Film Review: Fortune’s Wheel - The story of Irish lion tamer Bill Stephens

On the afternoon of 11 November, 1951, the Fairview Grand was packed with children thrilling to the adventure film Jungle Stampede. Little did they expect to emerge from the cinema to find a real lioness roaming the streets of Dublin.

Such incidents aren’t quickly forgotten, and Joe Lee’s entertaining documentary, Fortune’s Wheel, rounds up a posse of locals, now in their 70s and 80s, who remember it like it was yesterday. Filmed in the streets and gardens where the events took place, their fond testimonies track the escaped cat’s bid for freedom, which at the time made headlines from America to Italy.

The lion was owned by circus star Bill Stephens, and the film goes on to relate how the locally-born former welder came to be keeping lions in the back yard of a suburban high street garage in the first place.

The youngest of nine children, Stephens grew up with a love of music and a love of animals. His mother used to take in stray dogs.

Although he trained as a welder, Stephens soon quit his day job to play drums in Billy Carter’s swing band. He also caused a family rift by marrying a girl who kept snakes. Because of her dark hair and exotic looks, he liked to say Mai was a circus performer “from the East” - although she came from no further east than East Wall Road, a few streets away.

When Duffy’s Circus came to town, however, the couple left with it. At first, Stephens drummed in the circus band, but he soon acquired a lion cub from a performer who was leaving the show, and trained it like a pet dog.

A self-taught trainer, the young Dubliner modelled himself on Clyde Beatty, the whip-cracking star of America’s Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus who was known to Irish audiences through movie serials such as The Lost Jungle.

Clad in a pith helmet, Stephens performed an aggressive ‘bouncing lions’ act in a small beast wagon that was pushed into the ring.

Circus historian Michael Ingoldsby saw the act when he was 10-years-old and describes it as “The most thrilling act I’ve ever seen in the circus. The lions did a wall of death. They ran around the sides and the wagon was rocking from side to side. People were breathless, because you didn’t know if the wagon was going to turn over.”

Stephens had some narrow scrapes, such as the time he put his head in a lion’s mouth, and the lion closed its jaws on him.

But the escaped lion incident when he was wintering in his home town ramped up the trainer's taste for danger. For one thing, he was sued by a young petrol station attendant that the escaped lion pounced on - so he needed money. Second, the blaze of publicity stoked his dreams of hitting the big time in America.

To increase the sense of terror in his act, he purchased a particularly dangerous male lion from Dublin Zoo that everyone warned him against working with. Alas, on the day a Ringling talent scout came to see his act, he was so keen to impress that he wore a new suit, recently acquired for a wedding. The lion didn’t recognise his scent in the unfamiliar garment, and mauled him to death when he was just 29-years-old.

Because of the era he lived in and the limited fame he attained, no performance or interview footage of Stephens features in this doc, just black and white photographs and newspaper clippings, although a recording of the trainer’s voice is heard early on, relating his efforts to recapture his escaped lioness.

Told in a series of talking heads by mostly ordinary people, unknown bystanders to the tale rather than circus stars (although the big top’s Tom Duffy and Herta Fossett are there to relate Stephens’ final days), Lee’s film has the feel of a regional television documentary rather than a big screen biography. But Stephens’ story is no less engaging for that.

In fact, the low key local charm is part of this award-winning documentary’s appeal. Although circus fans will obviously love it for preserving the story of a performer in danger of being forgotten, Fortune's Wheel is more than a circus film. It's the story of a man from an ordinary suburban background who ran away with the circus but never severed his roots from the neighbourhood where he grew up. It’s as much about that community as it is about him; and the lasting impression a not-quite-famous son left upon the people that still live there.

As one resident says with a grin all these years later, “People were proud to have a lion tamer living in Fairview Green. It was an exciting thing to be close to.”

Fortune's Wheel is now available on DVD.

For details of the latest screenings, or to buy the film on DVD click here to visit the Fortune’s Wheel Facebook page.

See also, my review of The Last Circus Elephant.

And my review of The British Circus 1898 - 1972.

DVD Review of The British Circus 1898 - 1972

Ladies and gentlemen... boys and girls... roll up, roll up for a journey through more than 80 years of circus history as captured by the cameras of British Pathe and Movietone News. And what a show this collection of featurettes adds up to.

In the earliest footage, dating from the very dawn of filmmaking in 1898, we see the Barnum and Bailey Circus arriving in Sunderland, crowds lining the streets to watch the parade of elephants, camels and caged wagons full of tigers.

Elsewhere, as this DVD moves forward through the decades, we watch the Bertram Mills circus arriving on its own train, and watch wartime evacuees helping to erect a big top on a village green.

The short films move constantly between behind-the-scenes clips - of Bertram Mills rehearsals at its winter quarters; of a clown applying his ornate make-up; of football-size crowds arriving at the famous Belle Vue circus building - and shots of the action in the ring: a fast-moving parade of clown cars, human pyramids on horseback, polar bears careening down slides and daredevil stunts by trapeze artists and human cannonballs.

The droll commentary, in its clipped pre-war tones, adds a delight of its own. One horse rider is described as being afraid of nothing on four legs, “Unless it’s a couple of income tax collectors.”

