Alfred Court - Revision history

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2026-01-16T00:00:39Z

‎Image Gallery

Djando: /* The Zoo Circus */

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‎The Zoo Circus

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‎Image Gallery

Djando at 00:22, 11 December 2025

2025-12-11T00:22:46Z

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‎Circus Producer

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‎Circus Producer

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‎The Orpingtons And Circo Europeo

Djando: /* The Zoo Circus */

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‎The Zoo Circus

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‎The Zoo Circus

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 File:Zoo_Circus_1937.png|Zoo Circus Program (1927)
 File:Zoo-Circus_1928.jpeg|The Zoo Circus in Versailles (1928)
 Image:Alfred_Court_(c.1930).jpg|Alfred Court, c.1930
 File:Hagenbeck-Court_Set_up_1930.jpeg|Court's Cirque W. Hagenbeck setup (1930)

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 [[File:Alfred_Court_Zoo_Circus.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Alfred Court at the Zoo Circus (c.1925)]]The Court menagerie expanded in 1922 with the purchase of a large group of polar bears from Hagenbeck, which Alfred Court presented himself (as Egelton) the following season, in a program that also included the seven lions of [[Martha-la-Corse]], and the group of lions and tigers presented by her husband, "Le Dompteur [[Marcel]]" (Marcel Chaffreix). Martha-la-Corse and Marcel were well known in the traveling menagerie business, and the addition of their acts and their animal collection to the Zoo Circus lineup helped at last to fully justify its name.
-Alfred Court eventually developed his own wild animal collection. At the end of 1924, he began advertising cage acts for rent to other circuses, including a group of ten tigers, another of eighteen lions, his own group of twelve polar bears, a group of ten panthers, and a mixed group of wolves and hyenas. The latter was one of the groups presented within the menagerie tent itself during the tour.
+Alfred Court eventually developed his own wild animal collection. At the end of 1924, he began advertising cage acts for rent to other circuses, including a group of ten tigers, another of eighteen lions, his own group of twelve polar bears, a group of ten leopards, and a mixed group of wolves and hyenas. The latter was one of the groups presented within the menagerie tent itself during the tour.
 The immediate aftermath of World War I was a booming period for European circuses, and the Zoo Circus steadily grew in importance, becoming one of France’s premier tenting circuses. By 1925, the menagerie boosted a collection of 25 lions, 8 tigers, 9 hyenas, 7 wolves, 3 cougars, 12 polar bears, 16 panthers and leopards, 5 jaguars, 2 cheetahs, and an extensive assemblage of exotic animals, including antelopes, llamas, and camels, down to monkeys, porcupines and mongooses.

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 File:Hagenbeck-Court_Set_up_1930.jpeg|Court's Cirque W. Hagenbeck setup (1930)
 File:Cirque_Hagenbeck_Court_1930.jpeg|Court's Cirque W. Hagenbeck (1930)
 File:Cirque_Hagenbeck-Court_Sevres_1930.jpeg|Court's Cirque W. Hagenbeck (1930)
 File:Alfred_Court_-_Empire.jpg|Alfred Court at the Empire Music-Hall Cirque (1937)

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:22, 11 December 2025
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−	[[Image:Alfred_Court_(c.1930).jpg\|right\|~~400px~~]]	+	[[Image:Alfred_Court_(c.1930).jpg\|right\|300px]]
	==Acrobat, Circus Owner, Animal Trainer==		==Acrobat, Circus Owner, Animal Trainer==

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 ===Circus Producer===
-[[File:Ugo_Ancillotti.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Ugo Ancillotti (c.1890)]]At the same time, between engagements, the Court brothers tried their hand at producing, and presented their own ''Cirque Egelton'' shows in temporary wooden circus structures (known as ''constructions'') erected in French provincial towns during seasonal fairs. They also developed a "Looping the Loop" thrill act on a bicycle (a popular type of attraction at the time), which they quickly abandoned: Like all attractions of that genre, it was impeded by cumbersome equipment that was difficult to transport, let alone to install in the ring.
+[[File:Ugo_Ancillotti.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Ugo Ancillotti (c.1890)]]At the same time, between engagements, the Court brothers tried their hand at producing, and presented their own ''Cirque Egelton'' shows in temporary wooden circus structures (known as ''constructions'') erected in French provincial towns during seasonal fairs. They also developed a "Looping the Loop" thrill act on a bicycle (a popular type of attraction at the time), which they quickly abandoned: Like all attractions of that genre, it was impeded by cumbersome equipment that was difficult to transport, let alone to install in the ring.
 Jules Court left the Egeltons’ bar act at the end of the 1908 season, and went on to create a talent agency. The brothers, however, had decided they would have their own traveling circus as soon as they had gathered a sufficient capital. Meanwhile, in 1909, their home city of Marseille gave them the authorization to build a wooden circus construction on the Place Saint-Michel.

