. It currently contains 75 primarily African-American performers and 12 acts. The circus is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia....
, and the Big Apple Circus
Big Apple Circus
The Big Apple Circus is a circus that is based in New York City. Opened in 1977, it has become a tourist attraction as well. It has been highly influential towards the creation of Cirque du Soleil, tent-based circuses and smaller non-profit shows, such as Circus Flora.-The 1970s:The idea of...
from the United States, Circus Krone
Circus Krone
Circus Krone, based in Munich, is the largest circus in Europe and the only one in Western Europe to also occupy a building.-History:It was originally founded in 1905 by Carl Krone as an animal exhibition. Later the circus was run by his daughter Frieda Sembach-Krone and her husband Carl...
from Munich, Circus Royale
Circus Royale
Circus Royale is an Australian circus troupe owned by Damian Syred. The performers include 35 human artists, camels, horses, llamas, and four cows. According to Taleisha Gasser, who grew up in the circus and now does trapeze, the circus also has dogs and even a guinea pig that perform; they...
and Lennon Bros Circus
Lennon Bros Circus
Lennon's Circus is a circus that tours in Australia. Its touring schedule covers Australia from the remotest towns to the largest cities. Touring for 11 months, before completing their season in late November....
from Australia, Vazquez Hermanos Circus
Vazquez Hermanos Circus
Vazquez Hermanos Circus is a big-top American-style travelling circus with three performance rings, one of the big five out of more than eighty Mexican circuses....
, Circo Atayde Hermanos, and Hermanos Mayaror Circus from Mexico, and Moira Orfei
Moira Orfei
Moira Orfei, , a popular Italian actress and television personality. Moira is considered the queen of the Italian circus.-Biography:...
Circus from Italy, to name just a few.
Performance
Ringmaster (circus)
The ringmaster is the most visible performer in the modern circus, and among the most important, since he stage-manages the performance, introduces the various acts, and guides the audience through the entertainment experience. In smaller circuses, the ringmaster is often the owner and artistic...
who has a role similar to a Master of Ceremonies
Master of Ceremonies
A Master of Ceremonies , or compere, is the host of a staged event or similar performance.An MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving....
. The ringmaster presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the show moving. The activity of the circus traditionally takes place within a ring; large circuses may have multiple rings, like the six-ringed Moscow State Circus
Moscow State Circus
The title “Moscow State Circus” is used for a variety of circuses. Most commonly, it refers to one of the two circus buildings in Moscow, the “” and the “Bolshoi Circus” , or to traveling shows which may or may not be directly related to Russia.The Russian Circus rose to world acclaim during the...
. A circus often travels with its own band, whose instrumentation in the United States has traditionally included brass instrument
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
s, drums, glockenspiel
Glockenspiel
A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, and sometimes the distinctive sound of the calliope
Calliope (music)
A calliope is a musical instrument that produces sound by sending a gas, originally steam or more recently compressed air, through large whistles, originally locomotive whistles....
.
Acts
Common acts include a variety of acrobaticsAcrobatics
Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports...
, gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
(including tumbling
Tumbling (gymnastics)
In gymnastics, tumbling, also known as power tumbling is an acrobatic sporting discipline which combines some of the skills of artistic gymnastics on the floor with those of trampolining. It is practised on a 25 metre long spring track...
and trampoline
Trampoline
A trampoline is a device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric stretched over a steel frame using many coiled springs. People bounce on trampolines for recreational and competitive purposes....
), aerial acts (such as trapeze
Trapeze
A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances...
, aerial silk, corde lisse
Corde lisse
Corde lisse is an aerial circus skill or act that involves acrobatics on a vertically hanging rope. The name is French for "smooth rope".- Description :...
), contortion
Contortion
thumb|upright|Contortionist performingContortion is an unusual form of physical display which involves the dramatic bending and flexing of the human body. Contortion is often part of acrobatics and circus acts...
