William L. Slout, circus historian par excellence, here provides six essays on the development of the American circus. "From Rags to Ricketts: The Roots of Circus in Early Gotham" looks at the beginnings of circus entertainment in old New York City during the eighteenth century. "The Great Roman Hippodrome of 1874: P. T. Barnum's 'Crowning Effort'" describes the great showman's grand experiment: the collection and display in the Big Apple of the "largest collection of living wild animals in the world." "The Recycling of the Dan Rice Paris Pavilion Circus" tells the story of an American circus entrepreneur who took his traveling show to Europe in 1867. "Strange Bedfellows: The Pogey O'Brien Interval, 1874-1875" relates how O'Brien partnered with P. T. Barnum to take the circus master's show on the road while Barnum was creating his "Great Roman Hippodrome." "Two Rings and a Hippodrome Track" demonstrates that the first two-ring circus mounted by Barnum (or anyone else) occurred in 1873, and not 1872, as previously supposed. Finally, "The Adventures of James M. Nixon, Forgotten Impresario," describes the career of a major circus manager who worked between the 1843-75, directly competing with Barnum for the same audience--and eventually losing the struggle. Slout's vivid accounts, highlighted by contemporaneous newspaper accounts of the excitement generated locally by these traveling shows, help bring a long-forgotten era alive again.

Step right up to this eye-opening account of how circuses are scouted, produced, directed and ballyhooed - and forever reinventing themselves. Covering them all, from the Kings of the sawdust rings to the bottom feeder big tops, the author's unflinching candor and rich historical grasp may change forever how you view and experience the great spangled parade "Step right up for a visit to the American Circus There could be no finer guide than David Lewis Hammarstrom ... His passion for sawdust and spangles bubbles from every line but - a rarity among circus writers - he's as quick to point out the rubbish and rip-offs as the wonderful" -- THE STAGE, London "Fascinating ... Something we need in these changing times more than anything else." -- PLANET CIRCUS, Germany "Bold and ambitious ... Timely and provocative ... It is difficult to disagree with most of his views." -- CIRCUS REPORT, USA "Once in the audience, how can viewers evaluate what they see? ... A concise guide ... Hammarstrom's memories are vivid, and his enthusiasm is infectious" -- CHOICE "I eagerly read this book - as a circus arts performer and instructor I found it entertaining, and as an academic educator I found it very useful ... strikes a fun balance between history and gossip, critical guide and personal insights into the diversity that is the world of the modern circus show." -- ELSIE SMITH ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, NEW ENGLAND CENTER FOR CIRCUS ARTS "A thought-provoking book... how circus, particularly American circus, has changed and developed over the past 50 to 60 years, this book is packed with information and opinion." -- KING POLE, UK Penetrating ... Informative ... Takes us out of our comfort zones. THE WHITE TOPS "Roll up, while you still can, to the greatest show on earth 'fresh, alive, magical and compelling.' Along with the author of this fine volume, I urge you to buy tickets for the world of sawdust and spangles before it's too late and circuses go the way of steam trains." -- THE DAILY MAIL, London "Pay Attention ... A good show ... This engaging study functions as a sort of everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-the-circus-business-today-but-were-too-mildly-nostalgic- to-ask." -- SPECTACLE, USA

Mark St Leon presents a comprehensive, entertaining and visually stunning history of circus in Australia. His interest was sparked by his insatiable curiosity about his own familys celebrated past in Australian circus.

Roll up, roll up for a trip back in time to the heyday of the circus! Originally published in 1936, Circus Parade shows the big top at its most exciting: a world of expert horse-riders, death-defying trapeze artists, elastic acrobats, fearless lion-tamers and, of course, hilarious and loveable clowns. The author, John S Clarke, had many years' circus experience and understood its people and way of life like no other. As well as explaining the origins of the circus in Roman and medieval times and highlighting some of the most celebrated acts through history, he reveals the fascinating and sometimes tragic stories behind the glitz and sawdust of the big top. Illustrated with numerous photos of circus performers in action, Circus Parade offers a unique ringside view of this traditional yet ever-changing entertainment.

This book is a practical guide for clowning. It is filled with tools and techniques that will help you find your clown and become more open to your creative sources. The author examines and makes use of the powerful qualities that children possess: imagination, innocence, purity, spontaneity and lust for life. A clown is playful and optimistic. From behind world's smallest mask, the red nose, he invites people to drop their own masks and show their true selves. Being very sensitive, he is able to touch them deeply. This so-called contact clown wants to make a connection from heart to heart. Kurstjens is convinced that clowns can play a crucial role in our society: they can bring people together through their open communication. This richly illustrated book comes with 25 practical exercises, and provides useful information about essential themes in life: setting boundaries, overcoming emotional blockades, and daring to be vulnerable. It is not only meant to inspire clowns and clowning instructors, but also coaches, (communication) trainers, and everyone else who is interested in personal development. Ton Kurstjens (born in the Netherlands, 1959) started as an improvising clown in 1983. He played in Duo Het Elftal and Duo Biek and currently he conducts clowning courses for individuals and workshops for businesspeople. He also directs the clowning theatre performance Met de Neus op de Planken (literally: With your Nose on Stage) and he supports clowns and clowning groups.

