La Toria! Say it with pazazz!

La Toria!  I just feel it is a cool stage name and should be pronounced while using 'jazz hands'!  La Toria!  Ok, her actual name is Vicki Unus and she was born in 1945.  After stumbling upon her fabulously chic photos at the Robert L. Parkinson Library, I just had to research her for my blog.  So I hope you enjoy.  

Did you assume she was from a circus family?  Well, you would be correct.  Vicki's father, Franz Furtner, performed as Unus: the man who balanced on one finger.  Vicki's high school in Sarasota FL had a circus act training program.  How great!  Hard work paid off as she joined Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1963.  As a featured performer no less.

Taking on the Big Apple

Known for commanding the ring for her aerial acts, she killed it on the Roman Rings and her one-armed planges were... well, you will see later.  Back to the Roman Rings.  Her form!  Aerial splits.  Hand stands.  Think Olympic gymnists are good on the rings?  Just imagine performing with such strength, endurance and precision in a show that could run twice a day and three times on the weekend.  Not to mention 40 feet in the air.  And look stunningly gorgeous while doing it.  I say, better than an Olympian.

She finishes the act with a flip of the rope and a smile.  Class.

With feathers and sparkle, La Toria commanded the ring.  Never moreso than when performing a feat made famous by the incomparable Lillian Leitzel.  The one arm plange (cue music dum dum dum).

Photo Op circa 1965 - 1966

Huge looping one arm swings.  Flipping her body over her head in a continuous rotation.  Dislocating her shoulder and popping it back in with each rotation.  All while the ringmaster / audience counted the flips.  Rumor has it, Vicki's record was 250 in one performance.  OH. MY. GOD.  

1965 Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus Program

Swan Lake

In the video below, watch her entrance and how she ascends the rope.  Wowsa.   And then how she begins the one-armed planges.  Two swings for momentum and then she is off!  And the finish!  Everything part of her act is circus perfection.   

La Toria was a featured performer for Ringling in the 1960s and 1970s.  Also performing in circuses in Germany and Spain.  She appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, To Tell the Truth and the movie Circus World.  Vicki retired in 1977.  To a well well well deserved standing ovation.  Let's give it up for the incredible La Toria!  Thank you.

Rola Bola

Rola Bola (or Bongo Board) in the most simplest of formats consists of a board and a cylinder.   Place the board on the cylinder, get up on the board, and balance by rocking side to side.  Do not let the board touch the floor.  You know, like a one person seesaw.  Easy right?  You could make one in your garage.  Or not.

Performers balance on one or many stacked Bola boards for all kinds of acts such as juggling, plate spinning, jump roping, strength, slack wire or acrobatics!

If you turn the cylinder so it rolls backward and forward, you are using a Transverse Rola Bola.  If you stack one Rola Bola on top of another Rola Bola alternating side to side with back and forth balance, that is a Double Rola Bola and you have my highest regards. 

Get a load of these world records for jugging on a Rola Bola

3 balls:  2 hours, 39  minutes, and 57 seconds by David Rush in 2021 (WHAT!)

10 balls: 10 catches by Chris Fowler in 2004

7 ball lift bounce:  189 catches by Mike Byington in 2007

8 clubs: 8 catches by Willy Colombaioni in 2018

But let's get back to the circus Rola Bola acts! 

The strength routine he does in the middle of this act, OMG!

And I am just going to say, holy crap they are skateboards!

Things to remember when Rola Bola-ing (I just made up that verb)

When you fall, and you will, the board will fly one direction, right at ankle level.  So be careful who is standing next to you.  

Make sure the board is solid.  Solid enough to hold your weight.  Kinda seems like a no-brainer.

Non slip.  End of sentence.

Do not use if board or cylinder is wet.  That is just looking for trouble.

I have said this before and I will say it again.  I cannot balance on one foot to put my shoes on.  I am in awe of the balance and strength of these performers.  Nicely done.

Quick Change!

Quick Change!  I didn't even know it was a 'thing' until a couple of years ago watching a performance at Circus World Museum.  The couple I saw were Olga and Vladimir Smirnov and....ok, let's not get ahead of ourselves.  What is quick change?  Maybe start there first.

Quick change is a performance style in which a performer changes attire quickly (within seconds) from one cosutme to another costume in front of the audience.

