Les arts du cirque aux États-Unis 

The untold story of three Golden Age titans and the confrontations, cutthroat business strategies, and eccentric personalities that built the Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Millions have sat under the “big top,” watching as trapeze artists glide and clowns entertain, but few know the captivating stories behind the men whose creativity, ingenuity, and determination created one of our country’s most beloved pastimes.

In Battle for the Big Top, New York Times–bestselling author Les Standiford brings to life a remarkable era when three circus kings—James Bailey, P.T. Barnum, and John Ringling—all vied for control of the vastly profitable and influential American Circus. Ultimately, the rivalry of these three men resulted in the creation of an institution that would surpass all intentions and, for 147 years, hold a nation spellbound.

Filled with details of their ever-evolving showmanship, business acumen, and personal magnetism, this Ragtime-like narrative will delight and enchant circus-lovers and anyone fascinated by the American experience.

The Cambridge Companion to the Circus provides a complete guide for students, scholars, teachers, researchers, and practitioners who are seeking perspectives on the foundations and evolution of the modern circus, the contemporary extent of circus studies, and the specialised literature available to support further enquiries. The volume brings together an international group of established and emerging scholars working across the multi-disciplinary domain of circus studies to present a clear overview of the specialised histories, aesthetics and distinctive performances of the modern circus. In sixteen commissioned essays, it covers the origins in commercial equestrian performance during the late-eighteenth century to contemporary inflections of circus arts in major international festivals, educational environments, and social justice settings.

We live in a society that places an increasing value in ethnic diversity and cultural identity. However, the contribution that performers from a variety of ethnic backgrounds made to the development of the circus in the nineteenth century is very often overlooked and largely forgotten. Pablo Fanque and Miss La La may be notable names of the period but there were many others besides. Using contemporary records and images, this book explores the wealth and depth of talented black and other ethnic performers, and the contribution they made to the success of the nineteenth century circus. These are iconic figures who should be drawn in from the margins of history and given the recognition they deserve.

Voici la splendide publication de l’exposition « Place au cirque! » présentée du 13 octobre 2021 au 6 mars 2022 au Musée Pointe-à-Callière qui propose une fabuleuse aventure à travers l’histoire des arts du cirque d’hier et d’aujourd’hui au Québec. Cette passionnante incursion dévoile page après page un sensible hommage aux familles et compagnies de cirque qui ont bâti les esthétiques uniques des arts du cirque québécois qui a conquis les cœurs des spectateurs à travers le monde.

The first woman in America to own and operate a circus, Agnes Lake spent thirty years under the Big Top before becoming the wife of Wild Bill Hickok—a mere five months before he was killed. Although books abound on the famous lawman, Agnes’s life has remained obscured by circus myth and legend.

Linda A. Fisher and Carrie Bowers have written the first biography of this colorful but little-known circus performer. Agnes originally found fame as a slack-wire walker and horseback rider, and later as an animal trainer. Her circus career spanned more than four decades. Following the murder of her first husband, Bill Lake, she was the sole manager of the “Hippo-Olympiad and Mammoth Circus.” While taking her show to Abilene, she met town marshal Hickok and five years later she married him. After Hickok’s death, Agnes traveled with P. T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill Cody, and managed her daughter Emma Lake’s successful equestrian career.

This account of a remarkable life cuts through fictions about Agnes’s life, including her own embellishments, to uncover her true story. Numerous illustrations, including rare photographs and circus memorabilia, bring Agnes’s world to life.

The nineteenth century saw the American circus move from a reviled and rejected form of entertainment to the “Greatest Show on Earth.” Circus Life by Micah D. Childress looks at this transition from the perspective of the people who owned and worked in circuses and how they responded to the new incentives that rapid industrialization made possible.
The circus has long been a subject of fascination for many, as evidenced by the millions of Americans that have attended circus performances over many decades since 1870, when the circus established itself as a truly unique entertainment enterprise. Yet the few analyses of the circus that do exist have only examined the circus as its own closed microcosm—the “circus family.” Circus Life, on the other hand, places circus employees in the larger context of the history of US workers and corporate America. Focusing on the circus as a business-entertainment venture, Childress pushes the scholarship on circuses to new depths, examining the performers, managers, and laborers’ lives and how the circus evolved as it grew in popularity over time. Beginning with circuses in the antebellum era, Childress examines changes in circuses as gender balances shifted, industrialization influenced the nature of shows, and customers and crowds became increasingly more middle-class.
As a study in sport and social history, Childress’s account demonstrates how the itinerant nature of the circus drew specific types of workers and performers, and how the circus was internally in constant upheaval due to the changing profile of its patrons and a changing economy. [editor summary]

