“Appealing to both urban and rural parts of the country, and to people from all walks of life, the circus helped forge a common national culture and identity. And we just kept counting them as they came out. A Circus passed the house – still I feel the red in my mind though the drums are out. Everyone on the train knew that after decades of expansion, the unthinkable was about to happen. “I have lived so long on excitement, pepper and mustard,” he admitted to a friend, “that plain bread don’t agree with me.”. Then the Spanish flu struck. The American Federation of Actors, representing both performers and labor, had forced circus management to agree to a wage increase. Narration: Performers got ready in the communal dressing tents. Everything cost much more than it had been. And yet, you are. The National Archives (UK) They open up those canvases, starting to unroll them, and then somebody get in there and start lacing the pieces together. And it would pull in. P.G. By the time the Civil War broke out, he had turned to horse-trading, making a fortune supplying the Union Army with cavalry mount. Barnum's biggest competitor. Janet M. Davis: This competition with Barnum and Forepaugh is something that defines the 1880s in the circus industry. Narration: Shortly after midnight on March 3, 1868, while Barnum was asleep, a fire broke out in the museum building. Nigel Rothfels: Jumbo was a very, very big elephant. Narration: The brothers felt forced to make a decision, they never would have anticipated a few years earlier. “If you want to… use my name,” he wrote Coup, “…it may be used by allowing me [a] small percentage.”. The circus is a tiny closed off arena of forgetfulness. All of that said, however, these are not pure victims. Robert Thompson: The American spirit, a lot of it would be about reinvention, the idea of something giving you promise. It would stitch into one nation a patchwork of disconnected communities, and dazzle not just Americans but the entire world. “The Ringling Bros….” he declared, “have hardly more than started on their career as a leading big show… Conjecture fails to place a limit on their… future possibilities.”. American Experience: The Circus DVD n/a (Actor), Sharon Grimberg (Director) Rated: NR. The story of the circus as an American experiment and entertainment. Narration: Barnum exploited the innovation in his advertising. He falls in love with elephants, and he learns how to train them. Nathan Halpern, Cinematography Ann Marie Costain The circus offered women a life of independence and freedom from the watchful eyes of communities and family members. Deborah Walk: All the boys, at that point of time, in 1884, did something. American Experience: The Circus Pt. But by the time it was all over, the fire had destroyed forty-three cars of the circus train. Walter Havighurst Special Collections, Miami University Libraries, Oxford, Ohio Huntley Film Archives Ltd American Experience. No one had ever shipped a vehicle of that size before, without taking it apart first. The skin of some of these animals isn’t like anything else you will touch. Bailey disagreed. Dominique Jando: American circus entrepreneurs, from the very beginning, went to get their talent in Europe. Victoria And Albert Museum, London Narration: In the century since a skilled English equestrian had brought the first one-ring show to the United States, the circus had become the most popular of American entertainments, appealing to presidents and farmers, teachers and coal miners, grandparents and school children. Everybody felt that the main guy had really died that day. Quietly and swiftly every night it… [picks] up in its magician’s arms theatre, hotel, schoolroom, barracks, home, whisking them all miles away, and setting them down before sunrise in a new place.”. Matthew Wittmann: He very quickly rose in the ranks of the American circus. Collection of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, In some cases, that has undoubtedly been done through just brute violence. When they didn’t get it, they went on strike. In America, if you travel and do two shows a day and move every day, there is no time for a rehearsal. He fashions himself a go-ahead Yankee who is relentlessly entrepreneurial, full of energy and self-made individualism. Brown Brothers Narration: “It wasn’t that they were so smart,” a nephew said, “but that there were so God-damned many of them.”