, stilts
Stilts
Stilts are poles, posts or pillars used to allow a person or structure to stand at a distance above the ground. Walking stilts are poles equipped with steps for the feet to stand on, or straps to attach them to the legs, for the purpose of walking while elevated above a normal height...
and a variety of other routines. Juggling
Juggling
Juggling is a skill involving moving objects for entertainment or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling, in which the juggler throws objects up to catch and toss up again. This may be one object or many objects, at the same time with one or many hands. Jugglers often refer...
is one of the most common acts in a circus; the combination of juggling and gymnastics is called equilibristics
Equilibristics
Equilibristics is a blanket term for a number of circus skills which involve balancing or maintaining equilibrium. The term applies equally to acts in which the performer balances on a prop, and acts in which the performer balances or spins a prop....
and include acts like plate spinning
Plate spinning
Plate spinning is a circus manipulation art where a person spins plates, bowls and other flat objects on poles, without them falling off. Plate spinning relies on the gyroscopic effect, in the same way a top stays upright while spinning...
or the rolling globe
Rolling globe
The rolling globe is a circus skill in which the performer balances atop a large sphere, sometimes taller than the performer. Various gymnastic or juggling stunts may be performed while the performer moves and controls the position of the ball with the feet and/or hands.-Further reading:* *...
. Clown
Clown
Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
s are common to most circuses and are typically skilled in many circus acts; "clowns getting into the act" is a very familiar theme in any circus. Famous circus clowns have included Austin Miles, the Fratellini Family
Fratellini Family
The Fratellini Family was a famous European circus family in the late 1900s and 1920s. An engagement at the Circus Medrano in Paris, France, after World War I was so successful that it sparked a strong resurgence of interest in the circus. By 1923, the Fratellini brothers had become the darlings of...
, Emmett Kelly
Emmett Kelly
Emmett Leo Kelly , a native of Sedan, Kansas, was an American circus performer, who created the memorable clown figure "Weary Willie", based on the hobos of the Depression era.- Career development :...
, Grock
Grock
Grock , born Charles Adrien Wettach, was a Swiss clown, composer and musician. Called "the king of clowns" and "the greatest of Europe's clowns", Grock was once the most highly paid entertainer in the world....
and Bill Irwin
Bill Irwin
William Mills "Bill" Irwin is an American actor and clown noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He is known for his vaudeville-style stage acts, but has made a number of appearances on film and television and won a Tony Award for a dramatic role on...
.
Daredevil stunt acts
Stunt performer
A stuntman, or daredevil is someone who performs dangerous stunts, often as a career.These stunts are sometimes rigged so that they look dangerous while still having safety mechanisms, but often they are as dangerous as they appear to be...
and sideshow acts
Sideshow
In America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair or other such attraction.- Types of attractions :There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:...
are also parts of some circus acts, these activities may include human cannonball
Human cannonball
The human cannonball is a performance in which a person is ejected from a specially designed cannon. The impetus is provided not by gunpowder, but by either a spring or jet of compressed air...
, chapeaugraphy
Chapeaugraphy
Chapeaugraphy, occasionally anglicised to chapography, is a panhandling trick in which a ring-shaped piece of felt is manipulated to look like various types of hats...
, fire eating, breathing
Fire breathing
Fire breathing is the act of creating a fireball by breathing a fine mist of fuel over an open flame. Proper technique and the correct fuel create the illusion of danger to enhance the novelty of fire breathing, while reducing the risk to health and safety...
and dancing
Fire dancing
Fire dancing is a group of performance arts or disciplines that involve manipulation of objects on fire...
, knife throwing
Impalement arts
Impalement arts are a type of performing art in which a performer plays the role of human target for a fellow performer who demonstrates accuracy skills in disciplines such as knife throwing and archery. Impalement is actually what the performers endeavour to avoid - the thrower or marksman aims...
, magic shows
Magic (illusion)
Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...
, sword swallowing
Sword swallowing
Sword swallowing is an ancient performance art in which the performer passes a sword through the mouth and down the esophagus towards the stomach...
or strongman
Strongman (circus)
The circus strongman is one of many acts found in a modern circus. The strongman demonstrates great strength, power and agility to the audience. The strongman and strongwomen were very popular attractions in the circus in the 19th century....