Semiotics is long on theoretical, often obscure discourses, but short on applications that demonstrate with clarity the applicability of its methods. This book confronts a challenging object, the circus, and endeavors to describe its performances in ways that explain how circus acts produce meaning and cause a deep emotional involvement for their audiences. The approach is not top-down, such as would be a method that would dogmatically apply a particular theory to fully explain the phenomena in terms of this theory alone. Epistemologically, this book is an example of the bottom-up strategy, which consists of considering first the objects and heuristically calling upon methodological resources in a broad theoretical array to come to grips with the problems that are encountered. Any circus act is a complex event that has cognitive and emotional dimensions. It is also a part of a history and an institution, and cannot be abstracted from its cultural and sociological contexts. Thus the range of relevant theoretical and methodological approaches must include structural semiotics, biosemiotics, pragmatics, socio-semiotics, cultural anthropology, the cognitive sciences, the psychology and sociology of emotions, to name only the most important. But the ultimate focus of this book is to enable the readers to better understand the meaning of circus performances and to appreciate the skills and creativity of this traditional popular art, which constantly renews itself from generation to generation.

This unique guide contains over two hundred workable clown acts. Since the origin of many of them is extremely vague, it is difficult to give credit where credit is due. The author therefore thanks all in general who have carried on the circus tradition with clowns and clowning. Even for the most inexperienced clowns many of these acts will prove sure-fire. The more difficult acts will require training. Any production, of course, is the better for good planning, preparation, and rehearsal.Though only 168 clown acts are numbered, there are many subdivisions of additional stunts which bring the total in the book to well over 200

The culmination of more than thirty years of research, Olympians of the Sawdust Circle is an attempt to identify every major and minor player in the American circus world of the nineteenth century. This A-Z guide lists: surname, given name, dates of birth and death (if known), type of entertainment (and function) with which the individual was associated, and the companies and dates by whom the person was employed. Every researcher and library interested in American circus history will need this seminal guide. An absolutely astonishing piece of scholarship.

Well-known theatre and circus historian William L. Slout here collects together 29 first-hand accounts of 19th- and early 20th-century popular amusements, including summer resorts, watering places, agricultural fairs, World's Fairs, the circus, vaudeville, theatre, and amusement parks. Complete with index, introduction, and contemporaneous illustrations.

James A. Bailey and P. T. Barnum first joined forces to produce a double show in 1881--a royal coupling--inaugurating the "Golden Age" of the American circus. This book details some of the activity leading up to that notable landmark in amusement history, particularly during the decade of 1871-81. Complete with notes, bibliography, index, and contemporaneous illustrations.

"Chilly Billy" was the nickname of circus mogul William Washington Cole, the chief rival of P. T. Barnum. Cole was born into a circus family in 1847, and beginning in 1870 and continuing through 1886, developed "Cole's Colossal Circus" into a money-making enterprise. He wisely invested his earnings in real estate, making himself a multimillionaire before finally closing down shop. Another landmark contribution to American circus history, complete with notes, index, bibliography, and contemporaneous illustrations.

In 1847, during the great age of the freak show, the British periodical Punch bemoaned the public's 'prevailing taste for deformity'. This vividly detailed work argues that far from being purely exploitative, displays of anomalous bodies served a deeper social purpose as they generated popular and scientific debates over the meanings attached to bodily difference. Nadja Durbach examines freaks both well-known and obscure including the Elephant Man; 'Lalloo, the Double-Bodied Hindoo Boy', a set of conjoined twins advertised as half male, half female; Krao, a seven-year-old hairy Laotian girl who was marketed as Darwin's 'missing link'; the 'Last of the Mysterious Aztecs' and African 'Cannibal Kings', who were often merely Irishmen in blackface. Upending our tendency to read late twentieth-century conceptions of disability onto the bodies of freak show performers, Durbach shows that these spectacles helped to articulate the cultural meanings invested in otherness - and thus clarified what it meant to be British - at a key moment in the making of modern and imperial ideologies and identities.

