''Super Circus'' is an American television program that aired live on Sunday afternoons from 5 to 6pm Eastern Time from 1949 to 1956 on ABC. The show was produced in Chicago by WBKB-TV (today's WLS-TV) through 1955, and its production moved to New York City and

WABC-TV WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neig ...

for its final season. The award-winning show featured circus and clown acts performing in front of a studio audience. Mary Hartline and Claude Kirchner were the hosts ( Jerry Colonna succeeded Kirchner as "Ringmaster" in the final New York season), and Bruce Chase conducted the band."Video Circus Wins Awards:" ''Billboard'', May 26, 1951
/ref> Phil Patton was the producer, and Ed Skotch was the director. Sponsors for the show included

Kellogg's The Kellogg Company, doing business as Kellogg's, is an American multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. Kellogg's produces cereal and convenience foods, including crackers and toa ...

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

Canada Dry Canada Dry is a brand of soft drinks founded in 1904 and owned since 2008 by the American company Dr Pepper Snapple (now Keurig Dr Pepper). For over 100 years, Canada Dry has been known mainly for its ginger ale, though the company also manuf ...

Ginger Ale, and Sweetheart Soap.

History

Hartline, known for her short skirts, white boots and long blonde hair, became one of television's first

sex symbol A sex symbol or icon is a person or character widely considered sexually attractive. Pam Cook, "The trouble with sex: Diana Dors and the Blonde bombshell phenomenon", In: Bruce Babinigton (ed.), ''British Stars and Stardom: From Alma Taylor t ...

s, spawning merchandise such as dolls, clothes, and boots --- three dozen different Mary Hartline products.Billy Ingram,
TV's First Sex Symbol
, TV Party.com, accessed 2009-02-17.Mary Hartline Was A Living Doll – Chicago Tribune
/ref> For at least the 1951 and 1952 seasons, each day Kirchner selected one child from the audience to stick his hand into a jar full of coins, attempting to pull out and keep as much money as possible. There were no dollar coins in the jar, but Kirchner always announced when he spotted a " fifty-cent piece" among the coins retrieved and the audience was prompted to cheer. In 1951, the program received a Micahel Award as the best children's show on television. Also that year, the Lion's Club of Illinois named it the best children's TV program, and the Chicago Federated Advertising Club rated it as one of the four best shows on TV.

Episode status

A small number of episodes survive in film archives and private collections, and are in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...

. Six episodes were released to DVD on October 28, 2008 by

Alpha Video Alpha Video (also known as Alpha Home Entertainment) is an entertainment company, based near Philadelphia, that specializes in the manufacturing and marketing of public domain movies and TV shows on DVD. Alpha Video releases approximately 30 ...

, and several have been posted to both the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

References

{{Chicago Children's Television 1940s American children's television series 1950s American children's television series 1949 American television series debuts 1956 American television series endings American live television series Black-and-white American television shows American Broadcasting Company original programming 1940s American variety television series 1950s American variety television series Circus television shows Television shows about clowns Articles containing video clips

History

Episode status

See also

References