Sunday, September 09, 2012

Thrill Acts #15



4 comments:

Roger Smith said...

Over the years, I can't count the times I was disappointed, outraged if you will, that fine performers such as these, accomplished, successful, steadily booked for entire careers, are allowed to remain nameless in film and print. With a film crew on hand, obviously dispatched by a producer, usually with a reporter or narrator, what impeded anyone from going back, asking the performers their names, their correct spellings, and allowing them name credit for the entertainment given? I never understood what it was among film and TV producers and print publishers that relegated the majority of circus acts to dark anonymity. For every circus performer named in captions or narration, a hundred were denied recognition. See--you got me started.

Anonymous said...

You got me started too Roger. Most of these good people deserve more credit/recognition than the "stars" in the films. I get downright "outraged" when I see a Circus act or person in a film and when the credits roll I look and I look hard at the credits and if it's on tape or disk I pause and look harder and I m all too often very "disappointed". I guess the only consolation is when you talk to some of the showfolks and they tell you they were paid and treated very well, but damn, how about some upfront credit as well.

Paul

Roger Smith said...

Burt Lancaster told Fay Alexander, in a personal letter, that any success the film TRAPEZE had, was due to Fay. He further said, they could not have made the picture with out him. Sure enough, in the credits, albeit rather far down, is the line "Technical Advisor - Flying Sequences----Fay Alexander." This largely happened since Lancaster began professional entertainment as a circus man, working a bar act with partner Nick Cravat. Read more of Burt's circus career in the biography BURT LANCASTER - AN AMERICAN LIFE, by Kate Buford.

GaryHill said...

I sure liked his Crimson Pirate series of films..