Reprint 1961 edition. p.224. Sonora Carver was an American entertainer, most notable as one of the first female horse divers. Carver answered an ad placed by "Doc" William Frank Carver in 1923 for a diving girl and soon earned a place in circus history.Her job was to mount a running horse as it reached the top of a forty-foot (sometimes sixty-foot) tower and sail down along the animal's back as it plunged into a deep pool of water directly below. Sonora was a sensation and soon became the lead diving girl for Doc Carver's act as they traveled the country. In 1931, Sonora was blinded, a retinal detachment, due to hitting the water off-balance with her eyes open.while diving her horse, Red Lips, on New Jersey's Steel Pier, the act's permanent home since 1929. After her accident Sonora continued to dive horses until 1942.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

1927. Tully, novelist, journalist, lecturer, Hollywood columnist of the 1920s and 30s, road kid, chainmaker, boxer, circus handyman, tree surgeon; an inheritor of the tradition of the literary wanderer, and father of another, the school of hard-boiled writing. A quote in the beginning of the book by George Jean Nathan reads, If there is a writer in America today who can lay hold of mean people and mean lives and tear their mean hearts out with more appalling realism, his work is unknown to me. One of his autobiographical works, Circus Parade is a series of his none too happy and often ironical incidents with a circus.

"A fascinating history of the unexpected intersection of science, technology and show business." --John Steele Gordon, author of " Hamilton's Blessing" "Once upon a time, American know-how flourished through show-how: spectacular demonstrations by ever resourceful technological entrepreneurs. David Lindsay brings back these glorious (and sometimes infamous) theatricals in a delightful, witty, narrative with a serious point: the American inventor, now relegated to endless rehearsals, needs to resume a rightful place on the national center stage. For admirers and critics of technology and for veteran and inspiring inventors, "Madness in the Making" will give pleasure and inspire debate." --Edward Tenner. Author of "Why Things Bite Back"

Angels Can Fly, a Modern Clown User Guide, includes a mix of fiction which follows the adventures of ten clowns, some personal anecdotes from clowns from around the world, a total of 50 practical clown exercises, and some theory on the nature of modern clown. Clown is a fascinating, diverse, complex and exciting art form, which has existed around the planet for thousands of years. Like any art form it has to evolve to stay relevant to the culture nurturing it, and at the same time, and by its very nature, clown teases and turns upside down the cultural patterns and boundaries around us. This book is an attempt to chart the growth of modern clown, and to promote the process by providing, not only practical exercises for individuals and groups, but also reference points for thinking.

Volume 2 of 2. This work is Barnum's recollections of forty busy years. There is an almost universal, and not unworthy curiosity to learn the methods and measures, the ups and downs, the strifes and victories, the mental and moral personnel of those who have taken an active and prominent part in human affairs. But an autobiography has attractions and merits superior to those of a "life" written by another who cannot know all that helps to give interest and accuracy to the narrative. Barnum's narrative is interspersed with amusing incidents and even the recital of some very practical jokes. Such is simply because his natural disposition impels him to look upon the brighter side of life and he hopes that his humorous experiences will entertain the reader as much as they were enjoyed by himself.

A century ago, daily life ground to a halt when the circus rolled into town. Across America, banks closed, schools canceled classes, farmers left their fields, and factories shut down so that everyone could go to the show. In this entertaining and provocative book, Janet Davis links the flowering of the early-twentieth-century American railroad circus to such broader historical developments as the rise of big business, the breakdown of separate spheres for men and women, and the genesis of the United States' overseas empire. In the process, she casts the circus as a powerful force in consolidating the nation's identity as a modern industrial society and world power.

Davis explores the multiple "shows" that took place under the big top, from scripted performances to exhibitions of laborers assembling and tearing down tents to impromptu spectacles of audiences brawling, acrobats falling, and animals rampaging. Turning Victorian notions of gender, race, and nationhood topsy-turvy, the circus brought its vision of a rapidly changing world to spectators--rural as well as urban--across the nation. Even today, Davis contends, the influence of the circus continues to resonate in popular representations of gender, race, and the wider world.

The author of the first complete text on clown ministry is back by popular demand with this follow-up book. Clown ministry has grown, changed and flourished in the decade-plus since its inception. This book updates through inspirational features and dynamic new material. Part I - Who's Who contains profiles on the "movers and shakers" in the clown ministry field, including "Where are they now?" looks at clowns featured in The Clown Ministry Handbook. Veteran clown ministers from America and abroad share performance tips and anecdotes, their philosophies of clown ministry and more. "Before and after" photographs (with clown makeup and without) and other illustrations add a delightful dimension to the clowns' stories. Part II - Everything New contains seventy-five clown skits for all the traditional holidays and a few untraditional ones as well, such as Good Neighbor Day, National Procrastination Week and even National Nothing Day! Some contain spoken dialog and some are pantomimed. Skits are included for any number of clowns, from one to a whole troupe. Prop lists and production notes accompany each skit. Contains a wealth of fresh, funny material.