Difference between revisions of "Philip Astley"

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(Circus Owner, Equestrian)
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Image:Philip_Astley.jpg|Philip Astley, c.1800. Courtesy of The Theatre Museum, London, Antony Hippisley Coxe Collection
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Image:Philip_Astley.jpg|Philip Astley, c.1800.  
Image:Astley.jpg|Silhouette of Philip Astley, from Astley's book  "Astley's System of Equestrian Education" (Lambeth, C. Creed, 1801)
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Image:Astley.jpg|Silhouette of Philip Astley, from "Astley's System of Equestrian Education"
Image:Astley_Ampitheatre_1807.jpg|Astley's Amphitheatre, c.1807 (Dominique Jando Collection)
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Image:Astley_Ampitheatre_1807.jpg|Façade of Astley's Amphitheatre, c.1807
Image:Astley ampitheatre 1807 2.jpg|Astley's Amphitheatre in 1807. Print by Pugin and Rowlandson for Rudolph Ackermann's "Microcosm of London" - Dominique Jando Collection.
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Image:Astley ampitheatre 1807 2.jpg|Astley's Amphitheatre in 1807
 
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Revision as of 17:19, 14 October 2008

Circus Owner, Equestrian

By Dominique Jando


Philip Astley (c.1800)
Philip Astley (1742-1814) is considered the creator of modern circus. He was born January 8, 1742 in Newcastle-under-Lyme, in the West Midlands, England, the son of Edward Astley, a veneer cutter and cabinet maker. Edward had a short-fuse temper and a passion for horses, traits he would pass on to his son. At age 17, Philip left home after one of many disputes with his father and enrolled in the 15th Light Dragons, a cavalry regiment newly formed by Colonel Granville Elliott.

Six-foot tall, and endowed with a stentorian voice, Philip Astley was a giant for his time and didn't blend easily, even in uniform. A gifted equestrian, he was put in charge of breaking new horses for his regiment. He was also noticed by the celebrated fencing master, Domenico Angelo, who took him under his tutelage and taught him a new method aimed at improving the use of the cavalry broadsword in battle—an expertise Astley would later display in his shows.

In 1761, Astley and his regiment embarked for the continent to fight along King Frederick II of Prussia in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763—known as the French and Indian War in America). Caporal Astley fought gallantly, captured an enemy standard in battle, rescued the Duke of Brunswick who had fallen behind enemy lines, and returned to England with the rank of Sergeant Major. He obtained his discharge on June 21, 1766 at Derby, and Elliott, now General, presented him with a white charger named "Gibraltar." He married around that time. In 1769, his wife (of whom little is known) presented him with a son, John Philip Conway Astley (1767-1821).

Trick-riding exhibitions were very popular in the second half of the eighteenth century. England had become a constitutional monarchy in 1688, and the spending power of the nobility had been considerably curbed: Private regiments were disappearing; lavish equestrian court entertainments (such as carrousels) had ceased to be affordable; private manèges staffed with riding instructors didn't fare better. Still, riding masters, most of them coming from the military, could make a good living as trickAny specific exercise in a circus act.-riding performers. Thus, following in the footsteps of many great British equestrians (notably Jacob Bates, whose fame stretched from America to Russia), Philip Astley became a showman.

By 1768, he had secured a piece of land known as Glover's Halfpenny Hatch in Surrey County, south of London, between Blackfriars and Westminster bridges, where he had opened a riding school—a crude roofless enclosure where he taught horsemanship in the morning and performed in the afternoon during the summer season. He presented his "feats on horsemanship" on Gibraltar, and exhibited "The Little Military Horse," a small horse he had trained to compute, feign death, fire a pistol, and perform "mind reading" tricks. Like most trickAny specific exercise in a circus act. riders of his time, he performed in a circular arena: for the audience, it was easier to watch an equestrian circling in a well defined area than dashing back and forth in a vast open space; for the riders, the centrifugal force generated by galloping in circles made it easier to stand on the back of their mounts. (Contrary to what is often said, Philip Astley didn't "invent" the circus ring.)

The following year, in 1769, he secured a lease on a neighboring lot at the foot of Westminster Bridge, at the corner of Stangate Street and Westminster Bridge Road. Albeit roofless, the new Astley's Riding House soon developed into a more permanent wooden structure, and the audience at least was protected from the notorious London weather. Its arena (called either "circle," or "circus") had originally a diameter of sixty-five feet (about 19.5 meters). There, to the sound of fifes and drums, in good military fashion, Astley and some of his pupils offered afternoon performances of an exclusively equestrian nature. When summer ended, Astley had reason to celebrate: His first two London seasons had been very successful. Yet, he knew that if he wanted to establish a permanent place of performance that could attract London audiences over the long haul—especially the much-needed popular audience—he had to change the format of his show.