. Famous sideshow performers include Zip the Pinhead
Zip the Pinhead
Zip the Pinhead, born William Henry Johnson , was an American freak show performer famous for his oddly tapered head.- Early life :...
and The Doll Family
The Doll Family
The Doll Family was a group of four dwarf siblings from Germany who were popular performers in circuses and sideshows in the United States from the 1920s until their retirement in the mid 1950s.They were:*Gracie The Doll Family was a group of four dwarf siblings from Germany who were popular...
. A popular sideshow attraction from the early 19th century was the flea circus
Flea circus
A flea circus refers to a circus sideshow attraction in which fleas are attached to miniature carts and other items, and encouraged to perform circus acts within a small housing...
, where fleas were attached to props and viewed through a Fresnel lens
Fresnel lens
A Fresnel lens is a type of lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses.The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design...
.
Animal acts
Big cat
The term big cat – which is not a biological classification – is used informally to distinguish the larger felid species from smaller ones. One definition of "big cat" includes the four members of the genus Panthera: the tiger, lion, jaguar, and leopard. Members of this genus are the only cats able...
s, elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
s, horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s, bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s, sea lions, bear
Bear
Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...
s and domestic animals are the most common.
The earliest involvement of animals in circus was just the display of exotic creatures. As far back as the early eighteenth century, exotic animals were transported to North America for display, and menageries were a popular form of entertainment. The first true animals acts in the circus were equestrian acts. Soon elephants and big cats were displayed as well. Isaac A. Van Amburgh
Isaac A. Van Amburgh
Isaac A. Van Amburgh was an American animal trainer who developed the first trained wild animal act in modern times. By introducing jungle acts into the circus, Van Amburgh paved the way for combining menageries with circuses. After that, menageries began using equestrian and clown performances...
entered a cage with several big cats in 1833, and is generally considered to be the first wild animal trainer in American circus history. Mabel Stark
Mabel Stark
Mabel Stark, whose real name was Mary Haynie was a renowned tiger trainer of the 1920s and she was referred to as the world's first woman tiger trainer/tamer.- Biography :...
was a famous female tiger-tamer.
Controversy
Animal welfareAnimal welfare
Animal welfare is the physical and psychological well-being of animals.The term animal welfare can also mean human concern for animal welfare or a position in a debate on animal ethics and animal rights...
groups have documented many cases of animal cruelty in the training of performing circus animals. The animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. A non-profit corporation with 300 employees and two million members and supporters, it claims to be the largest animal rights...
(PETA) contends that animals in circuses are frequently beaten into submission and that physical abuse has always been the method for training circus animals. According to PETA, although the US Animal Welfare Act does not permit the use of electric shock prods, whips, hooks, or similar instruments by trainers, these are still used today. According to PETA, during an undercover investigation of Carson & Barnes Circus, video footage was captured showing animal care director Tim Frisco training endangered Asian elephants with electrical shock prods and instructing other trainers to "beat the elephants with a bullhook as hard as they could and to sink the sharp metal bullhook into the animals' flesh and twist it until they screamed in pain."
In testimony in U.S. District Court in 2009, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is an American circus company. The company was started when the circus created by James Anthony Bailey and P. T. Barnum was merged with the Ringling Brothers Circus. The Ringling brothers purchased the Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1907, but ran the circuses...
CEO Kenneth Feld
Kenneth Feld
Kenneth Jeffrey Feld is the CEO of , which owns Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Disney on Ice!, and He is also the producer of several Broadway plays. The business was started by his father Irvin Feld and Ken became CEO upon his father's death in 1984. He has three daughters, two...
acknowledged that circus elephants are struck behind the ears, under the chin and on their legs with metal tipped prods, called bull hooks. Feld stated that these practices are necessary to protect circus workers. Feld also acknowledged that an elephant trainer was reprimanded for using an electric shock device, known as a hot shot or electric prod, on an elephant, which Feld also stated was appropriate practice. Feld denied that any of these practices harm elephants. In its January 2010 verdict on the case, brought against Feld Entertainment International by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 'et al.', the Court ruled that evidence against the circus company was "not credible with regard to the allegations".