In this fascinating and carefully researched book, Dominique Jando tells us when, why and how the former sergeant-major of a British Hussars regiment created the most universal form of entertainment, the Circus. It was not a chance occurrence: the place, the times and the social context, all led to this pivotal moment. Philip Astley became England's greatest showman, but if he was indeed a visionary, he was not a lone experimentalist: immediately, other equestrians followed his example and participated in the development and expansion of the circus in Europe and the Americas. This is the story, too, of these extraordinary and colorful pioneers who were Astley's contemporaries, whether pupils, competitors or colleagues: Charles Hughes, John Bill Ricketts, Philip Lailson, Antonio Franconi and a few others-including Astley's own son, John Conway Astley. Relying in large part on their contemporaries' testimony, Dominique Jando places these pioneers back in their historical and social context, as well as in the often-overlooked context of the nascent show business of the late eighteenth century-principally in Great Britain, but also in Europe and in America. [editor summary]

Step right up to a rare and rollicking adventure through over half a century of circus history, as told by someone who lived through it all – and has a nagging habit of telling the truth. He is David Lewis Hammarstrom, first published at age 14, who promises you an eye-opening excursion into the ways and wonders of a world forever on the brink of extinction that yet somehow manages to reinvent itself over and over again. Levity seasons the parade: In wry response to a reviewer complaining that one of his books lacked distinctive circus atmosphere, the author sent him a special Smell Edition, containing fresh elephant dung off circus lots. Only one of many amusing anecdotes guaranteed to entertain you. So, have yourself a center ring seat, and read all about it in Big Top Typewriter! [editor summary]

The Routledge Circus Studies Reader offers an absorbing critical introduction to this diverse and emerging field. It brings together the work of over 30 scholars in this discipline, including Janet Davis, Helen Stoddart and Peta Tait, to highlight and address the field’s key historical, critical and theoretical issues. It is organised into three accessible sections, Perspectives, Precedents and Presents, which approach historical aspects, current issues, and the future of circus performance.

The chapters, grouped together into 13 theme-based sub-sections, provide a clear entry point into the field and emphasise the diversity of approaches available to students and scholars of circus studies. Classic accounts of performance, including pieces by Philippe Petit and Friedrich Nietzsche, are included alongside more recent scholarship in the field.

Edited by two scholars whose work is strongly connected to the dynamic world of performance, The Routledge Circus Studies Reader is an essential teaching and study resource for the emerging discipline of circus studies. It also provides a stimulating introduction to the field for lovers of circus. [editor summary]

Beneath the Big Top is a social history of the circus, from its ancient roots to the rise of the 'modern' tented travelling shows. A performer and founder of a circus group, Steve Ward draws on eye-witness accounts and contemporary interviews to explore the triumphs and disasters of the circus world. He reveals the stories beneath the big top during the golden age of the circus and the lives of circus folk, which were equally colourful outside the ring : - Pablo Fanque, Britain's first black circus proprietor; - The Chipperfield dynasty, who started out in 1684 on the frozen Thames; - Katie Sandwina, world's strongest woman and part time crime-fighter; - The Sylvain brothers, who fell in love with the same woman in the ring [editor summary]

In the early 1900s, the circus was one of the most popular forms of entertainment in America, and one of the most popular circus acts was the clown. White-faced clowns in bright costumes made adults and children laugh with their silly antics. When the Great Depression caused many Americans to lose their jobs, Emmett Kelly decided to be a different type of clown—a sad-faced clown who reminded people of their struggles, but still made them laugh. His clown character, Weary Willie, inspired people to keep going during hard times. Because his clown character made people laugh and helped them with their troubles, Emmett Kelly became the most famous clown in the world. [editor summary]

