Les arts du cirque aux États-Unis
Documents : 335
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Philip Astley and the horsemen who invented the circus (1768-1814)
Jando, Dominique [Auteur] ; Binder, Paul [Préfacier].
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018.
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]
Cote : 791.309 2 A855p 2018
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Circus life : performing and laboring under America's big top shows, 1830-1920
Childress, Micah D. [Auteur].
Knoxville, Tennessee : University of Tennessee Press, 2018.
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 microcosmƒthe "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]
Cote : 791.309 73 C5369c 2018
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Big top typewriter : my inside adventures through the world of circus
Hammarstrom, David Lewis [Auteur].
Kentucky, États-Unis : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017.
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]
Cote : 791.309 2 H2243b 2017
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The Routledge circus studies reader
Tait, Peta [Direction] ; Lavers, Katie [Direction].
New York : Routledge , 2016.
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]
Cote : 791.301 T135r 2016
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Emmett Kelly : the greatest clown on earth
McManus, Donald [Auteur].
Kirksville, Missouri : Truman State University Press, 2014.
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 clownƒa 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]
Cote : 791.330 92 K2957e 2014
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The greatest shows on earth
Simon, Linda [Auteur].
London : Reaktion Books, 2014.
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 peopleƒtrick riders and tightrope walkers, sword swallowers and animal trainers, contortionists and clownsƒthat created the sensational, raucous, and sometimes titillating world of the circus. [editor summary]
Cote : 791.309 S5941g 2014
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The Bloomington-Normal circus legacy : the golden age of aerialists
Brunsdale, Maureen [Auteur] ; Schmitt, Mark [Auteur].
Charleston : The History Press, 2013.
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]
Cote : 791.309 747 B899b 2013
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The ordinary acrobat : a journey into the wondrous world of the circus, past and present
Wall, Kevin Duncan [Auteur].
Knopf , 2013.
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]
Cote : 791.309 W1871o 2013
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A reckless era the evolution of trapeze
Gossard, Steve [Auteur] ; Thayer, Stuart [Préfacier].
Normal (IL) : 2012.
A typical nineteenth-century program was overwhelmingly a presentation of horse acts. There were child riders, women riders and men riders. There were two, four and six horse acts. There was hurdle riding, dressage and even horses that performed riderless. From seventy-five to ninety percent of the acts in a circus of that time involved horses. The popularity of the rider was a reflection of the place of the horse in society. Nearly everyone in the nineteenth-century owned, bought, sole, rode or drove horses, even in urban areas. Because of this they appreciated watching fine animals brought to the peak of training.
The decade of the 1880's saw the beginning of the greatest period of expansion in America. Almost every aspect of life grew at a rapid pace. Immigration, financial structures and the construction of the cities all boomed exponentially. With this, the simple circus of the Civil War era became touched with what has been termed giantism. Competition between the showmen led to the acquisition of herds of elephants, many caged menageries, expanded programs and huge tents, seating as many as seven or eight thousand people. The trapeze acts, which had been confined to single performers in the low-ceilinged tents of the sixties, now became the flying acts of our time. With fifty and sixty foot high tents two and three hundred feet long, there was at least room for these aerial acts, which until that time had been confined to theatres and halls. It was this change that led to the relative demise of the horse acts, which had not changed, essentially, since the beginning of the institution. The trapeze performers, high above the crowd, throwing their bodies through the air, literally defying injury, became the favorites of the crowd. To this day, it is the aerial acts that are the climax of the circus programs.
Surprisingly, the literature of the circus has lagged far behind the popularity of the flying trapeze. Moreover, the history of these acts has been virtually ignored until quite recently. Why this should be, we are not sure, but we are thankful that Steve Gossard has decided to take upon himself the research into and chronicling of that history. There is something of present excitement as well as nostalgia in watching men and women thrust their bodies through the air in what is often the most graceful and athletic pursuits. That their efforts have a long and interesting history is borne out by the pages that follow.
Cote : 791.340 973 G677r 2012
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Women of the american circus, 1880-1940
Adams, Katherine H [Auteur] ; Keene, Michael L [Auteur].
Jefferson : McFarland & Co, 2012.
In 1880 to 1940, glory days of American circus, one third to one half of cast members were women. Diaries, autobiographies, newspaper accounts, films, posters, route books, stories told by circus women, recount tableaux, freak shows, girlie shows, tiger acts, and aerial performance, beginning with representations of women as circus performers and moving to performances themselves. [editor summary]
Cote : 791.308 2 A2111w 2012
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Professor Risley and the imperial japanese troupe : how an american acrobat introduced circus to Japan and Japan to the west
Schodt, Frederick L. [].
