Sunday, February 02, 2020

STRASSBURGER IN SCHEVENINGEN


6 comments:

Roger Smith said...

We see this show had a Charlie Chaplin impersonator. So did many stateside circuses in Chaplin's peak years of stardom.

Chic Silber said...


I have no idea when this was from

Chic Silber said...


Did Chaplin ever "guest star" on any of them

Roger Smith said...

Klant brought in the African Lions. The Klant school of training trainers was known as most demanding of enrollees. By the time I learned of Klant, and sought an address, the school had closed. It was much the same as our Jungleland, late of Thousand Oaks, California. There, we had genuine master wild animal people, who, like the Compound, were at the last of their days.

We were set up for progressive learning. We had three main strings of cages with tunnel systems leading to the working cage we called the Big Stage Arena. Guiding my intensive schooling were Charles A. Bennett--Uncle Ben--who benefitted from 12 years of tutelage under Louis Roth, the mentor of many trainers, including his wife, Mabel Stark, and later, a very young Clyde Beatty. Mabel herself was there, finishing out at 57 years with tigers. Dick McGraw broke in there and became a valued instructor. Pat Anthony and Chet Juszyk learned there. The old rule then was, "If you didn't break in at Thousand Oaks, you didn't break in." When we closed. on October 9, 1969, that rule proved true. There was no other place in this country to go to. This learning was not to be known again. Those who graduated from Jungleland, and those who benefitted from Klant, shared a gratitude for where we had been, for nothing like these places was ever to return.

arnold said...

Hi Chic, Good to see new posts here and very glad that Circus Strassburger is featured.
I wouldn't call me a historian but a few comments on the various postings regarding Strassburger.
They originally came from the Elzas (German / French border) as a Jewish family circus they were forced to leave Germany in 1939 and went to the Netherlands. Karel Strassburger, son of one of the two brothers, bought a property in Hilversum the Netherlands and Strassburger turned into a "dutch circus" He married his niece Regina and Strassburger became a top circus (like Knie in Switzerland) During a tour in Sweden Karel drowned - 1953 - and the circus was then run by his wife and niece Elly. Soon after they stopped touring and played the Circus Building in Scheveningen, which featured in your posts as well, in summer and the famous Carre builiding in Amsterdam in winter. The Scheveningen building was not built by Strassburger, they performed there first after the 2nd WW, but by the city council. The first circus to perform there in 1904 was Schumann.
The building was bought by Joop van den Ende for 1 dutch guilder and he turned it into a beautiful musical arena.
The Stradssburger family stopped performing as circus Strassburger in 1960. Elly Strassburger and her husband Harry Belli (who had a famous hors riding tiger act) travelled a couple of years with their own circus Belli, before Harry would only work in other circuses.
a r n o l d p e r i z o n i u s

Chic Silber said...


Thanks Arnold for these detailed accounts

I heard a few versions of the origin of the

Circus Theater in Scheveningen from folks

who had worked there for many years

I had many opportunities to work for Joop

on several shows there over the years

I believe there is an original pictorial

poster from Circus Schumann hanging in

the lounge (bar) area of the foyer

along with other historical elements