15 Circus Facts for World Circus Day, 20 April, 2019

Roll up, roll up!
Who could have resisted this poster
for Rosaire's Big Circus in 1946?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, with World Circus Day, April 20, almost upon us, Roll up, Roll up for the Circus Mania bluffer's guide to circus history and culture with these 15 fabulous facts about the sawdust circle.

1 - The word Circus dates from Roman times when arenas such as the Circus Maximus staged chariot races, gladiatorial contests and mock battles.

2 - The modern circus was founded in London by trick horse-rider Philip Astley, who opened his Amphitheatre of Equestrian Arts in London, in 1768.

A classic circus poster for
Manchester's Belle Vue winter circus
from 1960

3 - Astley’s rival Charles Hughes was the first to use the word circus in the modern sense when he founded the Royal Circus.

4 - A standard circus ring is 42-feet in diameter.

5 - Clowns are nicknamed Joeys after 19th century pantomime star Joseph Grimaldi.

6 - Leotards are named after the first star of the flying trapeze, Jules Leotard.

7 - The word jumbo, meaning large, entered the English language because of Jumbo, an 11-foot-tall elephant that the American showman PT Barnum bought from London Zoo.

Perhaps the most famous name
in British circus was Billy Smart,
nicknamed the Guv'nor.

8 - The traditional circus theme music is called Entrance of the Gladiators.

9 - Charlie Cairoli was the first clown to appear on This Is Your Life.

10 - Chinese acrobats first appeared in European circuses in 1866.

11 - Cirque du Soleil was created as part of 1984’s celebrations to mark the 450th anniversary of Jacques Cartier’s discovery of Canada.

12 - Circus Space, in London, is the UK’s only training facility to offer a BA (hons) degree in circus arts.

13 - The first American circus was founded by John Bill Ricketts in Philadelphia.

14 - A ‘Josser’ is an outsider who joins the circus.

15 - According to circus superstition, it’s bad luck to wear green in the ring.

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

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

“The Greatest Show on Earth... in a Book!”
- World’s Fair.

Click here to buy the paperback or ebook from Amazon.

And may all your days be circus days!

Jumbo - The Unauthorised Biography by John Sutherland

Just came across this fantastic picture of JUMBO, the Victorian elephant that PT Barnum bought from London Zoo and turned into the most famous elephant in the world. His very name became a byword for large. So next time you see a jumbo jet or eat a jumbo sausage, remember who it was named after, because before Jumbo packed his trunk and joined the Greatest Show on Earth, the world jumbo didn't exist.

But was Jumbo an alcoholic? That's apparently the contention of John Sutherland in a new book, Jumbo - The Unauthorised Biography (Aurum). I say apparently, because I haven't read it yet. But it says something about Jumbo's enduring mark on history that he has now become the subject of not one but two biographies, Paul Chambers' excellent book Jumbo - The Greatest Elephant in the World having come out just a couple of years ago.

Click here to read my review of Jumbo - The Greatest Elephant in the World by Paul Chambers.

Me and the elephant
Read about the always thorny subject
of animals in the circus in
Circus Mania
by Douglas McPherson

And here's a picture 
of me 
having my own jumbo moment, when I met Sonja, one of the last elephants ever to perform in a British circus. Read about my encounter with Sonja at the Great British Circus, and my backstage visits to other circuses from the Circus of Horrors to Cirque de Glace in Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away with the Circus.

Click here to read six customer reviews of Circus Mania on Amazon.

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

15 Circus Facts - A Bluffer's Guide for World Circus Day, 16 April 2022

Circus Mania author
Douglas McPherson
(sorry, just clowning!)

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Saturday 16 April, 2022 is the 12th World Circus Day. Roll up, Roll up for the Circus Mania bluffer's guide to circus history and culture with these 15 fabulous facts about the sawdust circle.

Billy Smart's Circus
in the days (1954)
when polar bears and black bears
were a common sight
in the sawdust circle

1 - The word Circus dates from Roman times when arenas such as the Circus Maximus staged chariot races, gladiatorial contests and mock battles.

2 - The modern circus was founded in London by trick horse-rider Philip Astley, who opened his Amphitheatre of Equestrian Arts in London, in 1768.

3 - Astley’s rival Charles Hughes was the first to use the word circus in the modern sense when he founded the Royal Circus.

4 - A standard circus ring is 42-feet in diameter.

5 - Clowns are nicknamed Joeys after 19th century pantomime star Joseph Grimaldi.