Berkeley : Stone Bridge Press, 2012.
In 1864, when Japan was still semi-closed to foreigners, world-famous American acrobat and impresario "Professor Risley" introduced Western-style circus to Yokohama. Less than three years later, in 1866, he formed the Imperial Japanese Troupe and left with it to tour America and Europe. When Japan's feudal government issued its very first civilian passport to a member of Risley's troupe, it helped trigger a world-wide fever in Japanese acrobats, and all things Japanese. From San Francisco to Philadelphia, New York to London, Boston to Madrid, crowds could not get enough of performers like "Little All Right." Risley's Imperial Japanese Troupe tour thus fueled the West's first craze for Japanese popular cultureƒone that, unlike the better known and intellectualized Japonisme art movement, spread throughout all levels of society. [editor summary]
Cote : 791.309 52 S363p 2012
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Circus and the city : New York 1793-2010
Wittmann, Matthew [Auteur].
New York : Yale University Press, 2012.
At the turn of the 20th century, the circus was the most popular form of American entertainment, and New York City was the hub of circus-related activity. Featuring superb archival photography, this book documents a wide variety of ephemera, images, and artifacts relating to the history of the circus in the city, from the seminal equestrian displays of the 18th century to the iconic railroad circuses of the late 19th century. Matthew Wittmann offers a thorough history of the circus in New York City, including stories of P. T. Barnum's triumphant entry into the circus business, the famous dwarf General Tom Thumb, and Jumbo, the African elephant that touched off a craze known as "Jumbomania." The histories of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the WPA Circus of the Great Depression, and the Big Apple Circus are testaments to the enduring popularity of this American pastime.
Cote : 791.309 747 W8325c 2012
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The american circus
Weber, Susan [Direction] ; Ames, Kenneth L. [Direction] ; Wittmann, Matthew [Direction].
New York : Yale University Press, 2012.
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.
Cote : 791.309 73 W3731a 2012
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The rise of the American circus, 1716-1899
Kotar, S.L. [Auteur] ; Gessler, J.E. [Auteur].
Jefferson (North Carolina) : McFarland & Company, 2011.
This intriguing work chronicles the history of the American circus from its roots in England through its importation to America to the end of the nineteenth century. It introduces the early pioneers of the circus, addresses business concerns such as management and training, and discusses the development of the show itself, including the incorporation of menageries, the need for animal training and care, the addition of circus music, the use of the tent, and the unique attractions of side shows and "freaks." Personal stories of those who made their lives under the "big top" are woven throughout the narrative, adding an intimate perspective to one of America's most enduring entertainments. [editor summary]
Cote : 791.309 73 K871r 2011
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Zene & Cirkus = Women & Circus
Kralj, Ivan [Direction] ; Sizorn, Magali [Auteur] ; Quentin, Anne [Auteur] ; Tait, Peta [Auteur] ; Davis, Janet M [Auteur] ; Carmeli, Yoram S. [Auteur] ; Drasler, Jana [Auteur] ; Kendall, Jessica [Auteur] ; Fratellini, Valérie [Auteur] ; Damkjaer, Camilla [Auteur] ; English, Rose [Auteur] ; Herts, Laura [Auteur] ; Govedic, Natasa [Auteur].
Zagreb : Mala performerska scena, 2011.
Un incontournable ouvrage de référence qui apporte une riche reflexion sur le développement du rôle et des influences de la Femme dans les arts du cirque à travers le temps et envers la communauté au sens large. Publié suite à une conférence multidisciplinaire « Zene & Cirkus » qui s'est tenue à Zagreb (Croatie) en novembre 2009, cet ouvrage regroupe les textes des conférences des historiens, spécialistes de théâtre, anthropologues, artistes et journalistes qui ont proposé leur point de vue sur la contribution de la Femme au cirque traditionnel et actuel. De plus, cet ouvrage présente plus de 191 superbes photos issues d'archives publiques et privées.
Cote : 791.308 2 K894z 2011
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Circus and carnival Ballyhoo : sideshow freaks, jaggers and blade box queens
Stencell, A. W. [Auteur].
Toronto : ECW Press, 2010.