The Birth of the Circus

With the disappearance of court entertainments, London had seen the development of a purely commercial theater, subsided not by the nobility but by ticket sales. Whatever their specialty, theaters couldn't survive only on a handful of faithful patrons; they had to attract an audience as large as possible, and therefore they had to please an extensive diversity of tastes. In the eighteenth century, performing arts were not yet segregated and actors, musicians, dancers, acrobats, and even equestrians, all belonged in the same community of entertainers. So, Astley turned to the successful theaters of London (legit houses such as Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and the Haymarket Opera House, but also "secondary" houses such as Sadler's Wells) and checked what attracted the popular audience to their shows. All of them relied on visual acts ("posturers," as acrobats were then called, jugglers, ropedancers…) interspersed in the legit houses between the various theatrical offerings, and on "after-pieces" that concluded the performance—generally pantomimes, which, in England, were farcical spectacles with stage tricks and special effects—and the realm of Clown and Harlequin, its principal stock characters.

Hence, for his 1770 London season, the show Philip Astley offered at his Riding School was a mixture of equestrian and acrobatic acts, followed by a pantomimeA circus play, not necessarily mute, with a dramatic story-line (a regular feature in 18th and 19th century circus performances).. He had a crude stage erected in the ring for the visual acts and the pantomimeA circus play, not necessarily mute, with a dramatic story-line (a regular feature in 18th and 19th century circus performances)., and if the stage tricks were certainly limited, the farcical work of the clownGeneric term for all clowns and augustes. '''Specific:''' In Europe, the elegant, whiteface character who plays the role of the straight man to the Auguste in a clown team., originally a theatrical character, was a welcome addition to the performance. As Astley had expected it, the success of his new formula was immediate—and, more importantly, he had just devised a new form of entertainment: the circus as we know it was born.

As in theaters, these extra-curricular additions to the show were just that, and the performances at Astley's Riding School remained principally of an equestrian nature. But the great British actor and producer, David Garrick, had already planted the seeds of secession between the theater and other performing arts and, in time, visual entertainers would find in the circus a welcoming and ideal refuge.

When not performing in London during the spring and summer season, Astley traveled, and the success of his exhibitions everywhere led him to build wooden amphitheaters around the United Kingdom—which soon won him the nickname of "Amphi-Philip." The first of these amphitheaters would be erected in 1773 in Dublin, Ireland. His son, John Astley, had his first "benefitSpecial performance whose entire profit went to a performer; the number of benefits a performer was offered (usually one, but sometimes more for a star performer during a long engagement) was stipulated in his contract. Benefits disappeared in the early twentieth century." there as an equestrian—at age seven—the following year.

Astley's Success

Inevitably, success brought competition: In 1772, one of Astley's former equestrians, the ambitious and talented Charles Hughes, opened his own Hughes' Riding School not far from Astley's, on Blackfriars Road. Hughes's show was practically a carbon copy of Astley's, and the competition became fierce—generating widespread interest and, consequently, good business. It also caught the attention of the Magistrates of Surrey County, who closed both shows in July 1773 because they hadn't secured the proper license to perform. Hughes embarked then into a long European tour, but Astley, who had just purchased his piece of land, applied for a license for the next season, and resumed his tours. Licensing issues constantly plagued the many theater entrepreneurs who didn't benefitSpecial performance whose entire profit went to a performer; the number of benefits a performer was offered (usually one, but sometimes more for a star performer during a long engagement) was stipulated in his contract. Benefits disappeared in the early twentieth century. from a Royal Patent, and the patented theatres (Covent Garden, Drury Lane, and the Haymarket) made sure that it would continue to be so.

In 1774, Philip Astley performed his "feats of horsemanship" for the first time in Paris, at the Manège de Razade, rue des Vieilles Tuileries. The event is of some importance, since Paris would become Astley's second home.

In the winter 1778-1779, Astley added a roof to his amphitheatre, which allowed him to perform in the winter season and to give evening performances—to the annoyance of the London patentees, with whom he was now in direct competition. He reopened the house in January 1779 under the name of ''Astley's Amphitheatre'' Riding House. The show offered the usual fare of equestrian and acrobatic acts, clowns and pantomimes, but Philip Astley didn't appear on the bill in his "feats of horsemanship." At age 38, he had retired from performing as a bareback rider, but remained with the show as its Equestrian Director, or, in modern terminology, its Ringmaster—a function he had just created for himself.

Astley vs. the Royal Circus

In 1781, Astley's old nemesis, Charles Hughes, had returned to London after an eight-year tour of the kingdoms of Europe, and went into a partnership with Charles Dibdin, a prolific songwriter and librettist. With the help of a syndicate of London backers, they began building a brand new amphitheatre, in stone this time, on a piece of land located at the crossroads of the three thoroughfares leading to the three bridges serving London (Westminster, Blackfriars, and the London Bridge). The place, known as St. George's circus, had in its center an obelisk that was a well-known landmark, and was again in the vicinity of Astley's Amphitheatre.

The ''Royal Circus'', Equestrian and Philharmonic Academy, as it was pompously named (it would later be simply known as "Hughes' Royal Circus"), opened November 4, 1782—the first modern amphitheatre to bear the title "circus." It was an elegant structure, whose ornate house included a fully equipped theater stage and a circus ring, 36 feet and 6 inches in diameter (about 11.15 meters). The idea, in the words of Dibdin, was that with such a configuration, "the business of the ring and the stage might be united." It was a way to give a more prominent place to pantomimes (Dibdin's specialty), but with the addition of an equestrian element that would eventually lead to the development of circus "hippodramas." The stage and ring arrangement devised by Dibdin and Hughes became the standard of practically all circus buildings until the second half of the nineteenth century.

