Saturday, July 13, 2019

BERTRAM MILLS #12


Posted by Chic Silber at 7/13/2019 11:43:00 PM

3 comments:

Chic Silber said...


Sir Bertram Wagstaff Mills a British circus owner

originally from Paddington London was the son of

Halford Mills an undertaker and the owner of the

Reformed Funeral Company & a coach building works

He created & operated the Bertram Mills Circus

that became famous in the UK for its Christmas

shows at Olympia in West London

14 July, 2019 12:57
Roger Smith said...

Check the Steven B. Richley article, "Poster of the Bertram Mills Circus", on page 50 of the Vol. 62, No. 2p, 2018, issue of BANDWAGON.

Read further of English circuses in the same issue, where on p. 78 Professor Vanessa Toulmin writes of "Blackpool Tower Circus - The Wonderland of the World".

14 July, 2019 21:24
Roger Smith said...

Queen Elizabeth, Prince Phillip, and the royal family attended the last performance of the Bertram Mills Circus, the Olympia charity show, in 1967. With them were the Duke and Duchess of Kent, who brought their 3 1/2-year-old son, Prince George. "Yes, he really is too young," the Duchess said to Cyril Mills, "but this is your last circus, and we did not want him to grow up without having seen it."

(As quoted by Steven B. Richley. See further reference above.)

The Duchess reminds us of 1956, when JRN folded the RB Big Top. Pittsburgh turned out to jam the tent for the last show. One old hand was quoted as saying, "All we had to do was announce a Farewell Tour, and we could have gone on like we were for 20 years."

14 July, 2019 22:09

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