Cesare Togni (From Raffaele de Ritis)

cesaretognitripla, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Cesare Togni, one of European greatest and beloved circus directors, passed away on 0ctober 1. He was the oldest living in the large Togni dinasty, son of Ugo Togni. Former acrobat, leaper, trainer, he reached his best as a performer in the flying trapeze: in 1956 he was the first to accomplish a triple return pirouette, starring in his family flying troupe. In the mid-50s he founded his own circus with his brother Oscar:formerly called Circo Massimo (the largest 3 rings operation seen in Italy) this finally became the famous Circo Cesare Togni, for decades an Italian home for some of the world's finest acts, especially trapeze legends as Tony Steele, Enzo Cardona, the Palacios or the Jimenez. Is in this circus that David Larible had the opportunity to do his first steps as clown. This classy big top toured all around Europe. In 1983 Cesare set once more a fine three-ring circus, traveling completely on containers; he later went back to the classic one-ring format. Cesare trained his sons (Elvio, Alex, Italo, Viviana) in all the classic equestrian and acrobatic specialties, as well in elephant training. His circus was dismissed in the early 90s, even if in the recent years the name was sometimes revived in association with other italian families. Cesare was spending his last years at Circo Americano (led by his cousin Enis), supervising his sons' acts with horse pyramids and elephants.