. It’s not a great scientist or someone who actually had achieved, you know, a breakthrough to improve humankind. Joseph Janney Steinmetz The show closed on September 14th, the earliest date in its history. American Experience: The Circus Season 1 (42) 2018 TV-PG. In place of his fee, Forepaugh took part ownership of the circus. James W. Cook: He knew that the circus had a morally suspect reputation on many different levels, and what he does really, in a remarkable way, is create a kind of marketing campaign with testimonials from clergy, from famous writers, and other celebrity figures, who attest to the wholesomeness of his circuses. Struggling with understaffed crews and war shortages, the Ringlings were now fearful they wouldn’t even be able to move their shows. Janet M. Davis: The vast majority of elephant trainers and handlers deeply loved their elephants. The rise and fall of the circus experience. At least one of them, an indigenous Australian named Tambo Tambo, was brought to America against his will. NIGEL ROTHFELS: A lot is made of Jumbo being essentially taken from the British and that is in a way a metaphor for America’s rise. You can’t just have two elephants anymore. Harry Ransom Center, The University Of Texas At Austin So, the combination of the war and its shortages, its government mandates, and then the flu epidemic, present huge challenges for the Ringling Brothers as they're trying to operate two giant circuses. What a brilliant documentary too really interesting and well put together.As a lifelong lover and owner / trainer of dog and horses I've always had an interest in the origins of the circus even if the animals and the training techniques used are devastatingly sad to realise now. Around the country, circuses began folding. John Ringling was a teenager. He insisted that all three rings start and end their acts in unison. The Con Colleano Home Movie Collection, Deposited with The National Film & Sound Archive, Australia, Courtesy Dr Mark St Leon, Sydney He was like Napoleon, one reporter said, invading Europe with “one thousand men, women, and children.”  The unraveling of Bailey’s circus empire didn’t take long. Barnum encouraged the press to believe he was distraught by Columbia’s birth and saw no path forward other than to merge his show with Bailey’s. Marjorie Cordell Geiger: How do you absorb this? It’s life on the Mount of Transfiguration. The Nation. Barnum, James Bailey and the Ringling Brothers transformed the nation’s popular culture. You Save: $14.04 (47%) Share. Glen Fishback Papers And Photographs, Archives Center, National Museum Of American History, Smithsonian Institution Circus life was unpredictable, unconventional, magnificent and boisterous. Then all those people came pouring out. American Experience producer Sharon Grimberg discusses “The Circus” September 24, 2018. Eric Gulliver It was really almost a punitive action against John. So, there was a sideshow tent. Jason Longo During the hard times his tramp clown act took off. Known as the Adonis of the Altitudes, Codona’s celebrity rested on his skillful execution of a triple somersault. The wages couldn’t be the same. “American Experience: The Circus” is a four hour PBS mini series that tells the story of the American circus. Despite the treacherous conditions, inside Madison Square Garden, circus staff were making final adjustments to the show. You have to light the fire. In a decade when America was booming, the Ringling Brothers big top was the place to be. I had an ice pick. I’ll never forget. Courtesy of Whitmarsh Recordings, “Barnum And Bailey’s Favorite March” Every American circus is having herds of elephants. Fiscal Sponsor The emotional physics of the world did not apply under the big top. From the moment they had set sail across the Pacific, Bailey and his troupe had ricocheted from one harrowing moment to the next. And I've never forgotten that. Hosted by David McCullough until 2002 and narrated by a number of well-known personalities - The American Experience uses historians and authors, period images and film, music, dramatic re-enactments, and contemporary context to set the stage for its topics. Narration: Though the urge to astound is ancient, the origin of the uniquely American circus dates back to the founding of the nation. Oddball Films Even so, many performances were late and forty-two were canceled . Janet M. Davis Narration: Just days before he died, Barnum wrote his younger partner with some parting advice. Narration: Its largest tent, or big top, featuring sixty performers, could seat five thousand people. The creditors and his brothers’ heirs joined forces. When the first flickering fingers of flame, they called it, went shooting up and everybody realized there was a fire in the big top. So, in short order, every large American circus is travelling on the railroads. She used her toe to write out cards for individual people and date them. Entertainment Industrial Complex [11:27] The first American circus was launched in Philadelphia in 1793, during President George Washington’s first term in office. That little girl no one ever identified. But it wouldn’t stay that way for long. Library of Congress In the horrible panic, people were taking these dead bodies and dragging them to the doctor, bringing them there and they were already dead. When the big top performance began, Chang the