FROM GLORIA WILKINSON: MORE ST LOUIS CIRCUS HISTORY
YEARS AGO ST LOUIS PLAYED HOST TO SEVERAL MAJOR CIRCUSES EACH YEAR, THE POLICE CIRCUS IN THE SPRING, & THE FIREMAN'S THRILL CIRCUS IN THE FALL,(THIS WAS LATER CHANGED TO A RODEO), BOTH IN THE ST LOUIS ARENA,(I BELIEVE IT IS NOW OWNED BY PURINA, AND RENAMED "THE CHECKER DOME"), TO RAISE MONEY FOR A RELIEF FUND FOR THOSE TWO AGENCIES. THEN IN THE SUMMER TOM PACKS PRODUCED THE MOOLAH SHRINE CIRCUS AT THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL STADIUM,(LATER IN BUSCH STADIUM). I'M SURE R.B.B.B. ALSO PLAYED ST LOUIS MANY TIMES DURING THIS PERIOD.
Thank you Mike Naughton, for the video of this SENSATIONAL CRADLE ACT. I love the personality of the catcher on each bow.
A FINISH TRICK WELL WORTH ANOTHER LOOK FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE
posted by 24-HOUR-MAN | 9:20 PM
5 Comments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvzcpAWzVdM
Clerans on Movie Tone News, just fantastic.
As soon as I saw the photo of the cradle, I said, "It has to be Les Clerans."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiH9pMweXzs&feature=related
The Clerans full act in Paris, Bouglione.
The act is using contemporary music which fits the routine. How many contemporary tunes can be used with today's acts? I cannot name ONE. Is this the backward slide of the general public's taste for music that has lowered the standard or is it just the slow decline of society's standard for everything?
I believe that classic circus acts can be presented in a classical setting without looking dated or old-fashioned. Who would try to improve Shakespeare, Michelangelo or Beethoven?
I do NOT want to see another hula-hoop, chiffons, quick-change or house cat act in the foreseeable future. Performers who get wrapped up in duplicating one of these acts are contributing to the overload of the market and thereby lowering their own chance of getting top-dollar.
The Checker Dome is long gone. It was demolished to make way for the St. Louis Science Center. Ringling now appears in the Scott Trade Center near Union Station in Downtown St. Louis. The Moolah Shrine Circus now appears in the Family Arena out in St. Charles.
Since September, 2008, St. Louisw has had appearances by Ringling Red (Bellobration), Universoul Circus, the arena version of Cirque du Soleil's Saltambanco, Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy, Cirque Eloize, and The Hanneford circus for Moolah Shrine Temple. June marks the return of Circus Flora with its all new production. We have also had an appearance by the Flying Karamazov Brothers juggling concert. The St. Louis Arches, the elite performance troup of Circus Harmony, a social youth circus organization, present almost 400 half hour to two hour performances in St. Louis and the surrounding area each year. So, St. Louis remains a valid hub for circus and cirque performances.
I performed in the old Busch Stadium in the nine ring Shrine circus and was prop boss for Ringling in the Checker Dome on the gunther Farewell tour (that building was a nightmare - glad for other riggers and prop bosses it is gone) and somehow now live in the city.
Warren
Warren:
THANK YOU! Amen on the nightmare rigging situation in the old Arena. The last time Lee & Henri worked it, the electric cable to the plane fowled up in the cables, & I guess they were stranded up there. For that reason they warned us, never jump off the trap with the web until we knew the rigging was descending.
When we worked for Fleckles, he evidently had the Pope come in and perform a miracle, and they allowed us to hang from a steel I beam laid over a roof vent, the only time in the history of that building, a rigging was hung there.
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