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==In The Spotlight==
 
==In The Spotlight==
 
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[[File:Alfredo_and_Vera_Codona_(c.1932).jpg|right|300px]]
 
===ALFREDO CODONA===
 
===ALFREDO CODONA===
  
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In any event, Eduardo Codona (1859-1934) became a Mexican circus performer and entrepreneur. In 1883, he married the fourteen-year-old Hortense (Hortensia) Buislay (1869-1931), a trapezist who hailed from an old French circus family of "acrobats, pantomimists, and gymnasts" (i.e. aerialists). The enterprising [[The Buislay Family|Buislays]] had come to Mexico where, in 1869 (the year of Hortense’s birth), they created with Ricardo Bell the ''Circo Océano'', and rented Giuseppe Chiarini’s circus building in Mexico City before touring the country for some time. Like Chiarini, with whose company they had previously traveled around the world, the Buislay family had settled in San Francisco, in the United States.
 
In any event, Eduardo Codona (1859-1934) became a Mexican circus performer and entrepreneur. In 1883, he married the fourteen-year-old Hortense (Hortensia) Buislay (1869-1931), a trapezist who hailed from an old French circus family of "acrobats, pantomimists, and gymnasts" (i.e. aerialists). The enterprising [[The Buislay Family|Buislays]] had come to Mexico where, in 1869 (the year of Hortense’s birth), they created with Ricardo Bell the ''Circo Océano'', and rented Giuseppe Chiarini’s circus building in Mexico City before touring the country for some time. Like Chiarini, with whose company they had previously traveled around the world, the Buislay family had settled in San Francisco, in the United States.
  
By 1888, Eduardo Codona had formed his own traveling company. He had with him a Comanche Indian who wrestled a bear named Samson, and Hortense partnered with a girl billed as Matilde in a trapeze act. Eduardo worked as a tumbler and in a flying trapeze act "à la Léotard"—the creator of the genre, who had been the toast of Europe and had even performed in New York in 1868. In essence this means that, like Léotard, Eduardo worked alone, leaping from trapeze to trapeze. Flying trapeze, in whatever form, proved to be a specialty to which Eduardo was particularly attracted.([[The Codonas|more...]])
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By 1888, Eduardo Codona had formed his own traveling company. He had with him a Comanche Indian who wrestled a bear named Samson, and Hortense partnered with a girl billed as Matilde in a trapeze act. Eduardo worked as a tumbler and in a flying trapeze act "à la Léotard"—the creator of the genre, who had been the toast of Europe and had even performed in New York in 1868. In essence this means that, like Léotard, Eduardo worked alone, leaping from trapeze to trapeze. Flying trapeze, in whatever form, proved to be a specialty to which Eduardo was particularly attracted. ([[The Codonas|more...]])
  
 
==New Essays and Biographies==
 
==New Essays and Biographies==

Revision as of 20:10, 1 April 2022

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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

Alfredo and Vera Codona (c.1932).jpg

ALFREDO CODONA

The Codonas (and Alfredo Codona in particular) were conceivably, in terms of international fame, the greatest circus stars of the first half of the twentieth century. They owe their distinctive place in circus history to the exceptional talent of Alfredo Codona, but also to the dramatic ending of his career, and subsequently, the tragic conclusion of his life. Not only was The Codonas’ act recorded on film (in E.A. Dupont’s Varieté in 1925), but they were also the subjects of an Academy Award-nominated documentary, Jack Cummings’s Swing High (1932), a romanticized biopic, A.M. Rabenalt’s Die drei Codonas (1940)—a very rare occurrence for circus artists—and two romanticized biographies.

Alfredo (1893-1937) and Abelardo ("Lalo," 1895-1951) Codona were born into a circus family. Their grandfather, Henry, came from a long line of Scottish showmen of Swiss-Italian descent. Francesco (Frank) Codoni (1765-1849), the dynasty's founder, settled in Scotland in the nineteenth century; he was a fairground showman, and illiterate—which led the family's name to be registered under a great variety of spellings over the years: Cardoni, Cardownie, Cardone, Codone, Candone, and Codona, which eventually stuck in the 1870s. Henry Codona married a French woman, Victorine Régnier (1841-1924), with whom he had two children, Enrique and Eduardo, who was born in Mexico on September 21, 1859. (Enrique and Eduardo also had a half-brother, William). When and for which purpose Henry and Victorine immigrated to Mexico is not known.

In any event, Eduardo Codona (1859-1934) became a Mexican circus performer and entrepreneur. In 1883, he married the fourteen-year-old Hortense (Hortensia) Buislay (1869-1931), a trapezist who hailed from an old French circus family of "acrobats, pantomimists, and gymnasts" (i.e. aerialists). The enterprising Buislays had come to Mexico where, in 1869 (the year of Hortense’s birth), they created with Ricardo Bell the Circo Océano, and rented Giuseppe Chiarini’s circus building in Mexico City before touring the country for some time. Like Chiarini, with whose company they had previously traveled around the world, the Buislay family had settled in San Francisco, in the United States.

By 1888, Eduardo Codona had formed his own traveling company. He had with him a Comanche Indian who wrestled a bear named Samson, and Hortense partnered with a girl billed as Matilde in a trapeze act. Eduardo worked as a tumbler and in a flying trapezeAerial act in which an acrobat is propelled from a trapeze to a catcher, or to another trapeze. (See also: Short-distance Flying Trapeze) act "à la Léotard"—the creator of the genre, who had been the toast of Europe and had even performed in New York in 1868. In essence this means that, like Léotard, Eduardo worked alone, leaping from trapeze to trapeze. Flying trapeze, in whatever form, proved to be a specialty to which Eduardo was particularly attracted. (more...)

New Essays and Biographies

New Videos

  • The Grichenko Brothers, hand-to-handAn acrobatic act in which one or more acrobats do hand-balancing in the hands of an under-stander. balancing (2003)
  • Quatuor Credo, Russian barreFlexible pole, held horizontally by two catchers, or under-standers, with which they propelled a flyer in acrobatic figures from and to the pole. (2019)
  • Andriy Dorozhko, aerial hoopA heavy metallic hoop used as a variance of trapeze, usually with contortion moves. (Also called Cerceau.) (2007)
  • Paolo Kaiser, rola-bolaA board balancing on one or more cylinders piled on each other, and on which an acrobat stands performing juggling or acrobatic tricks. (2011)
  • Volozhanin Troupe, balancing act (2020)

New Oral Histories

Circopedia Books

A Message from the Founder

CIRCOPEDIA is a constantly evolving and expanding archive of the international circus. New videos, biographies, essays, and documents are added to the site on a weekly—and sometimes daily—basis. Keep visiting us: even if today you don't find what you're looking for, it may well be here tomorrow! And if you are a serious circus scholar and spot a factual or historical inaccuracy, do not hesitate to contact us: we will definitely consider your remarks and suggestions.

Dominique Jando
Founder and Curator