Chinese Giant led them into the main pavilion for the opening procession. Every season men were injured or killed. And the brothers’ big top had never been so full of such extraordinary talent. Anxious to minimize his losses, Barnum arranged for a taxidermist to preserve the country’s most celebrated elephant. The story of those who brought it to life. Hill and Jos. Even the Ringling circus was struggling. Deborah Walk, Curator: America was an agrarian society. Dominique Jando: She had those shoulder dislocation, which were very well staged because there were moments when the hairpins went away and her hair get while she was doing that. Over the next few hours, Leitzel woke on-and-off briefly, but only to cry out in agony. Deborah Walk: I don't think there is one circus person who would say if they could walk into a time machine, that they wouldn't want to be at Madison Square Gardens when it opened in March of 1919. Fred D. Pfening Iii, Author: Their longtime attorney was quoted as saying, “The Ringling Brothers didn’t come up the hard way, they came up the impossible way.” They really did start without a dime, and it really is an extraordinary story. By 1928, eight years after the first commercial radio broadcast, a quarter of American households had radio sets. And so, they approached him and they wrote him and said, “Would you be interested in doing, you know, getting together with us?”. Fred Pfening Iii: Bailey would set himself up a little table near the front entrance of the circus and he was constantly receiving telegrams from his advance people, telling him what they were doing and him sending an advice out. With his new “Pavilion” circus, he could travel from one small town to the next, stopping for just one night, if the local population was too tiny to justify a second one. Janet M. Davis: Those essential elements of using the horse as kind of the centerpiece of the show, then clowning as part of the show too, and rope walking, those are defining elements of the circus. The Connecticut Historical Society Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas At Austin Matthew Wittmann: Part of what makes the circus such a powerful cultural form is its ability to absorb various influences and essentially program them anew for American audiences. Nobody ever accused Forepaugh of not being able to make a buck. Dominique Jando: May Wirth was obviously extraordinary. Matthew Wittmann: One of the things that was most remarked upon was a flying mercury act. For decades, the performances all began pretty much the same way. PBS Documentary ‘American Experience: The Circus’ Due on Digital Oct. 9, DVD Nov. 6. They called themselves the leaders of the new school of American Showman, and the Sunday School Showman because they didn’t have all these nefarious stuff like other circuses did. It creates media publicity all over the country. In early 1908, John Ringling toured Europe to scout circus talent. Once the circus started traveling, however, it became apparent that Bailey had a host of problems, many of his own making. Format: DVD. She hated the kind of confines of ordinary life. Audiences were dismayed to discover that the acts were now spread across three rings not two. Narration: While Barnum replenished the menagerie, the work of pulling the show together fell to W.C. Coup. Jacob J. Gayer/National Geographic Creative New York came to you. It was a brilliant, beautifully clear sunshiny day, hardly a cloud in the sky. It was a small, inconsequential circus. Streamline Films, Inc. Everyone else has to follow. Enslaved people were sometimes in the audience. You can just imagine the, you know, to go to some little town in Arkansas or some place and to be able to see that. Ann Marie Costain And then when day broke, the miracle had vanished. We come out of it in a daze, saddened and horrified by the everyday face of the world. An ever-changing roster of workers did the most dangerous work. The whole experiment of America is daring. Not content to lead a quiet life, Mabel Stark joined the circus and dedicated her life to the big cats she loved and trained. That was too bad. People to see the animals, they went to see the circus because that’s where they were, and advertising for circuses in those days, the posters and so forth, they featured exotic animals as much as they did the performers. Cincinnati Art Museum/Strobridge Lithographing Company/Bridgeman Images Cleveland Press Janet M. Davis: Sandwina is tall. The frail and aging Yankee Robinson died half way through the season. Sakina Hughes, Historian: P.G. In 1929, John Ringling confronted the lucrative boxing industry head on. PBS American Experience _The Circus 2of4. Cori Brosnahan On March 28th, 1919, gale forces winds buffeted New York as a late winter storm pummeled the city, leaving roads and rails coated in ice. It’s a very different life from any kind of other life. So did