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Show ; LAUGH, : CLOWN : LAUGH! By JOSEril W. LaBINE Three months ago a spangled span-gled crop of circus performers perform-ers hit the sawdust trail amidst promises of the biggest big-gest season since 1929. Today, many of them are hoping to get home without selling the tent. The circus season has hit rough waters; in seme parts it has flopped altogether. At Scranton, Pa., a few weeks ago, the "Big One," Ringing Brothers, Barnum and Bailey, folded its tent in a sea of mud and headed back to winter quarters at Sarasota, Fla. Strikes, poor i attendance and rainy weather were responsible. This thing wouldn't have happened in the days of old P. T. Barnum or John Ring-ling, Ring-ling, peers of the circus world. But it happened this year, for the first time in 54 seasons; it happened in a profession whose followers traditionally carry their banner ban-ner through mud. water, starvation and payless paydays. We recall something about that old bromide, "The show must go on!" Maybe the performers aren't doing do-ing their part, but that isn't likely. Maybe the audience is to blame, for the circus has won popular approval more than half a century with the same elephants doing the same tricks and the same clowns turning the same somersaults. .Time Fasses. Customs Change. These past CO years have been i fraught with chance in the cr.ter- tainn-.ent field. "The Perils cf Paul- ir.e" on tlie silcrt screen gave way to talking ric'.ures; Chautauqua ex-I ex-I p:red as a popular pastime, because rce;.!e no lcrger cared f T that kind j cf culture; the r.id.o can-.e a'.'-r.g 1 ar.d made prov.nc;.il An-enca cs- rr.ep-'!it.-m. ! T".rou;:h it all came the circus. unchanged. Whenever a progres- , 1 s.ve manager suggested avK pt r.g a ' i r.ew technique there was always J someone to object, because the circus cir-cus is one kind cf enterta :r.mer.t I that thrives on pure sentiment. Ii's I I always been a ballyhoo game, a j loud -mouthed bag f tricks which everyone knows to be phoney but enjoys for that very reason. It's never been bigger than the man in the checkered suit nnd derby hat who yells "Right this way!" out of ! one corner of his mouth, the other corner bring preoccupied by a cigar stub. So m.ibe the audience is to blame for the Kmglmg recession. Maybe father's getting tired of s:t- ting on a hard bench year after year, eatirg undigestible peanuts ' nnd watching the elephants. Perhaps Per-haps America is now revolting ngatnst the old-time circus just as it revolted against Chautauqua. They Call It "Collrsiate." Rut you can't make the old time sawdust-trail followers believe that If the "Big One" never hits the road again, veteran circus men will always insist that it died because John Ringlmg North tried to mod- - . . r.. ,. . ... A ,'. ; - , i. - ' -v l ' f - t ; --'"s .;. s .V:;... . iff N. ' 5 ft V ' W " I emize the show this year and thereby there-by destroyed its charm. That's a fruitless argument because be-cause John Rir.gling North, grandson grand-son of "Old John" RingUr.g. insisted he was only trying to regain a bit of the old P.inghng touch by arranging ar-ranging new costuming and hanging for the circus this year. I'nder the Smaller Tops. North is a Yale man and there were muUcrir.gs last spring that the circus was going collegiate. Perhaps Per-haps it was collegiate to import a giant gorilla. "Gargantua the Great," and set him up for exhibition exhibi-tion in an air-conditioned cage, enclosed en-closed in steel bars and shatterproof shatter-proof glass. Perhaps other minor innovations were collegiate. But it will be hard for John Ringhr.g North's critics to put their wagging fingers on the exact reason why his circus failed this year. Maybe it was the entertainment; , 1 ! ! H .. . . ! 1 7 ' , - , . ; i I ' ; ! V : ' ' - . - . J " W , ' ' . f I . I 1 TIM". 