Leopoldo Fregoli (1867-1937) was thought to be the greatest, most versatile quick-change artist of his day.  He was famous for his extraordinary ability in impersonations and his quickness in exchanging roles - so much so that while he was performing in London in the 1890s unkind rumors spread that there was more than one Fregoli!  GASP!  He quashed the rumors by  inviting journalists and doubters backstage to see him at work.  Fregoli had no secrets.  He even went to see imitators (he inspired) and offered advice about how to improve their performances!

Fregoli would exit stage left as a street musician and appear almost immediately stage right as a woman.  Pretty cool.  He gave private performances for royalty and aristocrats while inspiring a host of imitators.  

Fregoli circa 1900

Italian actor and performer Arturo Brachetti started his career in Paris in 1979.  Guinness World Records lists him as the fasted and most prolific in the world.  His last one man show has been seen by more than TWO MILLION people worldwide.  The changing of his tailcoat from black to white live and close to the audience was a method invented by him and considered his artistic signature.  In 2000 he was awarded the Moliere Award, the highest accolade in French theatre, for "The Man with 1000 Faces", where he performed 80 different characters in a two hour show.  Crazy!

As mentioned, the first and only time (so far) I have seen this type of act in person was at Circus World Museum.  My friend Jen and I saw the show multiple times that season and never could figure it out!  The performers were Olga and Vladimir Smirnov and they were fun and adorable.  While not the CW performance, I did find videos of them online.  

Now.  For this blog's grand finale!  Check this OUT!  Since I heard stories of this Faberge egg performance, I thought to find it for you.  WOW, it does not disappoint.  Amazing!  Look at the detail.  Look at the style!  Look at the costumes!  Simply perfection.  

Please enjoy this performance from the 2019 International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo.

Royal Circus de Gia Eradze performing Faberge - Clowns d'Or /Golden Clown. 

Just stellar!

Old Hollywood Circus Party

Imagine a time before the internet, camera phones, or Instagram.  Imagine a time when you would open Billboard Magazine to read about your favorite movie star, circus performer or athlete.  Imagine a time when Marilyn Monroe rode a pink elephant into Madison Square Garden for Ringling Brothers Circus.  

Hollywood, the world of sports and the circus.  Intertwined.  Alot.  One example that caught my eye was the circus themed Hollywood party thrown by ice skating champion Sonja Henie.  OH to be a fly on the wall.

On February 5th, 1955, over 300 of the silver screen's biggest stars made their way to Ciro's Nightclub on the Sunset Strip.  The A-listers were invited by one of LA's most popular hostesses...THREE time Olympic Gold Medalist and TEN time World Champion Sonja Henie.  From all accounts and photos, the Norwegian ice skater threw one heck of a party!

Sonja Henie

Guests at the circus themed costume party were greeted at the entrance of Ciro's by mounds of sawdust, sideshow posters, snake charmers with live reptiles, a calliope playing Big Top music...and a 3.5  ton hippopotamus who "sat with a bored expression outside the front door".   (SO GREAT)  As hostess, Sonja made her grand entrance riding atop a baby elephant borrowed from the Moulin Rouge, wearing a revealing spangled pink leotard because that is what hostesses do.

Jon Hall and Linda Danson

Inside, guests sipped champagne served from giant bottles while watching acrobats and clowns.  Adding to the atmosphere was a station with popcorn, soda and cotton candy.  After the cocktail hour ended, a curtain opened to the main room and Sonja's guests marched in for dinner under a circus tent.  But of course aerialists swung overhead while dogs and ponies aimlessly wandering.  "I wanted to have other animals but they smell," Sonja told a UPI reporter.

Cesar Romero

The supper menu consisted of turtle soup, filet mignon and baked Alaska.  Tiny merry-go-rounds adorned each table.  After dinner the dancing began featuring three live bands.  Well-stocked buffet tables serving caviar, crab, lobster and shrimp were set up.  The party was over the top!

Jeanne Crain

The atmosphere was highlighted by the imaginative costumes of Sonja's guests.  Zsa Zsa Gabor came dressed as Vampira, the TV character; Cesar Romero, a gaucho; June Allyson was a clown; Jeanne Crain, a Balinese woman; Jane Powell came as a scantily clad Valentine and Jack Rau, a panda.  