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 ===The Orpingtons And Circo Europeo===
-After his brother had called it quits, Alfred Court had created a new hand-to-hand acrobatic act, The Orpingtons, with his wife, Renée, and a student of his, Louis Vernet. It was again a remarkable act, showcasing Alfred Court’s remarkable strength. It had eventually caught the attention of [[Charles Ringling]] and, in May 1914, The Orpingtons debuted with the Ringling Bros. Circus in Chicago.[[File:Orpingtons.png|thumb|left|300px|The Orpingtons (c.1915)]]
+[[File:Orpingtons.png|thumb|left|300px|The Orpingtons (c.1915)]]After his brother had called it quits, Alfred Court had created a new hand-to-hand acrobatic act, The Orpingtons, with his wife, Renée, and a student of his, Louis Vernet. It was again a remarkable act, showcasing Alfred Court’s remarkable strength. It had eventually caught the attention of [[Charles Ringling]] and, in May 1914, The Orpingtons debuted with the Ringling Bros. Circus in Chicago.
 The Orpingtons had a two-year contract with Ringling. For the 1915 season, they added a perch-pole act to their repertoire, which they performed in the center ring. During the winter months, they played dates in Cuba, where they eventually got a long-term engagement with [[Antonio Vicente Pubillones]], in his popular Circo Pubillones. They performed there in 1918 with their hand-to-hand and perch-pole acts, and shared the bill with [[Alfredo Codona]], who had just left the [[Siegrist-Silbons]] troupe and was performing his own flying trapeze act for the first time.

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 The menagerie was contained in a single large tent adjacent to the big top, as was the custom in the United States, and it included ethnic exhibitions, a trademark of Zirkus Hagenbeck, and sideshow attractions like those Court had seen at the Ringling Bros. Circus. The menagerie, in its first season, was still a little light and, oddly, there was no cage act in the performance until December, when the German trainer [[Otto Sailer-Jackson]] was hired with a group of tigers from [[Circus Krone]].
-Sailer-Jackson was a celebrated cat trainer from the Hagenbeck school. He stayed with the Zoo Circus for the Holiday season, long enough to give Alfred Court the opportunity to observe his work attentively, which he would emulate, down to the "cowboy" costume. The Hagenbeck method consisted of using the cats’ natural abilities to create acts that emphasized the animals’ innate talents&mdash;instead of simply showing the confrontational image of "man vs. beast" favored by the so-called "lion tamers" of the nineteenth century.
+Sailer-Jackson was a celebrated cat trainer from the Hagenbeck school. He stayed with the Zoo Circus for the Holiday season, long enough to give Alfred Court the opportunity to observe his work attentively, which he would later emulate, down to the "cowboy" costume. The Hagenbeck method consisted of using the cats’ natural abilities to create acts that emphasized the animals’ innate talents&mdash;instead of simply showing the confrontational image of "man vs. beast" favored by the so-called "lion tamers" of the nineteenth century.
 [[File:Alfred_Court_Zoo_Circus.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Alfred Court at the Zoo Circus (c.1925)]]The Court menagerie expanded in 1922 with the purchase of a large group of polar bears from Hagenbeck, which Alfred Court presented himself (as Egelton) the following season, in a program that also included the seven lions of [[Martha-la-Corse]], and the group of lions and tigers presented by her husband, "Le Dompteur [[Marcel]]" (Marcel Chaffreix). Martha-la-Corse and Marcel were well known in the traveling menagerie business, and the addition of their acts and their animal collection to the Zoo Circus lineup helped at last to fully justify its name.

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 Meanwhile, Court had resumed his acrobatic training with his wife and a new partner, Lucien Goddart. Most importantly, he had revived his work on the Zoo Zirkus project, which had been interrupted by the war. The circus title was changed to Zoo Circus, which certainly sounded better at this point to French ears, and with Ancilotti’s equipment as a foundation, it was now ready to go. Jules Court came aboard to take care of the administrative side of the project.
-[[File:Zoo-Circus_1928.jpeg|thumb|right|400px|The Zoo Circus (1928)]]The Zoo Circus came to life in Limoges, France, in the spring of 1921. It was, in many aspects, an original concept in France: A circus with a vast menagerie (inspired at first by the German circus of [[Carl Hagenbeck]]&mdash;thus the original title, Zoo Zirkus&mdash;but also, undoubtedly, by the American circuses Court had seen in the United States). It traveled daily with the help of a fleet of motorized vehicles&mdash;at a time when French circuses customarily moved either by train, or, like Pinder, with horse-drawn carriages.
+[[File:Zoo-Circus_1928.jpeg|thumb|right|400px|The Zoo Circus (1928)]]The Zoo Circus came to life in Limoges, France, in the spring of 1921. It was, in many aspects, an original concept in France: A circus with a vast menagerie (inspired at first by the German circus of [[Carl Hagenbeck]]&mdash;thus the original title, Zoo Zirkus&mdash;but also, undoubtedly, by the American circuses Court had seen in the United States. It traveled daily with the help of a fleet of motorized vehicles&mdash;at a time when French circuses customarily moved either by train, or, like Pinder, with horse-drawn carriages.
 The menagerie was contained in a single large tent adjacent to the big top, as was the custom in the United States, and it included ethnic exhibitions, a trademark of Zirkus Hagenbeck, and sideshow attractions like those Court had seen at the Ringling Bros. Circus. The menagerie, in its first season, was still a little light and, oddly, there was no cage act in the performance until December, when the German trainer [[Otto Sailer-Jackson]] was hired with a group of tigers from [[Circus Krone]].

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 File:Zoo_Circus_1922.jpg|Zoo Circus Program (1922)
 File:Zoo_Circus_1923.png|Zoo Circus Poster (1923)
 File:Zoo-Circus_Versailles_1924.jpeg|The Zoo Circus in Versailles (1924)
 File:Alfred_Court_Zoo_Circus.jpg|Alfred Court at the Zoo Circus (c.1925)