Sunday, August 27, 2006

Bertram W. Mills Circus 1925-26 #1


CIRCUS AT OLYMPIA (Sixth Season)

The Earl of Lonsdale, President...................................Bertram W. Mills, Proprietor

Equestrian Director........................................................Willy Schumann
Manager...........................................................................Capt. J. Russell Pickering M.B.E.
Assistant Manager..........................................................Cyril Bertram Mills
Acting Manager...............................................................Bernard Notley Mills
Asst. Equestrian Director...............................................A. Pearson
Secretary...........................................................................Miss A. A. Moore
Box Office Manager.........................................................Lt.-Col. A. F. Gleeson O.B.E.
Fun Fair Manager............................................................Clyde Ingalls (From RBBB Shows)

BEWARE OF BOGUS TICKET SELLERS
The public are warned to only buy tickets for the circus at the BOX OFFICE, OLYMPIA or from the RECOGNISED AGENCIES AND LIBRARIES.
Do not buy tickets from men or women around or near the entrances to Olympia. Buy only at Box Office windows.

(Unfortunately there was no running order of the acts appearing in the program, only bios of each act, all of which were outstanding.)

Posted by Buckles at 8/27/2006 06:12:00 AM

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Richard Reynolds says - -

GORILLAS ON BERTRAM MILLS

I have always had the impression that the Bertran Mills winter show at the Olympia was the best one could see in England - -or maybe anywhere. Though this program is for 1925-26, the one of the year before featured the first gorilla to appear in a circus ring.

On p. 18 of his fine 1998 book, Bertram Mills:The Circus That Travelled By Train, David Jamieson describes the 1924-25 winter engagement at London’s Olympia, including this most significant passage:

“John Daniels 2nd was a young gorilla, the first to be shown on a light lead in a circus ring, although it does not appear to have been trained to do any tricks. Gorillas were a great rarity in Europe at the time. Frank Foster wrote in Pink Coat, Spangles, and Sawdust (1948) that Bertram Mills had been walking along Sloane Street, London when he saw a gorilla sunning himself on a balcony. He belonged to Miss Cunningham, whose father was a big game hunter who had brought the gorilla to England as a baby. Miss Cunningham exercised the gorilla on the balcony by the dressing rooms at Olympia. One day, Frank Foster’s wife was shocked to find the gorilla had taken their baby, Frank Jnr., and was nursing him (? - - the gorilla was a male! Perhaps the gorilla was only caressing – not lactating). Both Foster parents were afraid of the gorilla but Frankie was poking a finger up the animal’s nostrils which seemed to amuse it. Miss Cunningham assured them that the baby would be safe and a few minutes later John Daniels handed her Frank Foster Jnr. And he was returned to his mother.”

This young male gorilla had toured America with Ringling-Barnum in 1924, accompanied by Miss Cunningham. However, he was shown here only as a menagerie attraction and did not appear in the ring. So, Bertram Mills was the first to have a gorilla in a circus ring. In more recent years, one or the other of the Berosinis had gorillas (two overall - I think) which performed in the ring. Don Cousins (IZN, Oct/Nov 1991) wrote that John Daniel 2nd was shown around Europe in 1925 and died in London in 1927.

Although it is not widley known, RBBB's gorilla Gargantua also played Bertram Mill's winter date at the Olympia,London in 1938-39. When Al G. Barnes-Sells Floto with RBBB features finished the 1938 tour in Sarasota, Gargantua's big white air-condidiotned cage was loaded on a RBBB flat car and shipped to the port of New Orleans and thence to England. He returned in 1939 following the clse of the Olympia date.

27 August, 2006 16:53
Anonymous said...

Jack Badall, a keeper at the Los Angeles Zoo and independent animal trainer, had a trained gorilla "Ramar". I saw the gorilla perform on a circus themed TV show - he actually did some tricks you might see in a chimp act. Ramar might have appeared with some west coast shows. Eventually he went to the North Carolina State Zoo and was a successful breeder. He may still be there.

27 August, 2006 18:37

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