Peggy Lee was a tattooed lady; Susan Hayward, an elephant trainer.  Not one or two but three bearded ladies were in attendance.  Virginia Warren, the daughter of Chief Justice Earl Warren, arrived with Ed Pauley Jr, the son of Democratic leader, was dressed as a harem girl.  James Mason partied as a clown, sporting a bulbous prosthetic nose that lit up.  James' wife came in drag, sporting a moustache and goatee.

                              

                                                            Zsa Zsa Gabor

Liberace drew the most attention (and why NOT), arriving with his TV producer's wife Tido Fedderson, sporting a tuxedo with ruffled shirt and a gold sequined tie.  When questioned who he was dressed as, he cheekily told reporters "Liberace".

                           

Sonja Henie, Liberace, Susan Hayward

Among the other famous party-goers were Cary Grant, Lana Turner, Lex Barker, Joan Crawford, Van Heflin and Bob Cummings.  Judy Garland, who was almost eight months pregnant with her son Joey, made a fashionably late entrance out of costume.  

                           

Liberace, Sonja Henie, Judy Garland

Sonja awarded the prize for Best Costume to Esther Williams (there were PRIZES!).  The swimming sensation came as a Persian mind reader with a goldfish bowl advertising "underwater fortunes".   

                             

                                                Esther Williams

The top shelf scotch was flowing freely and Sonja worked the room in a diamond tiara and collar estimated to be worth over $100,000!  Shut up!  Her guests made merry at Ciro's until the wee hours of the morning...and she reportedly didn't bat an eyelash when the $15,000 bill for her shindig arrived.  When asked why she chose to throw such a lavish get-together, Sonja smiled and told reporters, "No reason, I just felt like having a party".

Oh to be a fly.

Reginald Gardiner

The Chinese Pole

Chinese poles are vertical poles on which performers climb, slide down and hold poses.  The poles are most often between 10 and 30 feet in height and 2 to 3 inches in diameter.

Some poles have a slightly larger pole that rotates around the static central pole using ball bearings.  This rotating pole allows a performer to spin on the vertical axis, giving a performer the ability to incorporate rate of spin into a performance.  Bringing the body closer into the pole causes the performer to spin faster.  A few Chinese pole tricks have been incorporated with pole dancing techniques.

The poles are sometimes covered with rubber to improve grip.  However, the rubber can cause friction burns on parts of the artists' bodies.  Acrobats often wear multiple layers of clothing to prevent such burns and bruises.  

The most famous trick is "the flag", where the artist hangs straight out at 90 degrees from the pole with his or her core and arm strength.  This requires a very strong upper body.  A few people are able to do pushups in this position, and even fewer can rotate the legs around in a circle.  Requires enormous core strength.

The following is a performance on the Chinese Pole by the 5 BINGO Boys at the Monte-Carlo International Circus Festival in January of 2020.  We were SO LUCKY to have witnessed this in person.  I still often think about the act.  Wow.  Just wow. 

I highly recommend playing the video in full screen with the volume up loud.  Edge of your seat to literally the final second.  Enjoy.  And thank you for an incredible performance! 

Advertising Paper

 

Before the internet, before television, even before radio, the Ringling Brothers Circus (as with all circuses) faced the monumental task of advertising their imminent arrival in a town.  This job was made all the more difficult by the fact that, at the time, unless it was a large metropolitan area, the circus would only be in town for a day.

Selling a product that was only available for one day meant getting across a clear and enticing message informing potential customers of the most important facts:  What?  When? and Why?  The circus would generally spend more on its advertising than on any other single part of its operating costs.

Show posters, aka paper, were brightly colored, beautiful artwork, with amazing subjects which sparked an excitement that would build until the arrival of the show.  From their initial design to the way in which they were hung all over town, circus posters were intended to make certain no one could fail to know that the circus was coming.  Printing and lithographic services were provided by both the Courier Company and Strobridge Lithographing Company.

Press agents were assigned the newspaper advertising.  Usually ex-newspapermen whose familiarity with the business enables them to reach the readers of the principal papers with the announcements of the show's arrival.  The position of press agent is one requiring rare skill, judgment, discretion, and business capacity, as well as an able command of the powers of descriptive writing.

Harold Alzana, the Incomparable and His Astounding Troupe

 

From the late 1940s to the 1960s, Harold Alzana was a HUGE star for the Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey Circus.  He was a daredevil who performed on the high wire without a balancing pole!  Harold also worked at high speed which differed from prior high wire stars such as the Wallendas known for a slow, steady, careful approach.  