Animal antics abound, including footballing dogs - and what a spectacle they make as they leap high into the air to head the ball - platoons of elephants performing a graceful ballet, and a bear circling the ring on a Lambretta scooter.

Rehearsing the horses

Cruel? The sight of a lion on a swing, with its trainer vigorously pulling the animal’s tail to set it in motion may make you wonder. But then, if the lion wasn’t happy, would you pucker your lips and trust it to give you a kiss rather than bite your head off?

The footage dates from an era when the question of animal rights had yet to be raised. As one commentator puts it, “The showman’s creed is to treat his animals well, before even himself.”

The bear who runs along on his back legs, taps his trainer on the shoulder and gives him a kiss, looks like he’s enjoying himself. There appears to be more cruelty in the way the contortionists are trained - just watch the instructor forcing a girl’s foot back past her head. But her big grin suggests she doesn’t mind.

Beginning in black and white, the footage becomes colour as we move into the era of Billy Smart's, but even the grainiest black and white film is full of colour in the sense of entertainment and surprises.

Great moments include a man riding a bicycle across an open-air high-wire, 60-feet up, with a woman hanging on a trapeze from each axle; the thrilling adagio act of Balliol and Merton, which includes a jump from a high pedestal into a one-armed catch; and a trapeze flyer who leaps to a swing that collapses in her hands. As the audience gasps, she plummets towards the ground, then swings upside down from an unseen safety wire attached to her ankle - her hair almost stroking the sawdust.

Although the prime focus is on the British circus, the bonus features take us abroad for a visit to the Cole Brothers Circus in America - including footage of legendary big cat tamer Clyde Beatty - and some hilariously sped-up film of an Australian circus being built.

It all adds up to more than three hours of unmissable big top action that will delight any circus fan.

For more on the history of the circus and life behind-the-scenes in the big top, read Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away with the Circus!

Click here to buy Circus Mania from Amazon.

 
"Circus Mania is a brilliant account of a vanishing art form."
- Mail on Sunday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See also: My review of Variety Acts and Turns of the Pre-War Years and Post War Years

The Greatest Circus DVD on Earth?

Just received this fantastic DVD, The British Circus 1898 - 1972: The Golden Years. Three hours of vintage film that I can’t wait to watch from the company that brought us Variety Acts and Turns of the Pre-War Years and Post-War Years. Click here to read my review!

And check out my review of Circus Acts of the 30s and 40s. 

Update! Read my review of The British Circus 1898 - 1972 here!

Circus acts of the 30s and 40s - Variety Acts and Turns of Pre War and Post War Years DVD review

Meet Joy, taking to the air as one of those ‘Aristocrats of Adagio,’ the Marquis Trio.

Say “Hi” to Elizabeth Collins, looking nervous as she faces the

knife-throwing of husband Martin.


These fabulous images are from Variety Acts and Turns of the Post War Years, which with its companion DVD Variety Acts and Turns of the Pre War Years together bring us six hours of entertainment from the days when Britain really had talent.

Pathé is famous for bringing the nation the news in pictures before television was born. But the company also introduced cinema-goers to the best in light entertainment: serious and comic singers, popular vocal groups, jazz bands, big bands, comedians, magicians and, of most interest to this blog, circus acts.

Staged and filmed with the highest production values and presented in gleaming, needle-sharp black and white, these dips into the archives provide a hugely entertaining glimpse of a golden age when circus and music hall acts co-existed on the same stage.

Highlights include a strongman hammering a six-inch nail into a block of wood with his bare palm... then puling it out with his teeth. Smartly dressed husband and wife team the Melvilles juggle with their dinner plates. Another juggler, the talkative Gaston Palmer, is particularly engaging. Highlight of his act sees him throwing a full bottle into the air. As it spins, he opens his umbrella and catches the bottle upside-down on the point so the water runs off the brolly like rain.

Rehearsing the horses of the Continental Circus
in the 1930s

In addition to performance clips, there are fascinating mini-documentaries including a day in the life of a West End showgirl, a clip of a chorus girl's efforts to set a record for 8000 continuous high kicks, and a look at the horses of the Continental Circus being rehearsed.

The Post War Years includes news footage of many still-potent names, including Laurel and Hardy, Max Miller and Gracie Fields. None light up the screen so brightly as Danny Kaye. Seen clowning around in rehearsals for a Royal Command Performance, his charisma is electrifying.

Ultimately, though, it’s the circus acts who’s appeal remains most timeless, from a performing cockatoo to breath-taking roller-skating - enhanced by slow motion. Martin Collins balancing on a slack-wire and throwing knives at Elizabeth while she’s strapped to a revolving target, would have Cirque du Soleil writing blank cheques.

Variety Acts and Turns of the Pre War Years 1938 - 1939 and Variety Acts and Turns of the Post War Years 1946 - 1949 are released by Strike Force Entertainment, price £14.99

See also my reviews of classic circus movie Trapeze and Mexican circus documentary Circo.

For more on the history of circus and the amazing lives of today's circus performers, read Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away With The Circus.