On February 1, 1992 at the Great American Circus in Palm Bay, Florida
Palm Bay, Florida
Palm Bay is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's population as 100,786 on 1 July 2008; it is the most populous city in the county...
, an elephant named Janet (1965 – February 1, 1992) went berserk while giving a ride to a mother, her two children and three other children. The elephant then stampeded through the circus grounds outside before being shot to death by police. Also, during a Circus International performance in Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. Honolulu is the southernmost major U.S. city. Although the name "Honolulu" refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and county government are consolidated as the City and...
on 20 August 1994, an elephant called Tyke
Tyke (elephant)
Tyke was a female circus elephant who on August 20, 1994, in Honolulu, Hawaii, killed her trainer, Allen Campbell, and gored her groomer Dallas Beckwith causing severe injuries during a Circus International performance before hundreds of horrified spectators at the Neal Blaisdell Center...
(1974 – August 20, 1994) killed her trainer, Allen Campbell
Allen Campbell
Allen Campbell was a zookeeper and elephant trainer and handler in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida before moving to work in the Baton Rouge zoo in the mid 1970s as the elephant keeper and trainer. He also ran the first elephant ride there...
, and severely mauled her groomer, Dallas Beckwith, in front of hundreds of horrified spectators. Tyke then bolted from the arena and ran through the streets of Kakaako
Kakaako
Kakaako is the name of a commercial and retail district of Honolulu, Hawaii between Ala Moana near Waikīkī to the east, downtown Honolulu and Honolulu Harbor to the west. Kakaako is situated along the southern shores of the island of Oahu....
for more than thirty minutes. Police fired 86 shots at Tyke who eventually collapsed from the wounds and died.
In 1998 in the UK, a parliamentary working group chaired by MP Roger Gale
Roger Gale
Roger James Gale is a British politician. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for North Thanet in Kent.-Early life:...
studied living conditions and treatment of animals in UK circuses. All members of this group agreed that a change in the law was needed to protect circus animals. Mr Gale told the BBC, "It's undignified and the conditions under which they are kept are woefully inadequate—the cages are too small, the environments they live in are not suitable and many of us believe the time has come for that practice to end." The group reported concerns about boredom and stress, and noted that an independent study by a member of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University "found no evidence that circuses contribute to education or conservation." However, in 2007 a different working group under the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the government department responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United Kingdom...
, having reviewed information from experts representing both the circus industry and animal welfare, found an absence of "scientific evidence sufficient to demonstrate that travelling circuses are not compatible with meeting the welfare needs of any type of non-domesticated animal presently being used in the United Kingdom." According to that group's report, published in October 2007, "there appears to be little evidence to demonstrate that the welfare of animals kept in travelling circuses is any better or any worse than that of animals kept in other captive environments."
Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
have already restricted the use of animals in entertainment. In response to a growing popular concern about the use of animals in entertainment, animal-free circuses are becoming more common around the world. Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
has banned any animal from performing in any circus. In 2009, Bolivia passed legislation banning the use of any animals, wild or domestic, in circuses. The law states that circuses "constitute an act of cruelty." Circus operators had one year from the bill's passage on July 1, 2009 to comply.
In music, films, plays, and books
The atmosphere of the circus has served as a dramatic setting for many musicians. The famous circus theme song is actually called "Entrance of the GladiatorsEntrance of the Gladiators
"Entrance of the Gladiators" or "Entry of the Gladiators" is a military march composed in 1897 by the Czech composer Julius Fučík...
", and was composed in 1904 by Julius Fučík
Julius Fucík (composer)
Julius Arnost Wilhelm Fučík was a Czech composer and conductor of military bands.Fučík spent most of his life as the leader of military brass bands. He became a prolific composer, with over 300 marches, polkas, and waltzes to his name...