                                           1948 Design                                                             1947 Design

Born in Maltby, a mining town outside Sheffield, England.  His father, a coal miner and amateur acrobat installed a backyard wire and began training his children on the art.  By age 6, Harold was debuting in local fairs and festivals. SIX!

1949

Harold worked in the coal mines and in 1941 married his girl Minnie.

At the conclusion of WWII, Harold decided to try his luck in the circus.  Billed as The Sensational Alzanas, Harold would cross the wire on a bicycle with his sisters Hilda and Elsie hanging from a trapeze suspended below. After working a number of seasons, the act was discovered by Ringling and moved to America in 1947.

      

The act was a huge succes!

Harold started the act by climbing a wire at a 45 degree angle up to his platform, as noted, without a balancing pole.  Check out the video on Circopedia.  Cool stuff.

His various wire crossings with his sisters were interspersed with his fast-paced solos, high-speed rope skipping, and carefully performed 'near misses' on the wire. No pole.  No safety device.  And the audiences could Not. Get. Enough.

 
1946 design

Without devices for safety or balance, when an accident happened.  Not good.  One such accident included a 40 foot fall with his sister Hilda, whereby both were injured.  

You can literally see them hanging from the wire.  Frightening!

Miami FL, 1947

Evenutally the sisters retired from the act

 but Harold continued on with great solo success.

1948 design and costumes

The daredevil performed publically into the 1970s before retiring...at which time Harold again had a wire installed in his backyard... and continued to perform privately into his 80s!  

Harold passed away in 2001 as one of the greatest high wire performers of all times.  

Thank you!

  

1956 Ringling Program Q& A

Fun questions and answers from the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey 1956 Circus Magazine & Program.  The booklette cost 25 cents at the time and included stories, features, photos, & comics.  

How's Your Circus I.Q.?

1. How many miles does The Greatest Show on Earth travel during an average Circus season?

The Circus travels about 15,000 miles each year, some years more.  In 1955 it traveled 18,264 miles.

2.  How many cities does the Circus visit during the average season?

The Circus visits approximately 140 cities in its travels throughout the country.

3.  How many people are employed by the Big Show, including performers, executive personnel and other employees?

The Big Show employs 1,200 people.

4.  The roster of the Circus is made up of people from many countries.  How many different nationalities are represented?

The employees of the Circus come from many countries all over the globe.  There are 28 nationalities represented.

5. Everyone employed by the Circus receives three meals a day in its Dining Department.  What is this Department called?

The Dining Department is called the Hotel Ringling and the huge Circus family, which includes bosses, stars, owners and workers, all eat here.

6.  How large a site do the Winterquarters of the Greatest Show on Earth occupy and of what does it consist?

Ringling Winterquarters occupy 200 acres of land.  There are railroad shops, machine and paint shops, tent-making and wood-working shops, seat and rigging shops, electrical department, harness and wardrobe shops and a motor fleet garage and repair department.

7.  How many tents house the Circus?  Are they used for more than one season?

The tent-making shops or sail-loft turns out 41 tents - the world's largest big top, the managerie tent, the side-show tent, the horse tent and 37 smaller tents - all new each year.

8. How much canvas is used to make up this tented city?

76,000 yards of flameproof canvas are used to make these tents.

9. How many miles of rope are used in the Big Show's tents?

73 miles of rope are used in the Big Show's tents and reduced to a single strand it would more than encircle the globe.

10. The Circus generates its own electrical power.  How many Diesel plants are used to generate the required current?

It takes 15 Diesel plants to generate the amount of electrical power used by the Circus.

The Great Blondin

 Charles Blondin.  Aka The Great Blondin.

He was a French daredevil who made his first circus appearance as a young boy performing somersaults and wire dancing as 'The Little Wonder".  

Blondin was an amazingly athletic acrobat who once leapt over two lines of soldiers holding fixed bayonets!  

He was many things but most well known as a tightrope walker.  He never used a net.  He never used a harness.

June.  1859.  The 35 year old strung a hemp rope between the American and Canadian sides of Niagara Falls.  He then proceeded to stroll across the chasm, pausing to enjoy a few swigs from a bottle of wine that he pulled up from below!

He must have been a fan of the Falls as he repeated the stunt multiple times with new and slightly suicidal feats:  

• On stilts!
• With a sack over his head!
• Walked in baskets!
• Wearing chains!
• Pushing a wheelbarrow!
• Carrying his terrified manager on his back!

