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Circus Hall Of Fame
The International Circus Hall of Fame is a museum and hall of fame which honors important figures in circus history. It is located in Peru, Indiana on the former grounds of the Wallace Circus and American Circus Corporation Winter Quarters, also known as the Peru Circus Farm and Valley Farms. The property includes rare surviving circus buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was designated a National Historic Landmark for its historical importance. and Property history The Peru property was a prosperous farm when it was purchased in 1891 by Benjamin Wallace, owner of the Wallace Circus. From then until 1944 the property served as the winter quarters for a succession of circus companies, most created by succession or merger with Wallace's operation. In 1921, the American Circus Corporation acquired the property and Wallace's circus operation, and expanded the facilities. American Circus was sold to John Ringling in 1929, and it housed Ringling Brothers o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peru, Indiana
Peru is a city in, and the county seat of, Miami County, Indiana, Miami County, Indiana, United States. It is north of Indianapolis. The population was 11,417 at the 2010 census, making it the most populous city in Miami County. Peru is located along the Wabash River, which divides the city in two. Peru is part of the Kokomo, Indiana metropolitan area#Combined Statistical Area, Kokomo-Peru Combined Statistical Area. Residents usually pronounce the name of Peru like the name of the nation of Peru as it is commonly pronounced in American English. Elderly Hoosiers commonly use the archaic pronunciation of . History On August 18, 1827, Joseph Holman bought land near the confluence of the Mississinewa River, Mississinewa and Wabash River, Wabash Rivers from Jean Baptiste Richardville, Jean Baptiste "Pechewa" (Wildcat) Drouet de Richardville, the chief of the Miami people, Miami Indians. The sale was approved on March 3, 1828 by President John Quincy Adams. On March 12, 1829, Holm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William C
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of England in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is sometimes abbreviated "Wm." Shortened familiar versions in English include Will, Wills, Willy, Willie, Bill, and Billy. A common Irish form is Liam. Scottish diminutives include Wull, Willie or Wullie (as in Oor Wullie or the play ''Douglas''). Female forms are Willa, Willemina, Wilma and Wilhelmina. Etymology William is related to the given name ''Wilhelm'' (cf. Proto-Germanic ᚹᛁᛚᛃᚨᚺᛖᛚᛗᚨᛉ, ''*Wiljahelmaz'' > German ''Wilhelm'' and Old Norse ᚢᛁᛚᛋᛅᚼᛅᛚᛘᛅᛋ, ''Vilhjálmr''). By regular sound changes, the native, inherited English form of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl King
Karl L. King (February 21, 1891 – February 19, 1971) was a United States march music bandmaster and composer. He is best known as the composer of "Barnum and Bailey's Favorite". The most expensive painting in Iowa, the "Karl L. King Portrait" resides in St. Edmond Catholic School's most esteemed room; the band room. It has been rumored that his eyes follow students around the room throughout the day, and that his spirit still haunts the band room and students to this day. Early life Karl Lawrence King was born in the village of Paintersville, Ohio. He was the only child of Sandusky S. and Anna Lindsey King. The King family moved to Canton, Ohio when he was eleven, the age he used newspaper carrier income to purchase his first musical instrument – a cornet. He studied with Emile Reinkendorff, director of the Grand Army Band of Canton, on this instrument. He grew up as a self-taught musician with very little schooling of any kind (he left school after the eighth grade, age ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mabel Stark
Mabel Stark (December 10, 1889 – April 20, 1968), whose real name was Mary Ann Haynie, was a renowned tiger trainer of the 1920s. She was referred to as one of the world's first women tiger trainers/tamers. In its belated obituary, ''The New York Times'' lauded Stark as "one of the most celebrated animal trainers in a field dominated by men." Biography Stark was born on December 10, 1889- but as to where remains ambiguous; as both Kentucky and Tennessee have been given as possible locations of birth. The family later relocated to Cobb near Princeton, Kentucky, where her mother's parents were located. She was one of seven children born to Lela and Hardy Haynie. Stark's parents were farmers, and they died within two years of each other, so that by the age of 17, Stark and her siblings were orphaned. She spent a short period of time with her aunt Kate Pettypoole in Princeton. She then traveled to Louisville and became a nurse at St. Mary's Hospital. Soon after, she left Loui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Con Colleano
Con Colleano (born Cornelius Sullivan; 26 December 1899 – 13 November 1973) was an Australian tightrope walker. He was the first person to successfully attempt a forward somersault on a tightrope and became one of the most celebrated and highly paid circus performers of his time. He was known as "The Wizard of the Wire" or "The Toreador of the Wire". Early life He was born Cornelius Sullivan in Lismore, New South Wales on 26 December 1899, the son of Cornelius Sullivan (1874-1952), and Julia Vittorine Sullivan (1878-1953), née Robinson, a woman of partial Bundjalung descent, whose father was an Afro-Caribbean man from St Thomas in the Danish West Indies. Colleano was the third of 10 children. His father (reportedly a freed convict) made a precarious living from sideshow "take-on-all-comers" boxing and gambling. Around 1907, when Colleano was seven years old, the family settled in Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, then a newly established opal mining field and a fertile ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clyde Beatty
Clyde Beatty (June 10, 1903 – July 19, 1965) was a famed animal trainer, zoo owner, and circus mogul. He joined Howe's Great London Circus in 1921 as a cage boy and spent the next four decades rising to fame as one of the most famous circus performers and animal trainers in the world. Through his career, the circus impresario owned several circuses, including his own Clyde Beatty Circus from 1945 to 1956. Biography Clyde Raymond Beatty was born on June 10, 1903, in Bainbridge, Ross County, Ohio, the eldest of nine children. He graduated from nearby Chillicothe High School, but had already succumbed to the world of the circus. On August 16, 1921, at dawn, he and Howard Smith clambered into a boxcar on the DT&I Railroad, bound for Washington Court House, Ohio, and joined Howe's Great London and Van Amburgh's Wild Animal Circus. His first and certainly influential boss was the legendary wild animal trainer Louis Roth. Next, he came under the tutelage of another great trai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Astley