Traveling back to the circus’s early days, Linda Simon takes us to eighteenth-century hippodromes in Great Britain and intimate one-ring circuses in nineteenth-century Paris, where Toulouse-Lautrec and Picasso became enchanted with aerialists and clowns. She introduces us to P. T. Barnum, James Bailey, and the enterprising Ringling Brothers and reveals how they created the golden age of American circuses. Moving forward to the whimsical Circus Oz in Australia and to New York City’s Big Apple Circus and the grand spectacle of Cirque du Soleil, she shows how the circus has transformed in recent years. At the center of the story are the people—trick riders and tightrope walkers, sword swallowers and animal trainers, contortionists and clowns—that created the sensational, raucous, and sometimes titillating world of the circus. [editor summary]

The Ringling Circus Museum in Sarasota, Florida, was the first institution of its kind in the country to document the rich history of the American circus. It was established in 1948 to honor the memory of circus impresario John Ringling, who moved the winter quarters of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey show to Sarasota in 1927. This new addition to the Scala 'Art Spaces' series illustrates the museum's development over time and highlights many of its most popular artifacts. [editor summary]

This book is a celebration of Paul Binder’s life in and around the circus. Drawing on thirty-five years with the show he created, the Big Apple Circus’ founder and founding Artistic Director invites us inside the fence every kid peers through for an intimate look at the uncommon life of circus artists, their animal partners, and the roustabouts who spend their days in a world that is both close-knit and international, high-minded and low comedy, death-defying and ludicrous. [editor summary]

Starting in the 1870s, the barns, cehouses,gymnasiums and empty theaters of central Illinois provided the practice sitesfor aerial performers whose names still command reverence in the annals ofAmerican circus history. Meet Fred Miltimore and the Green Brothers, runawaysfrom the Fourth Ward School who became the first Bloomington-born flyers. WatchArt Concello, a ten-year-old truant, become first a world-class flyer, then afamous trapeze impresario and finally Ringling Brothers and Barnum and BaileyCircus's most successful general manager. The entire art of the trapeze--instruction,training, performance and management--became a Bloomington-Normal industryduring the tented shows' golden age, when finding a circus flying act without aconnection to this area would have been virtually impossible. [editor summary]

The extraordinary story of a young man’s plunge into the unique and wonderful world of the circus - taking readers deep into circus history and its renaissance as a contemporary art form, and behind the (tented) walls of France’s most prestigious circus school.

When Duncan Wall visited his first nouveau cirque as a college student in Paris, everything about it - the monochromatic costumes, the acrobat singing Simon and Garfunkel, the juggler reciting Proust - was captivating. Soon he was waiting outside stage doors, eagerly chatting with the stars, and attending circuses two or three nights a week. So great was his enthusiasm that a year later he applied on a whim to the training program at the École Nationale des Arts du Cirque and was, to his surprise, accepted.

The Ordinary Acrobat follows the collision of one American novice and a host of gifted international students in a rigorous regimen of tumbling, trapeze, juggling, and clowning. Along the way, Wall introduces readers to all the ambition, beauty, and thrills of the circus’s long history: from hardscrabble beginnings to Gilded Age treasures, and from twentieth-century artistic and economic struggles to its brilliant reemergence in the form of contemporary circus . [editor summary]

The circus is a source of nostalgia for Americans of all ages, either from memories of attending P. T. Barnum's "Greatest Show on Earth," or through the colorful evocations in many movies, television programs, and books. Interest in the circus phenomenon is unflagging, yet there have been few publications that look closely at how the circus's European origins were refashioned for an American audience. Lavishly illustrated and carefully researched, this volume explores how American culture, values, demography, and business practices altered the fundamental nature of the European circus, and how, by the end of the 19th century, they had transformed it into a distinctly American pastime.

At the peak of its cultural significance, the circus was a sophisticated combination of theater and business, and made effective use of advertising, train travel, and hyperbole. The subjects in The American Circus reflect this complexity, ranging widely from thematic explorations of circus music and elephants to more closely focused studies of objects such as circus toys, souvenirs, and performers' costumes. The book also explores the dark and even nefarious side of the circus, and its associations with marginalized dimensions of American life and culture. With contributions from leading scholars, this stylishly designed volume aims to identify the salient features of an Americanized cultural product and to analyze its appeal for American audiences.