But get THIS!  The Great Blondin crossed the Falls with a cooking stove.  Stopping halfway to prepare an omelet!  An omelet!  While balancing on a 2 inch wide rope suspended over 160 feet above the raging water!  Madness!

It is estimated he walked 10,000 miles on a tightrope over the span of his career.  His skill brought fame and he was in high demand across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia.  Blondin was married three times and fathered eight children.  To celebrate his 70th birthday, he walked across Montmartre.  Because why not.

Wow.  Just wow.

La Norma: Queen of the Air

Follow along and see how this blog comes together today.  I saw a vehicle with 'Nona' on the license plate.  Which made me think of the name 'La Norma' (not sure why).  A name I had read multiple times when working with old circus programs for the Circus World Museum Library.  

So I thought, huh, let's look into La Norma.  

                        

And I am SO GLAD I did! What a wonderful talented interesting lady!  

So here we go.  La Norma. Queen of the Air.  A woman who commanded the center ring no less.  So many interesting tidbits and quotes.  Follow along!

• At 13 years old, she was discovered at a ballet school in Denmark.  At which time, she left her family (including five brothers & five sisters) to work on a ladder act for circuses, vaudeville shows, fairs and festivals.
• Turned out, she was too small to perform in the ladder act, so she was taught single trapeze.  
• War arrived. The Germans sent them to Norway to work. "Was not very pleasant".  Traveling on troop ships heading for Norway, in the middle of the night, they were torpedoed.  La Norma was on ship #5, ship #6 sunk.  She was told to go ahead and jump.  It was January.  "I didn't feel like jumping".

                                       

• Later they were sent back to Sweden.  When they got off the train, they just left.  No one stopped them and La Norma stayed in Sweden working at circuses until the end of the war. At which point, they returned to Denmark.
• In addition to the single trapeze, La Norma learned to ride horses which she didn't like.  
• She met a man from a French riding troupe, who told her she didn't have a good life.  So she "married the guy, went to England and had a baby there".

                       

• Eventually the family moved to France and La Norma learned to speak French at her mother-in-laws insistence.  Did I mention she also spoke German, Swedish, English and Danish?
• While working in one ring circuses (including Cirque d'hiver in Paris!), she was spotted by John Ringling North and other agents for the Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey Circus and invited to perform in America.  It was 1949.  
• The family moved to Sarasota Florida where it was warm year round, people were friendly, and the town was full of show people walking down the street.
• In addition to learning a horse act, La Norma performed iron jaw spins. "Not very pleasant". Required alot of strength and neck mucles. If it hurt, "don't open your mouth much".

                                        

A Single Trapeze Performer

• The single trap was "controlled by me. I never left my bar willingly".
• The act was made up of strength/planges (controlling your whole body by one arm) and balances (swinging & catching by your heels and ankles or one knee).
• When asked how do you teach or learn how to catch yourself by the ankle, La Norma replied "feet out, spread your legs and go".  Or to "walk like Charlie Chaplin".  
• La Norma never performed with a net.  It "would have upset me".  

                    

                  Check out her entrance on this video montage. Dang. Classy.  

                    

• La Norma was the stunt double for the actress Betty Hutton (whom she said was very unfriendly) in Cecil B. DeMille's Oscar winning The Greatest Show on Earth.  
• She often performed two to three shows a day.  "It doesn't matter how you feel, you just have to perform".

Numerous times she fell.  

• 1962 - a loop slipped and she fell, injuring her heel and pelvis.
• 1969 - a few stakes came out and her rigging fell apart during her trick (which included fireworks no less).  La Norma landed in the sand with the rigging on top of her.  She had to be revived.  "was a bad one".  
• Seven months later she started all over again in Puerto Rico and Tokyo.  In Tokyo, they put her trap act even taller...on top of the building. 

"I landed.  And that's all it took.  One good show and I was back in.  I had to prove something and I did".   Dang.  No wonder why a reporter said she had the courage of a half dozen lions.  

                                    

La Norma retired in 1974 and was busy teaching trapeze (from an upright in her backyard), working on ceramics and creating figuring dolls (inlcuding a Unus doll).  

Wonderful 2018 interview Collecting Recollections

Wow.  What a life.  Thank you La Norma!