By David Konyot
Prologue
My family, like many others, have plied the circus trade for centuries. From my mother I descend from the Blumenfelds whose ancestry can be traced back to the mid-17th century where an Emmanuel Louis Blumenfeld ‘Gaukler und Seiltanzer’ (travelling entertainer and ropewalker) was reported in Wuppertal paper to have brought 3 elephants to town (1). On father’s side are two British dynasties, the Fossetts and the Yeldings. I have over 60 years’ circus experience as ringmaster, producer, and clown.
Travelling families
The story of my ancestry was told by my Aunt Margaret Yelding (nee Fossett) and other older relatives; some details differed but the core was shared. At the close of the 12th century, an army was gathered by Richard 1st (the Lionheart) to retake the English throne from his brother John. His forces were joined by Saddlers, Armourers, Grooms, Sex workers, Cooks, Card-Sharps, Bottlewashers, and families of itinerant Entertainers, one such were French and called Felda. They remained in England and their name evolved into Yelding,
The first marriage for which we have evidence is of a Robert Fossett and Emma Yelding, 6 generations ago but it’s possible that there were predecessors. Other families followed the same path, some with Fairground presentations, others with Acrobatic Feats, Juggling, Wire Walking, displays of Strength, Magic, Boxing and Wrestling booths, selling Charms and Potions, Fortune Telling; anything that earned money from passing round a hat or having a closed area with a box at the entrance for admission payment (this was called a fit-up). They appeared at village fetes, galas, market days, in stately homes at times of celebration. Then in 1768 along came Philip Astley.
Time for a couple of Mythbusters. No1; Philip Astley didn’t use the word ‘Circus’, his first arena in what is now Waterloo, was called ‘Astley’s Ampitheatre’. The term ‘Circus’ was coined by Charles Dibdin, a composer and writer of Pantomimes for London theatres. Alongside Astley’s competitor Charles Hughes, he began the ‘Royal Circus and Philharmonic Concert Academy’ in 1782.
Mythbuster No 2. Astley was not the first to do trick-riding in a circle, his predecessors include ‘Old Sampson’, for whom Astley worked as an apprentice when he left the Army. Astley’s riding displays took place in what he called ‘The Ride’ or ‘The Circle’. In 1770 he moved premises to Westminster Bridge where he erected covered seating and engaged jugglers, wire-walkers and a clown to fill in the spaces between his riding displays. I have no doubt that among these ‘fill-ins’ there would have been a smattering of the Fossett / Yelding and other established entertainer families. ‘Modern Circus ‘ was born.
The History of the Circus (a personal view)
The Circus/travelling families had survived and to some extent thrived for generations delivering what the public wanted to see. If they didn’t, then hunger was around the next corner. Then along came Astley, Hughes, Dibdin, Ducrow and others followed by the erection of Amphitheatres and circus buildings all over Europe, and their situation underwent a dramatic change.
By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries formerly independent professionals became part of an integrated entertainment in a conventional capitalist mode. Customers would pay owners for a single ticket to witness the work of numerous artistes whose wage was negotiated by individual families. In return for a more regular income and some security, they largely lost their artistic independence. The whims and preferences of producers, directors and owners who often did not belong to circus families (‘Jossers’ to the circus fraternity) grasped an opportunity to make some money. This pattern has remained for the 250 years of the circus. Alongside artistes down the generations I too have been subject to directors, producers and especially owners with little practical knowledge of the particular art he is producing, especially comedy, trying to impose his vision over the artistes’ knowledge and experience.
The use of scripted storylines such as ‘Dick Turpin’s Ride To York’, the presentation of wild and exotic animals, of Hippodrome tracks laid outside the ring for huge tableaux, of massive circus parades, Chariot Races imitating those in the Roman Colosseums and so on developed circus as a spectacle for the masses. With the introduction of the first canvas tent by J. Purdy Brown in 1829, circus became the first mass entertainment.
By the start of the 20th century the three ringed circus in America was the most complex logistical achievement of the age. Built up and dismantled on a daily basis by hundreds of workers and transported across the country by rail, before WW1 both the American and German military consulted with Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus as to how to move such numbers of people, equipment and animals so efficiently and quickly.
By the middle of the twentieth century the UK boasted three large touring circuses – Billy Smart’s, Chipperfield’s and Bertram Mills’, all with seating capacities in the thousands and myriad small circuses toured the country. The big three had unique selling points-Billy Smarts had Sequins, Glitter and Glamour with charity performances attended by TV and Film stars; Chipperfields’ had their Wild Animal Spectacular, Human Cannonballs, Somersaulting cars, Danger and Drama; whilst at Bertram Mills, class and dignity personified the shows with pages in full coachman dress and white powdered wigs to open and close the ring for the entrance and exit of the animals. Mills was regularly visited by members of the Royal family each winter at the Olympia Exhibition hall in London.
But within a decade all three were gone. Chipperfields’ went to South Africa in the early 1960s; a folly from which they never recovered. Bertram Mills’ closed its doors around the same time, citing competition from Television as its main reason whilst Billy Smarts’ enjoyed success with this new media through their Xmas and Easter TV specials but also succumbed as income could not meet the high costs of such large and lavish shows.
Smaller circuses in the UK survived, some run by descendants of the
original travelling families, but could not achieve the success of their predecessors. In the 21st century the big circuses in the UK, Europe and America have closed or downsized, the fight to retain wild animal content is all but lost and the possibility of domestic animals being banned is a serious threat. The rising price of fuel, transport, health and safety regulations, the price of venues and in the UK the likely impact of Brexit on recruitment will add to the expenses of an industry which is not doing very well as it is.
Could it have been different or is it too late?
Many of the travelling families from all those centuries ago are still around. My own family have spread from Alaska to Denmark and thanks to Facebook, we are in touch with most of them. They are descendants from the Fossetts, Yeldings, Paulos, Pinders, Ginnets and many other ‘younger families’ (only around for a century or so ) still working in Circus and the entertainment industry.
Could they go back to the old ways of working once the Big Top has completed it’s final ‘Pull Down’? Over recent years the Festival
Circuit has grown hugely, this includes Glastonbury in the UK and the Sziget Festival in Budapest alongside hundreds across Europe with performers who have never seen the inside of a Big Top. Festivals provide work for face-painters, fortune tellers, wall of death riders, small fairground rides and sideshows, flea circuses, plus music, dance, food and fun. At the same time is an upsurge in the number of small circus companies comprising artists who appear at festivals, in local theatres and small concert halls. Many are the product of the plethora of Circus Schools that have opened in recent years, these small groups carry no other equipment than their props and costumes, they have minimum admin so their costs and expenses are low and the money is shared. It seems that we are returning to the days of the independent professionals.
The traditional families have survived for nearly a Millennium, a hardy and persistent community with the ability to adapt to any situation. In WW1 many dispatches from the front to the War Office in London asked for more recruits from the ‘circus and fairground community “because in a crisis these guys know exactly what to do and can turn their hands to anything”. One soldier in WW1 won the Victoria Cross, the Croix De Guerre and the highest military honour Russia could bestow. He was a British Showman.
As long as someone wants to juggle, do a handstand, throw a somersault or fall over to get a laugh the Circus Arts will survive and flourish. Should the old families die out, new ones will take over and start their own dynasties and Circus will survive.
Because it always has.
(1) This story was told to me by a German Circus fan Peter Brauning in 1982 while I was working for Circus Barum and I was shown a photocopy of the original article.
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