Click here to buy Circus Mania from Amazon. 

"A brilliant account of a vanishing art form."
- Mail on Sunday 

Joy breathes a sigh of relief now the knives are safely home!

  

TRAPEZE Starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis & Gina Lollobrigida!

Step right up for the best seat in the house: your favourite armchair in front of your telly. July 30 sees the release on DVD of maybe the most atmospheric circus film ever made.

Directed by Carol Reed in the 1950s, Trapeze stars Tony Curtis as Tino, a young acrobat who travels to Paris to learn how to perform the triple-somersault. The one man who can teach him is Burt Lancaster’s Mike Ribble, a drunk and half-crippled former trapeze star who nearly killed himself performing the same death-defying stunt. Reluctantly, Ribble agrees to train the young flyer and returns to the ring to become his catcher.

But when the ambitious and unscrupulous femme fatale Lola (Gina Lollobrigida) joins their act, relationships in the roof of the Parisian circus building become strained to breaking point.

Lancaster was a real life trapeze flyer before he became an actor, and the vertiginous aerial scenes are thrillingly shot. We really feel the queasy swing of the lofty trapeze bar; the heart-stopping flights through mid-air; the jarring thud of the catches and the stomach-turning plunges into the net.

But perhaps even more compelling than the trapeze scenes are the shots of backstage corridors heaving with ballerinas, harmonica-playing dwarfs, silk-costumed clowns, spotted horses and trumpeting elephants.

Shot in beautiful deep colours, every frame is rich in detail. The backstage menagerie, with its camels, lions and giraffe is so vivid you can almost smell the dung and feel the cobbled floor beneath your feet. Even Carry On film favourite Sid James shows up, trying to sell to anyone who will listen the python he has coiled around his shoulders.

Gina Lollobrigida as circus femme fatale Lola in Trapeze

But how realistic is the portrayal of backstage life in the circus? 

One of the most striking aspects of Trapeze is how closely the Parisian circus building where the film is set resembles Britain’s last purpose-built circus building, the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome. It was in the unchanged, ghost-filled backstage corridors and former stables of the latter that I met South American trapeze troupe the Flying Neves and interviewed them about their gravity-defying lives. And it was in the Hippodrome’s ring, on the 100th anniversary of the building, that aerial silk star Eva Garcia plunged forty feet to her death during a performance just days after she described to me her life of glamour, grit and peril.

"A brilliant account of
a vanishing art form."
- Mail on Sunday

So if the thrills and spills of Trapeze whet your appetite for the big top (and you are hugely recommended to buy it and enjoy it) find out more about life and death in the sawdust circle by reading my book Circus Mania! and marvel at the stranger-than-fiction tales of real life circus stars.

Click here to buy from Amazon.

Read it and wonder at the lives of the circus breed.

The Great Yarmouth Hippodrome
- a circus building like the one in Trapeze.
Circus Mania takes you backstage.

Circo - review of a fantastico DVD about the Mexican circus!

Behind the big top of Gran Circo Mexico
in the atmospheric documentary Circo

In Mexico they have a saying: “Through good and bad - the circus forever!” Circo, a fantastico documentary shot and directed by Aaron Schock, shows both the good times and the bad times, while leaving no doubt that the circus will indeed endure forever.

The film, now on DVD, follows the fortunes of the Gran Circo Mexico, a small family circus touring impoverished rural Mexico. Tino Ponce, the mainstay of the show, was born into the circus tradition and is determined that his young kids will carry on the life of his parents and grandparents. The school age kids, who have never been to school, provide most of his acts, from lion training to aerial silk and contortionism.

A scene from Circo

But all is not well in the big top. Tino’s wife, a town girl, is unhappy with her children being driven so hard: “You are supposed to give your children everything, but our children give us everything.” Ivonne also resents all the profits from her their hard labour being passed to Tino’s aging parents, who own the circus.

“The circus always comes first, before anything else,” Ivonne moans, while Tino admits “I’m walking a tightrope,” between responsibility to his parents and responsibility to his wife and children.

While the marital tension builds, Schock’s unhurried film shows the harsh reality of circus life: the gritty, debris strewn circus sites “behind the gas station” in villages with the feel of a third world country; the endless travel and constant practise; the mud, dirt, Gypsy camp conditions and lack of basic amenities: at one point, one of Tino’s sons scales a wall and uses a long stick with a hook of copper wire on the end to rig a makeshift electrical supply from a nearby overhead line.

“We’re trapped in our circus world - caged,” comments Ivonne. But, despite the deprivations, those who leave the circus - even Ivonne, in the end - always come back. As Tino states, “My hope is to die here in the circus.”

With an atmospheric soundtrack by alt.country band Calexico, this fantastico film is released on DVD by Network Releasing, price £12.99, and is warmly recommended.

CIRCUS MANIA! 

And don’t forget, if you want to see what goes on behind the scenes of Britain’s circuses, check out my book, Circus Mania! To read about the lives, culture, history, superstitions and secrets of sword swallowers, trapeze stars and tiger trainers click here to order the updated 2nd Edition from Amazon.

And, as we say in the UK, “May all your days be circus days!”