. Other circus music includes "El Caballero", "Quality Plus", "Sunnyland Waltzes", "The Storming of El Caney", "Pahjamah", "Bull Trombone", "Big Time Boogie", "Royal Bridesmaid March", "The Baby Elephant Walk", "Liberty Bell March", "Java", Strauss's "Radetsky March", and "Pageant of Progress". A poster for Pablo Fanque
Pablo Fanque
Pablo Fanque was the first black circus proprietor in Britain. His circus, in which he himself was a performer, was the most popular circus in Victorian Britain for 30 years, a period that is regarded as the golden age of the circus...
's Circus Royal, one of the most popular circuses of Victorian England, inspired John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
to write Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
"Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" is a song from the 1967 album by The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was composed by John Lennon...
on The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...
. The song title refers to William Kite
William Kite
William Kite was a 19th century circus performer, best known as being the "Mr. Kite" from the Beatles song "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!"...
, a well-known circus performer in the 19th century. Producer George Martin
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
and EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
engineers created the song’s fairground atmosphere, one that epitomizes the feel of the entire album, by assembling a sound collage of collected recordings of calliopes and fairground organs, which they cut into strips of various lengths, threw into a box, and then mixed up and edited together randomly, creating a long loop which was mixed into the final production.
In 2008, Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
released an album entitled Circus
Circus (Britney Spears album)
Circus is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Britney Spears. The album was first released on November 28, 2008 by Jive Records. Spears started work on the album in early 2008 with a range of producers including long-time producers Bloodshy & Avant and Danja...
. It sold 505,000 copies within the U.S and 814,000 copies worldwide within the first week of its release. The album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart. The feat also earned Spears a place in the Guinness Book of World Records due to Spears becoming the youngest female artist in history to have five number one albums. The album spawned hits like Womanizer
Womanizer (song)
"Womanizer" is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears from her sixth studio album, Circus. It was released on September 26, 2008 by Jive Records as the lead single of the album. Produced and co-written by Nikesha Briscoe and Rafael Akinyemi of The Outsyders, the song had to be...
and Circus
Circus (song)
"Circus" is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears from her sixth studio album, Circus. It was released on December 2, 2008, by Jive Records as the second single from the album. "Circus" was written by Dr. Luke, Claude Kelly and Benny Blanco as a metaphor for the public's perception of...
. Circus
Circus (Britney Spears album)
Circus is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Britney Spears. The album was first released on November 28, 2008 by Jive Records. Spears started work on the album in early 2008 with a range of producers including long-time producers Bloodshy & Avant and Danja...
sold close to 5 million copies worldwide.
Plays set in a circus include the 1896 musical The Circus Girl by Lionel Monckton
Lionel Monckton
Lionel John Alexander Monckton was an English writer and composer of musical theatre. He was Britain's most popular musical theatre composer of the early years of the 20th century.-Early life:...
, Polly of the Circus written in 1907 by Margaret Mayo
Margaret Mayo (playwright)
Margaret Mayo, born Lillian Elizabeth Slatten , was an American actress, playwright and screenwriter. She is buried in St. Francis of Assisi Cemetery, Mt. Kisko, New York....
, He Who Gets Slapped written by Russian Leonid Andreyev
Leonid Andreyev
Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev was a Russian playwright, novelist and short-story writer. He is one of the most talented and prolific representatives of the Silver Age period in Russian history...
1916 and later adapted into one of the first circus films, Caravan written in 1932 by Carl Zuckmayer
Carl Zuckmayer
Carl Zuckmayer was a German writer and playwright.-Biography:Born in Nackenheim in Rheinhessen, he was four years old when his family moved to Mainz. With the outbreak of World War I, he finished school with a facilitated "emergency"-Abitur and volunteered for military service...