factories and shops. After five months on the road it turned back east, finishing the season in Detroit at the end of October. Narration: The two-tent circus was “how I caught the church people,” Forepaugh explained. In 1872, the railroad circus left New York travelling through the Mid-Atlantic states, before heading west and to Minneapolis. DVD List Price: $29.99. Strongwoman Katie Sandwina, vice-president of the circus women’s Equal Suffrage Club,  was among those present. Jonathan Lee Iverson, Ringmaster: There’s nothing like circus. They worked in buildings in which they had time to prepare an act and to rehearse in the morning in nice conditions. Pfening Archives Narration: The public was astounded to learn that Sandwina had pulled off two performances the evening before giving birth, lifting her husband over her head and bending iron bars into horseshoes. The following day, doors opened for the first performance of the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Combined Circus. Many performers were convinced the greatest tragedy in big top history signaled the end of the Ringling Brothers Circus. Whatever the reason, the Ringlings made hay of their rags-to-riches story. Sharon Grimberg, Associate Producers PBS Documentary ‘American Experience: The Circus’ Due on Digital Oct. 9, DVD Nov. 6. The dramatic story of Lillian Leitzel continues. Edward Hoagland, Writer, Cage Hand: It’s extraordinary. Narration: By the spring of 1885, the constant turmoil of the circus trade was wearing on James Bailey. He begged Fred to let him tag along as an apprentice. As the profits rolled in, Forepaugh and Barnum divided up the country between them. The Connecticut Historical Society P.G. He names it that because this is the first elephant born in the United States and it’s a publicity coup. Then he directed two shows. American Experience. Narration: Like other 19th century entrepreneurs, circus impresarios made enormous profits in part because their workers were paid poorly and their businesses were unregulated. Bridgeport History Center, Bridgeport Public Library Barnum would not have to wait long for a new opportunity. La Norma Fox: And it happened. This idea of colonialism became very interesting, how the Western world could bring its influence to other lands. Everybody was doing something that they liked. Delaware Historical Society P.G. And while these incidents were relatively rare, they do reflect the conditions of their confinement and their frustration for these deeply social animals. If you bought an animal from Hagenbeck and it died soon after arrival, as they tended to do, he would replace it. The series airs documentaries about significant historical events or figures in United States history.The show is produced primarily by WGBH-TV, a television station and PBS affiliate located in Boston, Massachusetts. More than ten thousand people died in September alone. American Experience: The Circus on IMDB. It’s just peaceful. 6,7 Adrenaline Drive. Boston Public Library, Stereograph Collection His father has a gymnasium in France, in Toulouse. Narration: From Australia, the circus toured the island of Java, where it picked up local musicians to play in the band. American Experience. Nigel Rothfels: The opportunity was there to pet the animals. Browse more videos. Janet M. Davis: A 19th century writer called the circus, “our season of imaginative play.” What the circus offered is this ability, in a way, to dissolve oneself, to have an out-of-body experience. Janet M. Davis: The act of dancing on a horse's back, the act of performing on a trapeze, on a rope, or doing a strength act, all of these forms of circus arts, they push the boundaries of human strength, of the limited nature of our humanness in ways that allow us to transcend it. As the fire raged, embers rained down on the Ringling Brothers circus, which was playing five blocks away. Dominique Jando: In the circus performance, there is always danger lurking, and the audience perceives it. PBS American Experience _The Circus 1of4. It was a kind of pure version of reality, something that’s stripped down to its most elemental parts. It’s one of the draws of the circus, is this idea that you try things that people would never imagine trying. Wazee Digital As the crowds thronged the midway past the sideshow tent towards the menagerie, they could hear the talker who ballyhooed the talent inside. At the age of sixteen, he responded to an ad from a circus owner looking for someone to do a handstand. Edward Hoagland: The people who were watching the performance, some of them rather hoped that someone would fall. In Europe they had a little place, just a small building. After an extraordinarily successful run in Brooklyn, the circus set off on a six-month tour of the Northeast. Americans were flush with money. Whereas in years past many New Englanders had seen circuses as immoral, there was nothing in Barnum’s show, the local paper said, “to offend the most refined modesty.”