From Lentini the three-legged man and Siamese twins to equipment caravans and big top architects, this captivating collection lifts the striped curtain to reveal the larger-than-life world of circuses, carnivals, and freak shows in post-World War II America. Copious never-before-seen photographs, in-depth historical research, and insightful interviews with former sideshow employees illustrate the development of the circus sideshow, the roles of key groupsƒthe freaks, working acts, managers, talkersƒand the importance of the grift. [editor summary]
Cote : 791.068 097 3 S8252c 2010
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The freak show : exposition, Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, du 6 juin au 5 août 2007
Vadrot, Olivier [Direction] ; Pécoil, Vincent [Direction] ; Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon [Direction].
Dijon : Les Presses du réel, 2007.
Catalogue de l'exposition au musée d'Art contemporain de Lyon s'inspirant des "Freak Shows" dont le plus célèbre fut celui du cirque ambulant Barnum and Bailey aux USA, qui présentait d'étonnants phénomènes ou monstres de foire. Près de 50 oeuvres interprètent et explorent les différents types de monstruosité ou d'anormalité avec des oeuvres contorsionnistes, géantes, poilues, siamoises... en se préservant de tout anthropomorphisme. Ce catalogue, comporte 80 pages de vues de l'exposition en couleur, un glossaire des freaks célèbres et du folklore correspondant (de l'homme tronc à l'homme aquarium). [résumé de l'éditeur]
Cote : 791.307 444 V124f 2007
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Extravaganza! : histoire du cirque américain
Jacob, Pascal [Auteur(s) ] ; Raynaud de Lage, Christophe [Auteur(s) ].
Montreuil-sous-Bois (France) : Théâtrales, 2005.
Faste, démesure, excès, extravagance... Tout le cirque américain est contenu dans ces quelques mots : un cirque pas comme les autres, où les couleurs surenchérissent sur les formes, où les clowns sont plus nombreux que n'importe où ailleurs, les éléphants plus grands et les parades interminables. Extravaganza ! Histoire du cirque américain retrace la prodigieuse aventure d'un univers exceptionnel et de personnalités hors du commun. Chacun conserve dans un coin de son imaginaire les noms du général Tom Pouce, de l'éléphant Jumbo, de Buffalo Bill, ou encore la mémoire d'attractions sensationnelles comme la Roue de la mort ou l'Homme canon. cet ouvrage retrace la fantastique conquête d'un continent, à bord de trains bariolés transportant bêtes et gens, d'est en ouest, dans un voyage spectaculaire aux allures d'épopée, rêve devenu réalité pour quelques entrepreneurs de génie, à l'image de P.T. Barnum, des frères Ringling ou d'Irvin et Kenneth Feld. [4e de couv.]
Cote : 791.309 73
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Step right this way : the photographes of Edward J. Kelty
Kelty, Edward J. [Photographe] ; Barth, Miles [Auteur] ; Siegel, Alan [Auteur] ; Hoagland, Edward [Auteur].
New York : Barnes & Noble Books, 2002.
Edward J. Kelty's circus pictures, taken from the mid-1920s to the 1940s, consist of group portraits of clowns, sideshow attractions, bands, elephants, menageries, aerialists, equestrians, tractor and train crews, candy butchers and even everybody in the Ringling-Barnum cookhouse tent on July 1935. He also lensed stars such as lion-tamer Clyde Beatty, teenage tightrope walker Harold Barnes, and Hugo Zacchini, Human Projectile, and interior and exterior panoramas of circuses pitched in Tarrytown, Terre Haute, and other fair burghs. Kelty used a specially made "banquet" camera that produced 12-by-20-inch images. Reproduced here at about two-fifths that size and as originally tinted when appropriate, they are scrumptious, sometimes outrageous. [editore resume]
Cote : 791.309 73 K2998s 2002
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Seeing is believing : America's Sideshows
Stencell, A. W. [Auteur].
Toronto : ECW Press, 2002.
From striptease midgets, human pin cushions, and monkeys in miniature race cars to trained fleas and people with double bodies, three legs, and enormous feet, this chronicle of twisted midway attractions and the showmen who have presented them covers it all. The history of the circus side show and its companion, the carnival, is celebrated in words and rare, eye-popping images, making this a must for all collectors and enthusiasts. Interviews with many of the big players on the carnival circuit are included. [editor summary]
Cote : 791.068 097 3 S8252s 2002
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Dan Rice : the most famous man you've never heard of
Carlyon, David [Auteur].
New York : Public Affairs, 2001.
