THE WORLD'S LARGEST CIRCUS
COMES TO TOWN
COMES TO TOWN
Sixty years ago this week, Clyde Beatty's Circus, the largest circus in the world, came to Dublin for big two shows on October 7, 1958. Not your mediocre third team circus, this was the actual big show, one which was completing the last leg of its 1958 tour in New York City and other large cities and small cities of America.
The circus was sponsored by the Dublin Junior Chamber of Commerce, better known as the "Jay Cees" in one of the organization's most successful promotions. Two shows, one at 3:00 p.m. and the other at 8:00 p.m. were held before large crowds. Medium-sized circus had been appearing in town during Golden's Era in the first two decades of the 20th Century. But nothing on the order of the Beatty Circus.
The circus set up on the county's new fairground property on the Glenwood Road, just north of WXLI radio station.
A two-mile long convoy of circus performers, crew members, animals, and equipment rolled in Dublin before dawn on October 7 after a performance in Douglas, Georgia the day before. Under the direction of crew boss, George Werner, most of the circus big top, side shows and other tents were in place by that noon. Werner was a part of the cast in the all time greatest of circus movies, 1952's "Greatest Show on Earth."
Among the busiest members of the crew were the cooks in the cookhouse, who prepared more than 1800 meals a day to the 600-person circus, which including people from eighteen countries in the world. Then there were the animal feeders who fed more than 200 wild animals, 15 elephants and dozens of Bengal tigers and black maned lions, all of which combined to form the largest traveling circus in the world.
No great circus is complete without daredevils, thrilling performers and clowns.
Hugo Zacchini, of the world famous Zacchini Brothers, appeared as a human cannonball. Zacchini, (LEFT IN CANNON) the first in the world to be projected out a compressed air cannon, was also a prolific painter. An Italian native of Peru and a trained engineer, Zacchini pioneered the first air cannon performance in Egypt in 1922. In Dublin, he was propelled 220 feet out of the cannon.
As one of the greatest of his kind, the 30 year old human cannonball, was signed by John Ringling of Ringling Brothers - Barnum & Bailey Circus. Thirty years later, the sixty -year-old circus veteran was still performing here in Dublin and around the country.
Thirty-two year old, Josephine Berosini, heralded as "The Queen of the High Wire" at the Ringling Circus in Madison Square Garden, was one of Beatty's most famous performers. A fifth generation circus high wire performer, Josephine began her circus career at the age of five. She never wavered, walking solo at six and continuing to perform regularly after several fatal accidents among her family.
When performing without a net, Josephine's husband and well known circus rider himself, Alexander Konyot, stood below and acted as her human net, sacrificing his own safety to break her fall. Working with Konyot was Cuciolla, a midget equestrian, also featured in the "Greatest Show On Earth."
The quintessential circus performers are the clowns, who without them, there would be no circus at all. And, three of the more famous clowns in America appeared in the shows in Dublin.
Eddie Dullum, (ABOVE) a thirty year veteran clown, was there as a "producing clown, " the writer-producer of the routines and costume designer. Another 30-year clown veteran was Frankie Saluto, a white-faced clown, who also worked with Ringling Brothers Circus. Saluto, a member of Ringlings, all-dwarf baseball team, retired in 1965. Jimmy Armstrong (LEFT) became famous when photographer Bruce Davidson, captured haunting beautiful photographs of Armstrong during the 1958 season.
The most well known performer to appear in the circus that day, was Clyde Beatty himself.
Beatty began his circus career in his teens as a cage cleaner and worked his way to the big top as a lion tamer and trainer of other animals. Clyde Beatty merged his company with the Cole Brothers Circus to form the larger Clyde Beatty Cole Bros. Circus in 1958.
Beatty earned international fame when he thrilled the crowds with his mastery of wild animals, especially lions and tigers and their close kin, sometimes with as many at 40 lions in the cage with him, while keeping his self defense weapon, a pistol at his side.
Beatty starred in several movies in the 1930s and 1940s and began his own television and radio shows in the 1950s. In the year before his appearance in Dublin, while performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show," Beatty's act went wrong. The quick thinking performer was able to calm his lions down with a blank pistol while Sullivan distracted the audience.
And in just a few hours, the circus was over. During the night, the crew took down the tents, loaded the animals, and headed for the next performances in Augusta, Savannah, and Brunswick before returning to Jacksonville and Florida for the remainder of the winter.
Beatty had been in Dublin before, some thirteen years prior following the end of World War II for the last performance of the 1945 season, before heading off to spend the winter at Macon's Cental City Park.
Note: No existing pictures from the circus can be found at this time. Most of those shown here are from the 1958 season.
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