. He spent a little over forty thousand dollars on having thirteen parade wagons built. His older brother Charles travelled with the Ringling circus. They really liked what you did.” And so, the Wallendas had to come out for a bow. In the spring of 1917, America entered World War I, alongside Britain and France. Narration: And to do that, she had to marry him. Though he owned the circus in partnership with his brothers’ heirs, he made all the decisions alone. La Norma Fox: I had more babysitters. Stephen McCarthy, Voices Narration: When the Ringlings returned to Baraboo, Wisconsin over Christmas 1902 to plan their season, the knowledge that James Bailey was back shaped all their major decisions. It’s a real indication of how he was valued by the elite, as it were, in the early United States. Though he was demanding, he was remembered for being generous with praise. Narration: The most famous elephant in America came to a grisly end himself, though his death was accidental. Sakina Hughes: I think the circus doesn’t get enough credit for just the amazing work that the African-American musicians did in spreading ragtime and jazz music. Now – with the pandemic and final curtain call for Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus…what is next? Circus ticket sellers were often unpaid. Jennifer Lemmer Posey: She got her start at the Royal Aquarium in Britain, and it was the concept of a showman named Farini. Minneapolis Institute of Arts/Bridgeman Images Devastated, Barnum retired from the museum business. Barnum had taken the circus a long way from its modest beginnings. Narration: Like many circus spectacles of the time, Jerusalem and the Crusades was a full-scale drama. It must have felt like it he was thrown out into the alley, like a common criminal, from his own show. Through the 1800s, it was an American entertainment phenomenon, bringing exotic animals and performers to a public that would never otherwise see them...and by the mid-20th century, changing technologies and tastes would bring its heyday to an end. If you can touch a hippopotamus, it doesn’t feel like anything else that you can touch in the world. The Circus, Part 1. You have to light the desire. American Experience: The Circus DVD,The Circus explores the colorful history of this popular, influential and distinctly American form of entertainment, from the first one-ring show at the end of the 18th century to 1956, when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey big top was pulled down for the last time. I said the first one of you guys in the window is going to have the ice pick in you. New arrivals and homegrown talent did their best to keep the circus tradition alive, but the nation was vast and sparsely populated. Dominique Jando: The clowns at the time spoke and sang very often. Matthew Wittmann: Jumbo delivers, by all accounts. Disgruntled at having to move the heavy seats, one-hundred-and-fifty working men demanded more pay. The Outpost at WGBH, Advisors Ammed Tuniziani, Trapeze Artist: Many of those people that run away, they run away to—to look for their dreams, to make their dreams come true. In 1876, the nation marked its centennial with an elaborate exposition in Philadelphia, which would draw almost ten million visitors eager to see the engineering marvels of the day. 1872, we could talk about big circus. Circus is a peek into what we could be, how great we could be, how beautiful our world could be. Narration: North was determined that his second season would be a success. “As a rule,” one journalist observed, “Leitzel fired the maid before and after each performance.”. It was really sort of a preposterous-looking thing. Mark Mandler Narration: He plastered New York with posters advertising the old woman as George Washington’s 161-year-old nursemaid. Narration: The other problem that he had is he had this really comfortable seating. Their most surprising innovation was the addition in 1897 of a dark canvas tent they called the black top . My grandfather standing on the top of a chair with his wife standing on his shoulders, while he was on a bar that was balanced between Joe Geiger and his brother Herman. He was incredibly reliable and he delivered animals with cash on delivery, not cash up front. And what’s more is he had five tents housing five separate attractions. It had been a fiasco. He countered with his own enormous pachyderm, Bolivar, claiming he was the most gigantic beast on earth. List Price: $29.99: Price: $15.65 Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime & FREE Returns Return this item for free. Michael Lancaster: John and Mable studied books on etiquette, they studied books on fashion, they studied books on art and antiquities. Narration: That November, John Ringling fell ill. Dr. Hugh Grant Rowell Collection