Difference between revisions of "Main Page"

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==In The Spotlight==
 
==In The Spotlight==
 
[[File:Gerry_Cottle_and_Girls.png|right|400px]]
 
[[File:Gerry_Cottle_and_Girls.png|right|400px]]
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===GERRY COTTLE===
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===JEAN RICHARD===
  
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When Gerry Cottle (1945-2021) opened his first circus in 1970, two of Britain’s three major circuses, Bertram Mills and Billy Smart, had folded their tents, and the third, Chipperfield, had become but a pale shadow of its former self. The great British circus impresarios of the post-WWII era, Cyril and Bernard Mills, Billy Smart, Jimmy Chipperfield, and Tom Arnold had left the stage and there was indeed a huge void to fill. The ambitious and gifted Gerry Cottle seized the opportunity, and his name soon became synonymous with "circus" in the United Kingdom and would remain so until Cottle’s untimely death in 2021.
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It was surely a sign: On April 18, 1921, in Bessines, near Niort (in the southwest of France), Jean Richard (1921-2001) was born in a farm named "La Ménagerie." His father was Pierre Richard, a horse dealer, and his mother a homemaker, née Suzanne Boinot.
  
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He was born Gerald Ward Cottle on April 7, 1945 in Carshalton, in the London borough of Sutton, to a family that had no relation with the circus or, for that matter, with show business: His father, Reg, worked as a stockbroker in the City, and his mother, Joan, née Ward, was a former flight attendant. His was a good middle class, white collar family, and little Gerry was expected to follow in his parents’ footsteps. Unfortunately—or fortunately—they took him when he was eight-year-old to Jack Hylton’s Circus at Earls Court, in London. He caught the circus bug and, then and there, decided that he would become not a clown, an animal trainer, a juggler or an acrobat, but simply a circus director—and this idea would never leave him.
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His early encounters with circus performers (particularly Martha-la-Corse, a cat trainer) triggered in him an enduring passion for animals, especially big cats. When he was as young as ten years old, he was known to tell people: "When I grow up, I'll have a lion or a tiger in my garden!"
  
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Gerry Cottle grew up at a time when the British circus was in its most glorious period: Billy Smart’s and the Chipperfields’ circuses were among the largest in Europe, and the Mills brothers had successfully maintained the highest standards of excellence that their father, Bertram Mills, had set for his circus long before the war. For the Christmas season, Londoners had a choice between three circus spectaculars: Jack Hylton’s at the Earls Court arena; a massive circus show produced by Tom Arnold at the Harringay arena; and, since 1920, the highly respected Bertram Mills Circus, which presented one of Europe’s most acclaimed shows at London’s Olympia—the quality and perfection of which fascinated the young Gerry Cottle.... ([[Gerry Cottle|more...]])
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In high school, Richard, who had a gift for drawing, began trying his hand at caricature: he would soon sell his cartoons to local newspapers.
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After World War II, Richard organized German tours for French theatrical companies. He began to make a name for himself performing in a famous postwar Parisian cabaret, L'Amiral. There he developed a successful comic character, that of a jovial and naïve peasant from the small imaginary village of Champignol. He also began to work as an actor—in the movies, in the theater, and in comedies that were sometimes a little cheap. During his long career, he appeared in about eighty films.
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His ever-growing popularity allowed him to purchase a vast property in Ermenonville, north of Paris, where he began to gather all sorts of wild animals. His menagerie quickly reached impressive proportions. In order to continue maintaining it, he had to open it to the public in 1956. His private zoological collection, the Zoo d'Ermenonville, became the most important in the country.... ([[Jean Richard|more...]])
  
 
==New Essays and Biographies==
 
==New Essays and Biographies==

Revision as of 03:09, 31 May 2021

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Circopedia was originally created with the support of the Big Apple Circus Ltd. and inspired and funded by the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation.

In The Spotlight

Gerry Cottle and Girls.png

JEAN RICHARD

It was surely a sign: On April 18, 1921, in Bessines, near Niort (in the southwest of France), Jean Richard (1921-2001) was born in a farm named "La Ménagerie." His father was Pierre Richard, a horse dealer, and his mother a homemaker, née Suzanne Boinot.

His early encounters with circus performers (particularly Martha-la-Corse, a cat trainer(English/American) An trainer or presenter of wild cats such as tigers, lions, leopards, etc.) triggered in him an enduring passion for animals, especially big cats. When he was as young as ten years old, he was known to tell people: "When I grow up, I'll have a lion or a tiger in my garden!"

In high schoolA display of equestrian dressage by a rider mounting a horse and leading it into classic moves and steps. (From the French: Haute école), Richard, who had a gift for drawing, began trying his hand at caricature: he would soon sell his cartoons to local newspapers.

After World War II, Richard organized German tours for French theatrical companies. He began to make a name for himself performing in a famous postwar Parisian cabaret, L'Amiral. There he developed a successful comic character, that of a jovial and naïve peasant from the small imaginary village of Champignol. He also began to work as an actor—in the movies, in the theater, and in comedies that were sometimes a little cheap. During his long career, he appeared in about eighty films.

His ever-growing popularity allowed him to purchase a vast property in Ermenonville, north of Paris, where he began to gather all sorts of wild animals. His menagerie quickly reached impressive proportions. In order to continue maintaining it, he had to open it to the public in 1956. His private zoological collection, the Zoo d'Ermenonville, became the most important in the country.... (more...)

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