Hence, Astley lost his monopoly, and had to contend with serious competition. Luckily for him, neither Dibdin nor Hughes were fiscally competent, and the group formed by the two directors, the circus's shareholders, and their landowners, the West family, proved to be incredibly dysfunctional. Hughes died at the end of 1797. The Royal Circus by then had been repossessed by the West family, and leased in 1794 to James Jones and George Jones—whose company had included for a while John Bill Ricketts, a talented pupil of Charles Hughes who was to open the first American circus. Between 1781 and 1794, the Royal Circus had been the theater of tireless internal feuds (Dibdin was forced out in 1785), plagued by licensing problems and near-bankruptcies, and gradually left into a miserable state of disrepair. In 1804, it was badly damaged by a fire. After extensive renovations, it focused mostly on theatrical offerings, and was eventually converted into a full-fledged theatre in 1810.

Astley Expands

During all that time, Astley had no difficulty retaining his supremacy. Furthermore, on July 5, 1782, he had opened the Manège Anglais, a roofless enclosure, on the Boulevard du Temple in Paris. He left Paris at the end of August, having met with a considerable success—thanks in large part to his son John, who had become the true star of the show. Astley returned to the same location the following summer, and John Astley was commanded to perform at the court of Queen Marie-Antoinette at Versailles. The ensuing outcome was a Royal Privilege enabling Philip Astley to open a permanent amphitheatre in Paris. He purchased the lot where he had performed for two summers, and built on it a wooden amphitheatre, with an address at 16 rue du Faubourg du Temple, practically at the corner of the Boulevard. The Amphithéâtre Anglais des Sieurs Astley, père et fils opened its doors on October 16, 1783.

Philip Astley was now running simultaneously, with the help of his son, two permanent amphitheatres in two different capitals—and he would obtain a Royal Patent for a third in Dublin, Ireland, which he erected on Peter Street and opened in 1789. That same year, the French Revolution forced him to vacate his Parisian amphitheatre, which he leased to various theater companies and, starting in 1791, to Antonio Franconi, the Italian "father" of the French circus. In spite of these sedentary amphitheatres, however, Astley's circus company still toured the United Kingdom on a regular basis, settling in temporary wooden constructions, which sometimes became quasi-permanent provincial bases.

Astley's New Amphitheatre of the Arts and the Olympic Pavilion

Astley's Amphitheatre in 1807
When the war between the United Kingdom and revolutionary France broke out in 1793, Philip Astley, who was 51 year-old, re-enlisted in the 15th Light Dragons, "acting as a horse-master, celebrity morale-booster and war correspondent in one." But on August 16, 1794, his London amphitheatre burnt to the ground. It had been refurbished in 1786, with a proper stage (albeit far from the size of the Royal Circus's true theater stage) and the sylvan decoration replete with false foliage hanging from the ceiling that Astley had already used for his Parisian amphitheatre; the revamped building had been rechristened, Astley's Royal Grove.

So, the Royal Grove was no more. Astley quickly obtained his discharge, and returned to London to rebuild it. This was done in record time: Astley's New Amphitheatre of the Arts was ready for the 1795 season, which commenced as usual on Easter Monday.

In 1802, after the Peace of Amiens, Astley returned to Paris and regained possession of his amphitheatre on Rue du Faubourg du Temple. But the following year, his new London amphitheatre was again consumed by a fire. This was unfortunately the plight of many theatres at the time: Mostly built of wood, notably the stage area, where pieces of scenery of wood and canvas, and even fireworks, were stored, they were lit by open flames.

The Amphitheatre was rebuilt again in 1803, this time following the now classic model of Hughes's Royal Circus, with a house lavishly decorated by the famous Scottish scene painter, John Henderson Grieve, and a full theatre stage, which was said to be the largest in London. That same year, Philip Astley, who had practically reached the status of "living legend," was commissioned to design a fireworks display on the Thames for the King's birthday.

Astley was now more than ever in royal favor and, in 1805, he obtained a license to build yet another circus, this time in London proper, at the corner of Newcastle and Wych Streets, in the Strand. The Olympic Pavilion opened on September 18, 1806. It was a substantial building, equipped with an equestrian ring apparently wider than the rings of Astley's and the Royal Circus, and a full theater stage. But Astley's new circus never took off. It changed name, looks, became a theatre, but nothing helped. Astley lost a considerable amount of money in this last venture, and eventually sold the Pavilion in 1813.

Philip Astley died from stomach ailments in his Parisian home, Rue du Faubourg du Temple, on October 20, 1814. He was seventy-two years old. He was buried at the Père Lachaise cementary, in Paris, where his grave, unfortunately, is not visible anymore. His will asked for all his Parisian properties to be sold, and for the proceeds to go to his son John, who also inherited the amphitheatre of Stangate Street. John Philip Conway Astley survived his father only seven years.

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