6 - Leotards are named after the first star of the flying trapeze, Jules Leotard.

The 5 Talos
were the stars of Bertram Mills Circus
at Olympia in 1952

7 - The word jumbo, meaning large, entered the English language because of Jumbo, an 11-foot-tall elephant that the American showman PT Barnum bought from London Zoo.

8 - The traditional circus theme music is called Entrance of the Gladiators.

9 - Charlie Cairoli was the first clown to appear on This Is Your Life.

10 - Chinese acrobats first appeared in European circuses in 1866.

11 - Cirque du Soleil was created as part of 1984’s celebrations to mark the 450th anniversary of Jacques Cartier’s discovery of Canada.

12 - Circus Space, in London, is the UK’s only training facility to offer a BA (hons) degree in circus arts.

13 - The first American circus was founded by John Bill Ricketts in Philadelphia.

14 - A ‘Josser’ is an outsider who joins the circus.

15 - According to circus superstition, it’s bad luck to wear green in the ring.

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

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

“The Greatest Show on Earth... in a Book!”
- World’s Fair.

Click here to buy the paperback or ebook from Amazon.

And may all your days be circus days!

The elephant and the tram

Perhaps this pachyderm thought the tram was going to Piccadilly Circus...

The picture, taken in 1936, is one of hundreds of fascinating vintage photos in the Time Out book London Through A Lens. The caption reminds us that elephants weren’t uncommon in London before World War Two, with many appearing in theatre shows. In 1846, the City of London Theatre borrowed two elephants from a Paris circus to star in a play specially written around the tricks they could perform. Animals were first introduced to the London stage as early 1788 by actor and theatre manager John Kemble.

Jumbo
as I drew him in
Circus Mania!

This isn’t the only elephant in the book. There’s also a fine shot, from 1870, of Jumbo, the most famous circus elephant of them all and possibly the most famous circus name of all time. After all, what other big top star’s name became a noun in the English language, other than the 11-foot-tall rubber mule that PT Barnum bought from London Zoo and made so famous that his moniker became a new word for big? Think of him next time you next time you eat a jumbo sausage or see a jumbo jet.

Read more about Jumbo in my review of Jumbo - The Greatest Elephant in the World.



Jumbo - The Greatest Elephant in the World! Book review

I’ve just had a fantastic time reading Jumbo - The Greatest Elephant in the World by Paul Chambers. Jumbo was a literally huge celebrity in the Victorian era, both in England, as the main attraction at London Zoo, and in America, where the 11-foot-tall African elephant became the star of PT Barnum’s Greatest Show On Earth. In fact, so well known was the four-legged colossus that ‘jumbo’ entered the English language as a new word for anything big.

Chambers’ biography of Jumbo is deceptively compact, but it tells a big and compelling story in thrilling detail. The impeccably researched narrative traces Jumbo’s story back as far as Taher Sheriff, the African ‘Aggageer,’ or elephant hunter, who captured Jumbo as a young calf in the Sudan, and includes a bloody first hand description by explorer Samuel White Baker of how Sheriff and his fellow horsemen captured (and killed) their prey.

My drawing of
Jumbo
in Circus Mania

From there, Chambers offers fascinating insights into Jumbo’s relationship with his life-long keeper Matthew Scott and the many behind-the-scenes shenanigans involving Scott, London Zoo superintendent Abraham Bartlett and the great circus showman PT Barnum. The detailed descriptions of dramatic events, such as the protracted difficulties in removing Jumbo from the zoo, read like a novel and will have you on the edge of your seat as you read.

Sadly, Jumbo came to a tragic end, beneath the wheels of a steam train. But he surely left a bigger mark on the world than any other animal, as evidenced by the way his name lives on in our daily conversation more than a century later. As Chambers says, the next time you see a jumbo jet or eat a jumbo sausage, remember the original Jumbo - the greatest elephant in the world - after which it’s named.

Jumbo (published by Andre Deutsch) is a highly recommended read. But what of today’s circus elephants? Should the big top still have them, or are they cruelly treated? Before you make up your mind, read both sides of the argument in my book Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed Of Running Away With The Circus. Oh, and there’s even an original ink drawing of Jumbo in Circus Mania by author Douglas McPherson (That's it, above on the right!).

Circus Mania by Douglas McPherson can be ordered direct from:
Peter Owen Publishers
81 Ridge Road
London N8 9NP
Credit card orders can be taken during office hours on 020 8350 1775.

Or click here to order from Amazon.