Saturday, May 25, 2019

PERFORMERS #8


Posted by Chic Silber at 5/25/2019 02:17:00 PM

5 comments:

Eric said...

June Travis and Robert Livingston in a still from the rather obscure 1937 Republic Pictures film CIRCUS GIRL. Back in the Blog archives should be a pictorial summary of this film which Buckles ran a few years ago.

25 May, 2019 15:39
Eric said...

There is evidence to suggest that the character of “The Great Sebastian” in DeMille’s TGSOE was inspired by a character in CIRCUS GIRL: a daring trapeze artist (played by Donald Cook) who works without a net and who has a reputation for being a ladies’ man. While working aloft, Cook’s character catches and holds June Travis and then proposes marriage to her, refusing to release her until she agrees. Later on, while performing a particularly hazardous trick, Cook’s character falls and injures his arm, ending his career as a performer.

25 May, 2019 16:11
Chic Silber said...


Strange costume design

with this pirate logo

25 May, 2019 20:32
Roger Smith said...

Jack Gariss is barely credited with coming up with the story for the DeMille. From there, more prominent credit for the screenplay goes to Frederic M. Frank, Theodore St. John, and Barre Lyndon, with a passing nod to Frank Cavett. Having drawn the assignment on a DeMille picture, the writers were faced with not knowing circus. It is reported they scrounged and viewed every circus film Hollywood had made, scrambling for ideas. ERIC's post, above, is spot on for the source of the Sebastian theme out of CIRCUS GIRL. The rest of what they turned out included a clown wearing makeup around the clock, the elephant trainer wrecking the train, and crooked gambling games on the midway, which this Sunday School show never carried, and for which North and Concello had to be bought off to allow being seen on RBB. The Paramount writing team depicted the ongoing trapeze competition between the top aerial stars in a 2-ring display of a massive 3-ring circus. We know GSOE won Best Picture, but it didn't win for getting correct circus onscreen, and many in Hollywood today consider GSOE the worst Best Picture choice of them all.


Robert Livingston also starred in B-Westerns. He was one of the Three Musketeers oater team, and had his turn as The Lone Ranger. Check his career on IMDb.

26 May, 2019 00:42
Roger Smith said...

June Travis departed Hollywood after a brief 3 years, never regretting it at all, to devote herself to marriage. She is well-chronicled on IMDb. She passed at 93, in 2008, in Chicago.

Credit for stunt work on this one goes to the Cavecche family--Eugene, Gloria, Jiulio, and Louis, in the IMDb Full Cast & Crew list. But on the same site, another entry for circus act doubling names the Escalante family.


Keep scrolling, and check out the list by Evelynn-Delgado - "The 34 Circus Movies That I Know". She posts a fine list, each with the movie poster. We might add 1 or 2. If you do, she wants you to contact her for possible posting, at punisher1974@hotmail.com. She says, "I love the circus movies."

27 May, 2019 19:51

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