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