Circus Performers |
| A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, unicyclists, as well as other object manipulation and stunt-oriented artists. |
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Famous Performers |
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| Isaac Van Amburgh “The Great Lion Tamer” was an American animal trainer who developed the first trained wild animal act in modern times. By introducing jungle acts into the circus, Van Amburgh paved the way for combining menageries with circuses. After that, menageries began using equestrian and clown performances in circus rings. Gradually the distinction between circus and menagerie faded. |
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| Annie Oakley “The Peerless Lady Wing-Shot” was born Phoebe Ann Moses in 1860 and died in 1926. She had attained worldwide fame as Annie Oakley, a name she had borrowed from an Ohio town, glad to shed her own. |
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| Jules Leotard “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze” was a French acrobatic performer and aerialist who developed the art of trapeze. He also popularised the one-piece gym wear that now bears his name. |
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Zazel “The Human Projectile”, 14 year old Rossa Matilda Richter, is thought of as the first human cannonball. The human cannonball first entered the public consciousness in the late 19th century. In 1871, an Englishman named George Farini developed a mechanism he called a "projector." Made out of heavy springs and Indian rubber. |
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| Charles Blondin “The Great Blondin” was a French tightrope walker and acrobat. He toured the United States, and was known for crossing the 1,100 ft Niagara Gorge on a tightrope in 1859. A rope 1,300 feet long, two inches in diameter and made entirely of hemp was the sole thing separating him from the roiling waters below. |
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| May Wirth “The World’s Greatest Bareback Rider” was engaged in 1912 to tour the United States with the Barnum & Bailey circus. |
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Lillian Leitzel “The Queen of Aerial Gymnasts” was known for trick riding and equestrian stunts. She was a fixture under the big top where she dazzled audiences with an act that combined acrobatics with expert bareback riding.
Wirth could perform a forward flip on horseback from a kneeling position—the first woman to do so—and perfected a trick where she did somersaults from one moving horse to another. The dainty, 4-foot-11-inch rider also showed off her physical strength by leaping from the ground onto the back of a galloping stallion.
Wirth’s good looks and daring stunts won her legions of admirers and frequent mentions in the gossip pages of newspapers. She finally retired in 1937 |
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| Maria Spelterini "Tightrope Walker" was the only woman to cross the Niagara gorge on a tightrope, which she did on July 8, 1876 as part of a celebration of the U.S. Centennial. She used a two and a quarter inch wire and crossed just north of the lower suspension bridge. |
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Clyde Beatty "Lion Tamer" was a big game hunter who became famous as a lion tamer and animal trainer. He was the first lion tamer to be featured in a circus.
Beatty became famous for his "fighting act," in which he entered the cage with wild animals armed only with a bull-whip and a pistol strapped to his hip. The act was designed to showcase the five & a half-foot tall Beatty's courage and mastery of the wild beasts, which included lions, tigers, pumas, and hyenas, sometimes brought together all at once in a single cage in a potentially lethal combination.
At the height of his fame, the act featured Beatty solo, in a cage confronting 40 snarling, roaring and caterwauling lions and tigers of both sexes.
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| Emmett Kelly Jr. "The Worlds Most Famous Circus Clown" was an American clown. He was the son of Emmett Kelly Sr., who was a legendary circus clown. Kelly Jr. copied his father's style. For the first time in 1960 he donned the "Weary Willie" costume and make-up and portrayed the lovable mime. He became America's most photographed and recognized clown. |
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| Maud Wagner "Tattooed Lady" in 1907 was covered in her husband Gus's handiwork. Maud was a circus performer and the first known female tattoo artist in the United States. She and her husband were two of the last tattoo artists to work by hand, without the aid of modern tattoo machines. |
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| Antoinette Concello "Trapeze Artist" was known as the greatest woman flyer of all time. She was the first female trapeze to accomplish the dangerous triple somersault. Her winter training camp was in Bloomington, IL. She was forced to retire from aerial acts in 1953 due to injuries over the years. |
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| Annie Joes "Celbrated Bearded Lady" of the Victorian era, began her unexpected career in exhibition shortly after her birth in 1865, as her little chin was covered in a fine layer of hair. Originally horrified by their daughter's hirsutism, Annie's parents soon realized the monetary benefits.
At 16, Annie wed Richard Elliot, a professional sideshow talker. Annie then married childhood sweetheart William Donovan, another talker who died, and Annie returned to Barnum’s Greatest Show on Earth. |
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