, the revue Big Top written by Herbert Farjeon
Herbert Farjeon
Herbert Farjeon was a major figure in the British theatre from 1910 until his death. He was a presenter of revues in London's West End, a theatre critic, lyricist, librettist, playwright, theatre manager and researcher....
in 1942, Top of the Ladder written by Tyrone Gutheris in 1950, Stop the World, I Want to Get Off written by Anthony Newley
Anthony Newley
Anthony George Newley was an English actor, singer and songwriter. He enjoyed success as a performer in such diverse fields as rock and roll and stage and screen acting.-Early life:...
in 1961, and Barnum
Barnum (musical)
Barnum is a musical with a book by Mark Bramble, lyrics by Michael Stewart, and music by Cy Coleman. It is based on the life of showman P. T. Barnum, covering the period from 1835 through 1880 in America and major cities of the world where Barnum took his performing companies. The production...
with music by Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist.-Life and career:He was born Seymour Kaufman on June 14, 1929, in New York City to Eastern European Jewish parents, and was raised in the Bronx. His mother, Ida was an apartment landlady and his father was a brickmason...
and lyrics and book by Mark Bramble
Mark Bramble
Mark Bramble is a theatre director, author and producer. He has been nominated for the Tony Award three times, for the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Barnum and 42nd Street and Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, 42nd Street .-Biography:Mark Bramble has been involved in the...
.
Following World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, circus films became popular; in 1924 He Who Gets Slapped
He Who Gets Slapped
He Who Gets Slapped is a 1924 film starring Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, and John Gilbert. It was directed by Victor Sjöström. The film is based on the Russian play Тот, кто получает пощёчины by playwright Leonid Andreyev, which was published in 1914 and in English, as He Who Gets Slapped, in 1922...
was the first film released by MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
; in 1925 Sally of the Sawdust (remade 1930), Variety, and Vaudeville were produced, followed by The Devil's Circus in 1926 and The Circus starring Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
, Circus Rookies, 4 Devils
4 Devils
4 Devils was a 1928 American silent drama film directed by German film director F. W. Murnau.-Preservation status:...
; and Laugh Clown Laugh in 1928. German film Salto Mortale about trapeze artists was released in 1930 and remade in the United States and released as Trapeze
Trapeze (film)
Trapeze is a 1956 circus film directed by Carol Reed and starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida, making her debut in American films....
starring Burt Lancaster
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...
in 1956; in 1932 Freaks
Freaks
Freaks is a 1932 American Pre-Code horror film about sideshow performers, directed and produced by Tod Browning and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with a cast mostly composed of actual carnival performers. The film was based on Tod Robbins' 1923 short story "Spurs"...
was released; Charlie Chan at the Circus, Circus (USSR) and The Three Maxiums were released in 1936 and At the Circus
At the Circus
At the Circus is a 1939 Marx Brothers comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in which they save a circus from bankruptcy...
starring the Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
and You Can't Cheat an Honest Man in 1939. Circus films continued to be popular during the Second World War, The Great Profile starring John Barrymore
John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
was released in 1940, the animated Disney
Walt Disney Feature Animation
Walt Disney Animation Studios is an American animation studio headquartered in Burbank, California. The studio, founded in 1923 as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio by brothers Walt and Roy Disney, is the oldest subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
film Dumbo
Dumbo
Dumbo is a 1941 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released on October 23, 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures.The fourth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, Dumbo is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl for the prototype of a...
, Road Show and The Wagons Roll at Night
The Wagons Roll at Night
The Wagons Roll at Night is a 1941 circus film, starring Humphrey Bogart as travelling carnival owner Nick Coster, Sylvia Sidney as his girlfriend and Eddie Albert as a newcomer who falls in love with Nick's sister.-Plot:...
in 1941 and Captive Wild Woman in 1943.
