Saturday, February 09, 2008

From Jim Cole


scan0003, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

For Wade Gardner Burck...a long lost relative discoverd at last!

This original Newspaper ad is from the Newport, RI Mercury, May 1774. Notice how the letter "S" in some of the words take the form of an "f " .
This Christoper Gardner was the first American to present an equestrian performance in a circular ring before the public. This type of performance later combined with jugglers, clowns, acrobats ( and much later white tiger trainers) to become the American Circus.

Posted by Buckles at 2/09/2008 05:54:00 AM

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Heavens! I just got this chilling feeling up and down my spine that the Blog World has changed forever.

Am I the only one who thinks that WE WILL NEVER HEAR the end of this?

It's like a bastard child, shunned from the Manor House for two decades, only to discover he is INDEED the heir apparent to the kingdom.

If this Gardner fellow has cousins in Germany and is distantly related to a certain Gunther of circus fame, I'm going to cancel my membership in the American Geneology Society.

+++checking my family bible for omissions, misspellings and faint references to the Manor House+++

09 February, 2008 06:48
Anonymous said...

Kunter,
Wow!!! I like that. If you say it right it sound's like Gunther. You will note the H in my ancestors name. Apparently the boot didn't go far enough up when he was "asked" to leave the Manor. That's short for HRH. I want to thank Jimmy for hanging this paper, and I am proud of what my "family" has been able to accomplish in the American circus. His once a week show, at the paltry sum of .25 has now been turned into a once a year deal in Evansville, for upward's of $27.50 I admit concern at his apparent "chavinistic" charecteristic's. The only reference to my great, great, great,great,great, great, grandmother is, "he will mount precisely".
Col. Herriott, you knew him better then any one else. Is this what he was really like? Or is this just some bad press.
Wade Burck

09 February, 2008 11:00
Anonymous said...

Addendum,
I also note that his brother Henry had control of the cash box. I bet that caused more then a few beefs, and family discord.
Wade Burck

09 February, 2008 11:14
Anonymous said...

Wade, Are you intersted in seeing the historical documents on Mr. Gardner? I have several news reviews about your long lost relative.

Let me know, and I'll make some copies and send them up to Hawthorne. The least I can do for that Rum-Coke you bought me at Arabian Nights!

Jimmy Cole

09 February, 2008 12:44
Anonymous said...

Jimmy,
When I go up to North Dakota, I'll dig through my mother's cardboard box of "isn't my baby special" publicity and circus memories. I may already have them.
No, just kidding my friend, I would love to have copies. I may be able to use them as leverage at contract time. Just kidding again, Jimmy. Will look forward to receiving them. Do you have the adress?
Wade Burck

09 February, 2008 14:13
Anonymous said...

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ADVISED THAT JOHN RICKETTS WAS THE FIRST TO HAVE A CIRCUS BANKED RING AND RIDERS DOING VARIOUS STUNTS HERE IN AMERICA ACCORDING TO A NUMBER OF HISTORIANS.wOULD SURE ENJOY A KNOWLEDGABLE COMMENT.

10 February, 2008 09:26
Anonymous said...

Johnny, The type of show that Mr. Gardner performed in 1774 was a trick horseback riding exhibition. It was however performed in a roped off circular ring. He did a comedy routine as well that was the fore runner of our dear departed friend Gaylord Maynard's act. It was called "Tailor's Ride to Brentford" Different story line, but a simiilar format.

I have all the documentation on this performer as well as an 1844 reference to his show, which called it "Circus". This all came from the files of the Newport, RI Historical Society.

You are correct however, John Ricketts was the first to use the title "CIRCUS" to describe his show. But there were English riders who came over here and performed in a circular ring, even before Gardner. In fact, all acconts I have on Gardner,the young American rider worked under an English rider by the name of Jacob Bates for a while.

According to Wade Gardner Burck, you knew and worked with Chistopher H. Gardner. Could the "H" have stood for Herriott?

Jimmy Cole

10 February, 2008 11:54
Anonymous said...

The first circus-style rider known to appear in the colonies was a Mr. Faulks who arrived from England by September 1771. The next documented presentation was two months later and, fortunately, we have a Boston diarist who described the show: “After Dinner we went over to Brackets & see a Yorkshire man stand upon a horse’s Back and Gallop him full Speed, afterwards upon two Horses & after that on Three, he endeavored to make all them gallop as fast as he could. Then he mounted a single Horse & Run him full speed & while Running he Jumped off & on three several times.” This may have been John Sharp who announced his performance in nearby Salem that same month. Yet another Englishman, Jacob Bates, arrived the next year (1772) and by May 1773 was in New York and by fall Newport, just six months before Gardner's performance and therefore, plausibly, an influence on the local man. Gardner was the first American known to have presented a circus-style equestrian presentation and no other American is known to have performed until Thomas Pool in Philadelphia in 1785. Ricketts, of course, arrived in 1793 to provide America with its first full-fledged show and an English traveler to the young United States compared it directly to Astley’s: “the amphitheatre [in Philadelphia] is built of wood; equestrian and other exercises are performed there, similar to those at Astley’s.” For more, see Stuart Thayer’s write-up about Jim’s discovery of Gardner on the CHS website or my earlier article on “The Origin of the Circus in America” in the Mar-Apr 1981 Bandwagon.
Dick Flint
Baltimore

10 February, 2008 13:40
Anonymous said...

Jimmy Cole
LOL Great observation, that's how this thing is played. Dare I even hope for "roots" to the great Col. Get researching and let me know, (unless you run into reference to a " greasy stable broad", then keep it to yourself.) I would love to be promoted to at least Sgt., and I could tell the folk's at the Lake Geneva Horse Park, "what do you mean I don't know what I am talking about? My family has been doing this for like 85 generation's, right up into the 21 century. And doing it quite well I might add. And we don't like them running around without harness!!!!"
Have a good day friend,
Wade G. Burck

10 February, 2008 14:58
Anonymous said...

Too bad that you left out Cheerful in your Geneology and I doubt nif any among us could lay claim to being Kin to the great rider of his day. I am still upset in find8ing that my hero Mr. Ricketts was not the instigator of all our equestrian arts in the American Ci9rcus. Guess its all been done before. We might even find that the Ame4rican Indians did Ro9man Riding and vaulting in a round ring way before their saviors landed on their shore.

10 February, 2008 16:08

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