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!

Two Sisters

Just two sisters.  Hanging out.  Doing what two sisters do.  Not at all!

The Chaludis Troupe

1950 Lucia and Gerda Muller

Oh the Chaludis Troupe!  I am so intrigued by these two ladies.  How did this act come about?  How did they know this was a thing?  How do they start it?  How do they 'dismount'? Yet again to be a fly on the wall of history to watch these two in person.  

The Chaudis came to the United States to work for the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1950.  They performed with RBBB only three years until 1953.  At which time they returned to Germany for two years performing with the Circus Grock.  In 1955 again they returned to the U.S. as part of the Western Unit of the Polack Bros.' Circus. 

The sisters performed a bicycle routine with Karl Schwarzbauer Jr. and Karl Schwarzbauer Sr.

The Chaludis, (left to right) Karl Schwarzbauer Jr., Lucia Muller, Gerda Muller, Karl Schwarzbauer Sr.  'A very excellent bicycle act' July 16, 1950.

1951 Look how beautiful they are!

Billed as the Cycling Chaludis in 1951 with 'Amazing Achievements Awheel' and as 'Amazingly Clever Artists'.  

I might have posted this photo on the prior bicycle blog.  But it is TOO GOOD to not post again.  Wow.  I bike.  But would never in a million years think to do this.  Cudos.

1951 Costume designs for their act.  Cool!

Proving every circus performer wore many hats, the lovely 

Gerda Muller participates in the 1952 spec.

1952 Lucy and Dita with the Schwarzbauers

In 1952, Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth premiered.  You bet.  The Chaludis made the cut!  Incidentally, Dita Chaludis doing the headstand also doubled for Betty Hutton.  She did the distant shots doing the headstand on the trapeze and also the chair balancing. Since she wasn't an aerialist she had a safety wire on which is evident when the chair slips and she falls sideways.  

  

If you haven't seen the movie (then do it!), the movie follows the dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown and an elephant trainer against the background of circus spectacle.  

About 1:19 seconds into this video, the Chaludis!  

On a ladder.  Twirling a baton with her feet!

    

Passers-by stop and stare as circus performer Lucia Muller walks along the pavement at Hammersmith Broadway carrying her sister Gerda on her head, 21st January 1953.  Can you imagine!  Can you even!?  I would die. 

During 1956 the Chaludis were with the Orrin Davenport Circus thru May.  

Their contract to to play fairs for Barnes-Carruthers was cancelled due to Lucia Muller's critical illness.  The sisters flew back to Kiel, Germany on July 13th where Lucia passed away on October 14, 1956.  She was only 29 years old.  29.  Sigh.

Lucia was survived by sister Gerta and a second sister, Alice who planned to join the act.   

Thank you for all you did.

Holy Smokes Bicyles!

Today's post isn't much for words.  

It is more along the lines of bicycle acts that make you go WHAT!?

So far in my life, I have broken bones and sported numerous bruises from falling off my bike.  I am in awe of these talented folks who have an abundance of balance. 

The following Dollies video is amazing!  Such style.  And at Cirque d'hiver!

Dollies Video (1969)

Not only do they sommersault from bike to bike, they show how the "16 people on one bike" act is built.  Holy smokes!

As if the splits is not difficult enough, let's throw a high wire in just for fun.

I dont know how they do this but they make it look fun!

She is adorable!  Such talent.  And a golden bike!

 

This troupe just makes me think of 'pizzazz'!

I could be here for HOURS researching bicycle acts!