Philip Astley (8 January 1742 – 20 October 1814) was an English equestrian, circus owner, and inventor, regarded as being the " father of the modern circus". Modern circus, as an integrated entertainment experience that includes music, domesticated animals, acrobats, and clowns, traces its heritage to Astley's Amphitheatre, a riding school that Astley founded in London following the success of trick-riding displays given by him and his wife Patty Jones in 1768. Astley's first competitor was equestrian Charles Hughes, who had previously worked with Astley. Together with Charles Dibdin, a famous author of pantomimes, Hughes opened a rival amphitheatre in London, which Dibdin called the Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy. Astley and his wife put on the first circus show on Easter Monday, 4 April 1768. Extending the equestrian performance with exhibitions of warlike sabre-work and sword-play. The initial performances were done in the open air at Ha'penny (= Halfpen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Van Amburgh
Isaac A. Van Amburgh (1808–1865) was an American animal trainer who developed the first trained wild animal act in modern times.Culhane, John. ''The American Circus,'' Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1990., pg. 20 By introducing jungle acts into the circus, Van Amburgh paved the way for combining menageries with circuses. After that, menageries began using equestrian and clown performances in circus rings. Gradually the distinction between circus and menagerie faded.Culhane, John. ''The American Circus,'' Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1990., pg. 17 From the humble beginning of cage-cleaner in the Zoological Institute of New York, Van Amburgh quickly gained notoriety for his acts of daring, for example placing his bare arm and even head inside the jaws of a wild cat.''History Magazine,'' "Step Right Up," October/November 2001 issue http://www.history-magazine.com/circuses.html. Also known for his domineering attitude toward his animals, he earned the title "The Lion King." ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Pépin
Victor Adolphus Pépin (March 8, 1780 – 1845) was an American circus performer and circus owner most famous for being a partner in the Circus of Pépin and Breschard. The Circus of Pépin and Breschard can thus be considered the first American circus and Pépin the first American circus impresario. Biography Victor Adolphus Pépin, the eldest son of André Pepin, a Canadian who fought for the Americans in their Revolution against the British, was born in Albany, New York. Victor was taken by his father to France in 1793 and returned to the United States with Jean Breschard in 1807. Pépin was the probable cause of a riot centered on his circus in Pittsburgh in 1824. In 1833, he was a member of John Charles Beales's Rio Grande Colony which helped colonize Texas.Ludecus, Eduard and Brister, Louis E, ''John Charles Beales's Rio Grande Colony'' Texas State Historical Society, 2008 Victor Pépin was a participant in the circus business from at least 1805 until 1831. He died ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
May Wirth
May Wirth (6 June 189418 October 1978) was an Australian circus and vaudeville performer famous for her ability to do somersaults forwards and backwards on a running horse. She was inducted to the Circus Hall of Fame as a bareback rider in 1963. Early life Wirth was born in Bundaberg, Queensland on 6 June 1894. She was the daughter of a Mauritian circus artist, John Edward Zinga (Despoges) and Dezeppo Marie, née Beaumont. Wirth was adopted in 1901 by Mary Wirth an equestrienne and the sister of circus proprietors Philip and George Wirth. Circus troops Wirth performed with the Barnum and Bailey circus in the United States, and was the star of Wirth's Circus in 1916, as the "greatest bareback riding star". May Wirth and her step-sister appeared on an Australia Post commemorative postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adam Forepaugh
Adam John Forepaugh (born Adam John Forbach; February 28, 1831 – January 22, 1890) was an American horse trader and circus owner. From 1865 through 1890 his circus operated under various names including Forepaugh's Circus, Forepaugh's Gigantic Circus and Menagerie, The Forepaugh Show, 4-PAW Show, The Adam Forepaugh Circus, and Forepaugh & The Wild West. He ran a successful horse trading business which provided horses to street railway companies. He became wealthy selling horses to the U.S. government during the American Civil War. He entered the circus business by taking part ownership in a circus due to an unpaid debt for the purchase of 44 horses. In the 1870s and 1880s, Forepaugh and P. T. Barnum had the two largest circuses in the United States and competed fiercely. His innovations included commission of the first railroad cars for a traveling circus in 1877, the first three-ring presentation and the first Wild West show. After Forepaugh's death in 1890, his circus oper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dan Rice
Dan Rice (January 23, 1823 – February 22, 1900) was an American entertainer of many talents, most famously as a clown, who was active before the American Civil War. At the height of his career, Rice was a household name. Dan Rice also coined the terms "One Horse Show" and "Greatest Show" while popularizing the barrel-style "French" cuff. He was a figure in the new American mass culture brought on by the technological changes of the Industrial Revolution.David Carlyon. ''Dan Rice: The Most Famous Man You've Never Heard Of'' Rice ran for President of the United States in 1868. With changes in circus venues and popular culture after the Civil War, his fame has gradually slipped into such historical obscurity that in 2001 biographer David Carlyon called him "the most famous man you've never heard of". Biography Born Daniel McLaren in New York City, Rice became a circus clown, animal trainer, songwriter, commentator, circus strong man, actor, director, producer, dancer, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