The film Tromba, about a tiger trainer was released in 1948 and in 1952 Cecil B. de Mille's Oscar winning film The Greatest Show on Earth
The Greatest Show on Earth
The Greatest Show on Earth is a 1952 drama film set in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The film was produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture...
was first shown. Released in 1953 were Man on a Tightrope and Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
's Gycklarnas afton released as Sawdust and Tinsel in the United States; Life is a Circus; Ring of Fear; 3 Ring Circus
3 Ring Circus
3 Ring Circus is a 1954 film comedy starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. It was shot from February 17 to March 31, 1954 and released on December 25 by Paramount Pictures.The film was the first starring Martin and Lewis to be shot in VistaVision...
and La strada
La Strada (film)
La Strada is a 1954 Italian neorealist drama directed by Federico Fellini in which a naïve young woman is sold to a brutish man and goes on the road as a part of his itinerant show....
an Oscar winning film by Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
about a girl who is sold to a circus strongman; Fellini made a second film set in the circus called The Clowns in 1970. Films about the circus made since 1959 include B-movie
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
Circus of Horrors
Circus of Horrors
Circus of Horrors is a 1960 British horror film directed by Sidney Hayers. It starred Anton Diffring, Yvonne Monlaur, Erika Remberg, Kenneth Griffith, Jane Hylton, Conrad Phillips, Yvonne Romain and Donald Pleasence....
, musical Billy Rose's Jumbo
Billy Rose's Jumbo (film)
Billy Rose's Jumbo is an American musical film produced by MGM in Panavision and Metrocolor, and starring Jimmy Durante, Doris Day, Martha Raye, and Stephen Boyd. The film was directed by Charles Walters and featured Busby Berkeley's choreography...
, A Tiger Walks a Disney film about a tiger that escapes from the circus and Circus World
Circus World (film)
Circus World, also known as Samuel Bronston's Circus World, is a 1964 drama film made by the independent production company Samuel Bronston Productions and distributed by Paramount Pictures...
starring John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
. In the film Jungle Emperor Leo
Jungle Emperor Leo
Jungle Emperor Leo, known in Japan as is a 1997 animated movie focusing on the last half of Osamu Tezuka's epic manga, Jungle Taitei...
, Leo's son, Lune, is captured and placed in a circus, which burns down when a tiger knocks down a ring of fire while jumping through it.
The TV series Circus Humberto, based on the novel by Eduard Bass
Eduard Bass
Eduard Bass, born Eduard Schmidt, was a Czech prose writer, journalist, singer, and actor.From 1910 he worked as a singer, journalist and cabaret director...
, follows the history of the circus family Humberto between 1826 and 1924. The setting of the HBO television series Carnivàle
Carnivàle
Carnivàle is an American television series set in the United States during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. In tracing the lives of two disparate groups of people, its overarching story depicts the battle between good and evil and the struggle between free will and destiny; the storyline mixes...
, which ran from 2003 to 2005, is also largely set in a traveling circus. The circus has also inspired many writers. Numerous books, both non-fiction and fiction, have been published about circus life. Notable examples of circus-based fiction include Circus Humberto by Eduard Bass
Eduard Bass
Eduard Bass, born Eduard Schmidt, was a Czech prose writer, journalist, singer, and actor.From 1910 he worked as a singer, journalist and cabaret director...
, Cirque Du Freak by Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren O'Shaughnessy , who commonly writes under the pen name Darren Shan, is an Irish author. Darren Shan is also the main character in Shan's The Saga of Darren Shan young-adult fiction series. He also wrote The Demonata series as well as the stand-alone books, Koyasan and The Thin Executioner...
, and Spangle
Spangle (novel)
Spangle is a historical novel written by Gary Jennings and first published in 1987.-Plot introduction:After surrendering at Appomattox Court House in Virginia at the end of the American Civil War, two Confederate soldiers meet and join Florian’s Flourishing Florilegium of Wonders, a traveling...
by Gary Jennings
Gary Jennings
Gary Jennings was an American author who wrote children's and adult novels. In 1980, after the successful novel Aztec, he specialized in writing adult historical fiction novels.-Biography:...
. The novel "Water for Elephants
Water for Elephants
Water for Elephants is a historical novel by Sara Gruen. Gruen originally wrote the novel as part of National Novel Writing Month.- Plot :...