11 AKl WAY li s bad I j enough to merely stand on m tifht-wirc tifht-wirc but ll.il Silvers, veteran bic top aerialit, chooses to Jump throne h a t fi'k held by his two han!s. Ii's a good constitutional, as Hal. I V s . . , , 'v (: v:n' :v : : ". "'.: '3 - :: Vv '" : j t v n, . ' .... , f . X 1- . . . v,i.V ' !..(; AM. SMM I, OK T-Th. Y,,,,,,,.,,., ,,.PlU ..,.,,.. ,,,,,, liimr peatuiln nt winter qiinrten, fern, Itiil. maybe it was the public; maybe it was the management. Fortunately the Ringlir.g recession reces-sion has not mace itse'-f felt so ' acutely among the lesser circuses. -Probably it's because these srr.iHer units play largely to non-rr.etrcpc'j-. tan audiences who haven't fe'.t bad business conditions so acutely. Certainly Cer-tainly there's no drouth so fsr as numbers are concerned: the currenl : season boasts six railroad sht-Ri-(two of them brar.d r.ew) and 16 u . 20 truck shows. Add to that rr.orr' than 150 carnivals and hundreds a: fair and celebration units, and yoi '. have a picture cf the 153 circj; fieid. Tim McCoy cf rr.cticn p:ctr " fame is reviving the days cf the 10 r Ranch and ButTalo B:1L C'.yde Beat . ty and his cats frclic with the C:i Brothers circus, which has a sec:a . shew on the read under the tia " cf R:bbins Brothers. Then crrr.e ' Al G. Bames-Se'.'.s-Ficto circus : the Kagen'ceck-Wallace shew. M: cf these are railroad s'r.cws w:t . 20- to 30-car trains. Tr.ts year's experience in. the cil cus industry cr.'.y g:es tD prove shculd never count ci-..cker.s bef:t-. thty hitch. Last April the t:ys i ; w.r.ter quarters said it Wis gcir.j t -be a b;g;er year than I?--?. 'rue somcb "dy :s f. rever craoo.rg :u: t ti e civ -let f.-r purposes of con tor : s.n. They lookod at the peo'.e: advance cerr.ar.J for bxktr.is s:rt . the present crop cf sawdust an acorn, and th.cy looked bo:ti two preced.r g seasons that were U . test in years. From George A. Karr.id of N? ' York, one cf the bicoest east?' b.vkcrs cf acts for circuses, fair - carn va'.s and celebrations, carr.e r ports that the demand for rex a. unusual acts far exceeded the i r- - "Wc ccu'.d book bundrcds rr.ore " we could f.r.d them." he sa d. 7 demand for acts for ce'.ebratioc such as those around the Four'-.1: July, is three times what it was U year." f Circus in Retrospect. Old P. T. Barnum. were he s'..' tovi.-.y, n-.:ght say the industry h become so t.s and complex that i collapsing. The man who start cut many years ago with a con b.ned ntuseum - menagerie - circ f nv.gh! scoff at the bu.ee ir.st f.ti his successors now tote aroui i. Certainly it's a far cry bacs to t night ef April 1733. when Goer Washington watched John Bt'.l K ? cf.s leap through a hoop from t j back cf his ga'.'.epuS horse, rvf: , his footing and do a dance er. t sao.a.c. lha; was enc ei u.c joys ef a simp'f pcepie. yet c:ro showmansh'p txiay is subsist".:..! the same, merely augmented. It can be recalled that even the earlier days the circus os humbug proposition. P. T. Farooo an eld man when he reached t. prune of circus life, chor'.led !-inward !-inward glee at being cl"ll, ;-, "greatest humbug of h:s tunc ' I knew the value of adver'.is.i'i . was a genius at getting !"' r ;" e - ; th.e paper. , , , .vv It's inlerest.rg to spoon..--' -w.U become of the dair.ty Prcn ; equestrienne and the a'ov.civ. -f maid from Tokyo, th.e Hovhi "' .. tie and th.e rosy-cheeked li'v' atlilete. all ef them iveir.N-os e. t Kmgling circus, nil of them to" j rarily out of a Job new that t "I'.ig One" has closed shop (or . your. For old followers of the 000:1 r. thos will be a catastrophe. be .Mimmer. with no circus t;"'. ; . move night after night. muivv.iv. Just summer '.th ( grass, biros and five air. J' v nomenon many ef them ho,Vl ,l -l-efove seen. ...1 to St This summer you re i some top rank circus t'"1' out the season with smaller anxious to make a living 'v 1 tln-y e.m. .m,I next (.ill they'll IK ,N' thiit le.uis b.i.'k to winter ' '-. "il " w!,,',ov,'r J'',v-n ''tee,.:,,, !.'.. M..t'.vo - sh.-,he their li.";d ai"d ' Nexer again- I'm ' r., smog tl'oVU lv a-v .;,, and somebody '! ber (tip 1m eniide : i ' , -I,,,. ,, ml g,' t VW.Ir.n N""' '"" 1 |