of Somers Historical Society Fred Dahlinger Jr.: They mounted his skeleton and his hide, both, and they were presented in one of the tents of the show. Forepaugh also boasted having twenty-five performing elephants trained largely by Eph Thompson, one of the few African Americans ever to appear under a 19th century big top. James Bailey’s elephant, Hebe, unexpectedly gave birth to a 213-pound baby. And we only go round once. But for the audience it was made in heaven. Search for "The Circus: Part 1" on Amazon.com, Title: Big deal. I don’t think people really thought about the backstory. Parades clogged Main Street. Narration: Showmen left their home base, called winter quarters, in early spring, returning in late fall. Deborah Walk, Curator: People have called it a big top fever that you never got over. As you see the top come up, that is a sight. Cleveland Public Library When the strongwoman came on the Javanese were so astounded, they stopped playing completely. Instead of presenting two shows, they would combine them into one. Gretchen Stone Cook Charitable Foundation Narration: Perhaps inspired by Walt Disney’s movie Fantasia, which featured dancing pachyderms in pink slippers, North commissioned his own elephant ballet. He invents the matinee. Then the two veteran showmen announced that they were joining forces. Matthew Wittmann: It changes everything, the circus coming to town. https://www.sopbs.org/whats-on/2019-1-january/2020/august/circus Narration: Practically every firefighter in Cleveland, Ohio raced to work on the night of May 25th, 1914 after sparks ignited timber in the city’s lumberyards. Because there was very little talent in America. October 15, 2018. It’s really a remarkable, remarkable story. He loved it himself, and I took it from him. Narration: But he soon found retirement dull. Dominique Jando: Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey was still touring with more than one thousand people, traveling with the show. Codona hastened to her side. He came out through the safety cage, tossed aside his jungle helmet, and went in the arena with the lions all in there picking up his chair, cracking his whip and sorting them out. Narration: “[The circus] is a kingdom on wheels,” one witness noted, “a city that folds itself up like an umbrella. Narration: The Greatest Show on Earth didn’t fold. Minnesota Historical Society And if you include the number of people milling about the grounds and the circus folk as well, it’s probably the largest collection of people that they had ever witnessed. Lindsey Denault, Narration Recording Her relationship with Mexican aerialist Alfredo Codona was just as stormy. Some ninety thousand miles of railroad tracks carved their way across the nation. You got to make it look easy, look beautiful, and have them pay attention to you. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! It’s amazing to see that. G.R.O.W. The Circus, Part 1. If you were injured on the job, so be it. Narration: For generations, the story was familiar. them couldn’t speak a word of English and a quarter couldn’t read , but neither was a handicap at the circus. “The boys are hustlers and no mistake,” crowed one local paper. It’s about making your own miracles, conjuring your own miracles. Alamy Step right up! They became a class of people that they hadn’t started out to be. He gave the audience something to take home with them. Michael Lancaster: Mable said it was love at first sight. Fred Pfening III: The Ringling Brothers Circus went on rails in 1890. There, dangling above the on-lookers, from the port’s largest steam crane, swung a freshly painted sixty-foot-long railway car. Matthew Wittmann: One of the things that would make the Barnum & Bailey partnership work so well was that they had very different personalities. AMERICAN EXPERIENCE “The Circus,”New Four-Hour Documentary Premieres Monday and Tuesday,October 8-9 on WOUBThe Fascinating History of a Uniquely American Form of Entertainment“The Circu Barnum is right up there with people like Andrew Carnegie in steel, John Rockefeller in oil, J.P. Morgan in banking. Composed by Igor Stravinsky It doesn’t accomplish any concrete purpose. Nicholas Lucka Robert Thompson: The circus starts to introduce people to the movies. “I am too weak to write more now, but let me entreat you to never allow the honorable… title of “The Greatest Show on Earth” to be in any way … lessened in fame.”. They were part of it, but it’s really Barnum’s specialty. Barnhouse Co. (Sesac) As the circus roared into the mid-20s, large profits kept rolling in and the brothers found new ways to spend their money. More than a quarter of Americans now lived in cities. It was about possibility. He understood the fact that the circus was one and the same for so many years, and maybe there was other ways to approach that if you looked at the theater or if you looked at the movies.