" by Sara Gruen
Sara Gruen
Sara Gruen is a Canada-born dual citizen author. Her books deal greatly with animals and she is a supporter of numerous charitable organizations that support animals and wildlife.-Early life and education:...
tells the fictional tale of a circus veterinarian and was made into a movie with the same title starring Robert Pattinson
Robert Pattinson
Robert Douglas Thomas Pattinson is an English actor, model, musician, and producer. Born and raised in London, Pattinson started out his career by playing the role of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire...
and Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...
.
Buildings
In some towns, there are circus buildings where regular performances are held. The best known are- Circus Krone BuildingCircus Krone BuildingThe Circus Krone Building is the headquarters and main winter venue for Circus Krone in Munich, Germany. It also serves as a major venue for other forms of live entertainment, such as rock concerts....
in MunichMunichMunich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat... - Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoy BoulevardMoscow Circus on Tsvetnoy BoulevardMoscow Circus on Tsvetnoi Boulevard was the only circus in Moscow between 1926 and 1971 and still remains the most popular one. The circus building was opened on 20 October 1880 as the Solomonsky Circus. Known by a variety of names during the Soviet period, the troupe was awarded the Order of Lenin...
in MoscowMoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent... - Shanghai Circus WorldShanghai Circus WorldShanghai Circus World is a large, permanent indoor circus in the city of Shanghai.Shanghai Cirus World covers an area of 22,500 square meters. Its main body is Acrobatics Field, in which 1,638 seats were set up.-Transportation:...
in ShanghaiShanghaiShanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010... - Cirque d'Hiver, ParisCirque d'hiverThe Cirque d'hiver , located at 110 rue Amelot , has been a prominent venue for circuses, exhibitions of dressage, musical concerts, and other events, including exhibitions of Turkish wrestling and even fashion shows...
- Budapest Circus
- Blackpool TowerBlackpool TowerBlackpool Tower Eye is a tourist attraction in Blackpool, Lancashire in England which was opened to the public on 14 May 1894. . Inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it rises to 518 feet & 9 inches . The tower is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers...
Circus - Hippodrome Circus, Great YarmouthGreat YarmouthGreat Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, east of Norwich.It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea...
In other countries, purpose-built circus buildings still exist which are no longer used as circuses, or are used for circus only occasionally among a wider programme of events; for example, the Cirkusbygningen (The Circus Building) in Copenhagen, Denmark or Cirkus
Cirkus (Stockholm)
Cirkus is an arena in Djurgården, Stockholm, that holds 1,650 people. It was built in 1892 and originally used as a circus , but is today mostly used for concerts and musical shows.-External links:*...
in Stockholm, Sweden.
See also
- AcrobaticsAcrobaticsAcrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports...
- AerobaticsAerobaticsAerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in normal flight. Aerobatics are performed in airplanes and gliders for training, recreation, entertainment and sport...
- Animal trainingAnimal trainingAnimal training refers to teaching animals specific responses to specific conditions or stimuli. Training may be for the purpose of companionship, detection, protection, entertainment or all of the above....
- ChautauquaChautauquaChautauqua was an adult education movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with...
, tent shows that preceded American circus - Circus clownCircus clownClowns have always been an integral part of the circus, offering a source of amusement for patrons and providing relief from the array of animal acts and performances by acrobats and novelty artistes....
- Circus skillsCircus skillsCircus skills are a group of pursuits that have been performed as entertainment in circus, sideshow, busking or variety/vaudeville/music hall shows. Most circus skills are still being performed today. Many are also practiced by non-performers as a hobby....
- Cirque du SoleilCirque du SoleilCirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
- ClownClownClowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
- Contemporary circusContemporary circusContemporary circus, or nouveau cirque , is a genre of performing art developed in the later 20th century in which a story or a theme is conveyed through traditional circus skills. Animals are rarely used in this type of circus, and traditional circus skills are blended with a more character-driven...
- Dog and pony showDog and pony showDog and pony show is a colloquial term previously used in the United States in the late-19th and early-20th centuries to refer to small traveling circuses that toured through small towns and rural areas...
- List of circuses and circus owners