JANUARY, 2020
STEP RIGHT UP: A HISTORY OF THE CICUS
By: Liese Sherwood-Fabré
One form of
amusement enjoyed
by many during the
Victorian era was the
circus. Such mass en-
tertainment traces
back to ancient Rome.
Following the fall of
the Roman Empire, performers who had
their beginnings there took to traveling
from village to village, performing at lo-
cal fairs until the late 1700s. (1)
The first modern circus was devel-
oped by Philip Astley, a trick rider who
formed the Astley Amphitheatre with a
ring design for horse-back riding stunts.
Amphitheatre performances included
acrobats, and reenactments of such
events as battles, floods, or other natural
disasters. (2) Such shows spread from
England to continental Europe, and then
the US. (3)
British and European circuses contin-
ued to utilize only one ring with a tent
using four poles instead of the taller cen-
20
ter pole of the American big top. “Lord”
George Sanger and his brother started
their own touring circus in England in
1854. Four years later he had added a
number of animal acts, and continued
touring, setting up his tent after a parade
through the streets of the town. The pro-
cession was impressive with 160 horses,
eleven elephants, a dozen camels and
about 330 people. Always the showman,
he once followed Queen Victoria‟s mili-
tary escort through London (5).
Another circus organizer, George
Wombwell, offered what was best de-
scribed as a travelling menagerie. Starting
with two boas which he exhibited in tav-
erns, he expanded his collection to more
and larger exotic animals, including ele-
phants, giraffes, various big cats, pri-
mates, and even a rhinoceros (billed at
the “real unicorn of scripture”). Given
the difference in climates for most of
these animals, their death-rate was high,
and he would often have those that ex-
pired sold to taxidermists or medical
schools. He was, however, not above
displaying the dead exhibit. On one occa-
sion, an elephant died, and a rival menag-
erie advertised itself as having the only
live elephant. Not to be outdone, Womb-
well advertised the opportunity to see a
dead elephant. The public responded by
flocking to his exhibit. (5)
By the end of the 1800s, circuses suf-
fered economic hard times as shifts in
transportation, restrictions on move-
ment, and competition from other forms
of entertainment diminished their popu-
larity. While the major US companies
survived into the 1970s, a push from ani-
mal rights activists and audiences‟ chang-
ing tastes led to the closure of Ringling
Brothers circus in 2017. About 30
smaller circuses still exist in the US, and
some are expected to survive by provid-
ing, in part, a glimpse into a by-gone era
where audiences were encouraged to
“step right up” and experience “the thrill
of a lifetime.” (6)
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