Dan Rice had many lives. He was a pig presenter, a strongman, a lecturer, and a comic singer, all before joining the dazzling world of the circus. In 1855, he created Dan Rice's Great Show. Labeling himself the "Great American Humorist," he toured the country and spoke out on issues of the day before large crowds. Swept up in a new cult of celebrity, he rose to become one of the most famousƒand infamousƒmen in America. He even ran for president. So why have so few people ever heard of Dan Rice? Propelled by an urge toward "refinement," American amusements began to stratify in the mid-19th century. The raucous antebellum jumble of performers, audiences, and forms split along a new performance hierarchy of high and low. Circus, though still vastly popular, became seen as lowbrow. In that changed world, Rice's aggressive humor and robust connection with a noisy, participatory audience became seen as crudeƒand worseƒa civic threat. [editor summary]
Cote : 791.330 92 C286d 2001
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The Circus at the Edge of the Earth : Travels with the Great Wallenda Circus
Wilkins, Charles [Auteur].
Toronto : McClelland & Stewart, 1998.
Wilkins chronicles a month on the road in his native Canada with the Great Wallenda Circus in the spring of 1997 and, in the process, offers remarkable insight into a subcultureAthe diverse assortment of gymnasts, animal trainers, daredevils and wanderers who identify themselves as circus folk. Ricky Wallenda, the producer, inherited his famous name from his grandfather Karl Wallenda, the patriarch of the famous "Flying Wallendas" circus family. Wallenda, forced off the high wire and into show production by two harrowing accidents and haunted by the memory of family and personal tragedy. [editor summary]
Cote : 791.309 227 3 W684c 1998
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An annotated narrative of Joe Blackburn's a clown's log
Day, Charles N. [Direction] ; Slout, William Lawrence [Direction] ; Blackburn, Joseph [Auteur].
San Benardino, California : An Emeritus Entreprise Book, 1993.
Joseph Blackburn, a clown who juggled on horseback, took a professional trip to England in 1838, accompanied by the noted American vaulter and bareback rider, Levi J. North. His account of their experiences abroad encompasses activity with the circuses of Ducrow, Ryan and Batty. [editor summary]
Cote : 791.330 92 D2731a 1993
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Hoaxes, humbugs and spectacles : astonishing photographs of smelt wrestlers, human projectiles, giant hailstones, contortionists, elephant impersonators, and much, much more!
Sloan, Mark [Auteur] ; Manley, Roger [Collaborateur] ; Van Parys, Michelle [Collaborateur] ; Blount, Roy [Préfacier].
New York : Villard Books, 1990.
Featuring more than 150 black-and-white photographs, 'Hoaxes, Humbugs, and Spectacles' is a vintage collection of bizarre, unusual, and humorous pictures that explore the universal human interest in spectacle. For four years Mark Sloan traveled across America-on a proverbial shoestring-unearthing everything from tiny tin-types sold in the nineteenth century as souvenirs to previously unprinted promotional pictures of circus performers (found hidden in a box beneath somebody's bed) to a bundle of news photos rescued from the Denver Post's dumpster. These pictures, which date from the 1840s to the 1950s are like the treasures in a time capsule-years later they have the same power to amuse, amaze, and entertain. [editor summary]
Cote : 779.949 791 3 S6341h 1990
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Circus Press Agent : The Life and Times of Roland Butler
Plowden, Gene [Auteur].
Caldwell : The Caxton Printers Ltd, 1984.
For forty years this book begged to be written but Roland Butler, a modest individual, consistently refused to allow it. Several offered, but the crusty old fellow insisted he was "Nothing but a good circus press agent tryin' to do a job".
He claimed there was nothing newsworthy about him and stubbornly refused interviews, but his peers put him atop his profession, where he belonged.
Butler gave us the saucer-lipped Ubangis, the giraffe-necked women from Burma, the man who performed atop a ten-storey buggywhip, the man who walked on his forefinger, a child prodigy at the xylophone, and a group that "shakes dice with death at dizzy heights."
He promoted Goliath, the sea elephant; Lotus, the blood-sweating hippopotamus; Modic, the great old elephant, and five babies billed as "The only family of African pygmy elephants that ever set foot on this continent. Not babies, but full-grown middle-sized tuskers, the most curious proboscidean creatures ever captured." Later they grew up.
Butler's greatest achievement in promotion was converting a household pet raised in Brooklyn and fondly known as 'Buddy' into "Gargantua the Great, mightiest monster ever captured by man; most fiendishly ferocious brute that breathes - the world's most terrifying living creature". [editor summary]
Cote : 791.309 2 P732c 1984
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