Circus Williams - Revision history

Djando: /* A New Era */

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‎A New Era

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‎Epilogue

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‎The Last Years

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‎The Spanischer National Circus

Djando: /* A New Era */

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‎A New Era

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‎A New Era

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‎A New Era

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‎A New Era

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‎A New Era

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‎A New Era

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 For the 1950-51 Christmas season, the Williamses and their animals were hired by [[Tom Arnold]] for his annual circus production at the [[Harringay]] Arena in London. But it was to be a fateful engagement: On December 22, 1950, during a rehearsal, Harry was violently ejected from his chariot while practicing Circus Williams’s signature Roman chariot race; he died of his injuries three weeks later, on January 10, 1951. It was evidently a terrible family&mdash;as well as professional&mdash;tragedy.
-[[File:Adolf_Althoff_and_Frederike_Hagenbeck.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Adolf Althoff and Frederike Hagenbeck (1955)]]Left alone at the helm of Circus Williams, Carola leased it to her first husband, Harry Barlay, for the 1951 season. She sent Gunther Gebel to her brother Franz, who began to teach Gunther elephant training in his circus (Franz Althoff had a important herd of thirteen elephants); much too aware of the hazards of circus life, Carola also decided that her children, Alfons and Jeanette, would receive a proper academic education. Then she went to Italy to help her brother Adolf, whose circus had gone bankrupt.
+Left alone at the helm of Circus Williams, Carola leased it to her first husband, Harry Barlay, for the 1951 season. She sent Gunther Gebel to her brother Franz, who began to teach Gunther elephant training in his circus (Franz Althoff had a important herd of thirteen elephants); much too aware of the hazards of circus life, Carola also decided that her children, Alfons and Jeanette, would receive a proper academic education. Then she went to Italy to help her brother Adolf, whose circus had gone bankrupt.[[File:Adolf_Althoff_and_Frederike_Hagenbeck.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Adolf Althoff and Frederike Hagenbeck (1955)]]
 For the winter season of 1951-1952, Circus Williams returned under Carola’s management and performed at the [[Cirque Royal]] in Brussels. It was the last show given in the Belgian capital's old circus building: It would close for two years immediately after the Williams run for important reconstruction work. Carola Williams would return to Brussels’s brand new circus building in the winter of 1954-1955, with a show produced in association with her brother Franz and [[Harry Belli]].

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 ===Epilogue===
-In the United States, John Ringling North had gradually lost interest in his circus, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, after it had moved from tours under canvas to sport arenas in 1956. On November 11, 1967, he had sold it to a syndicate formed by arena promoters [[Irvin Feld|Irvin]] and Israel Feld, [[File:Gunther_Gebel_Williams_1977.jpeg|thumb|left|300px|Gunther Gebel-Williams, American Superstar (1977)]]and the Texan businessman Roy Hofheinz. The Felds, who were in charge of the new operation, decided to launch a second unit of ''The Greatest Show On Earth'', for which they wanted to create a new circus star. Gunther Gebel-Williams, whose reputation had grown considerably in Europe, was an ideal candidate: Beside his obvious talent and good looks, his family circus had large animal acts, notably elephants, which could form the animal basis of their new unit.
+In the United States, John Ringling North had gradually lost interest in his circus, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, after it had moved from tours under canvas to sport arenas in 1956. On November 11, 1967, he had sold it to a syndicate formed by arena promoters [[Irvin Feld|Irvin]] and Israel Feld, [[File:Gunther_Gebel_Williams_1977.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|Gunther Gebel-Williams, American Superstar (1977)]]and the Texan businessman Roy Hofheinz. The Felds, who were in charge of the new operation, decided to launch a second unit of ''The Greatest Show On Earth'', for which they wanted to create a new circus star. Gunther Gebel-Williams, whose reputation had grown considerably in Europe, was an ideal candidate: Beside his obvious talent and good looks, his family circus had large animal acts, notably elephants, which could form the animal basis of their new unit.
 Irvin Feld flew to Europe, and entered into negotiations with Carola, Jeanette, and Gunther, the principals of Circus Williams. Feld signed with Circus Williams a four-year renewable lease for two million dollars, for which he got Gunther, Jeanette, the animals, and the personnel necessary for their upkeep and presentation. On November 2, 1968, Gunther and Jeanette set sail for the New World on the ''Atlantic Saga'', with seventeen elephants (Gunther’s eleven, and six more purchased in Europe by Irvin Feld), nine tigers, thirty-eight horses, and a few assorted exotic animals. On the ship, too, were Gunther’s new wife, Sigrid, a former model from Berlin, and his stepdaughter, Tina, and Jeanette five-month-old daughter, Caroline, born of a recent, short-lived union. They all landed in New York on November 15.

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 ===The Last Years===
-[[File:Circo_Americano_26_elephants_1963.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Circo Americano's elephants in Italy (1963)]]In 1963, news spread across Europe that [[John Ringling North]] was sending a touring unit of [[Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey]] Circus to Europe. Seeing an obvious and dangerous competition, Arturo Castilla signed a contract with [[The Togni Family|Ferdinando Togni]], whose huge Circo Heros was Italy’s (and one of Europe’s) largest circus. Since the Ringling show was scheduled to play sport arenas, Castilla and Togni booked a winter tour of Castilla’s Circo Americano (which means, in Italian as in Spanish, "American Circus"), reinforced with the animals and casts of Circo Heros and Circus Williams, in major Italian sport arenas. (Chances that an American circus such as Ringling would visit Franco’s Spain were rather slim!)
+[[File:Circo_Americano_26_elephants_1963.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Circo Americano's elephants in Italy (1963)]]In 1963, news spread across Europe that [[John Ringling North]] was sending a touring unit of [[Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey]] Circus to Europe. Seeing an obvious and dangerous competition, Arturo Castilla signed a contract with [[The Togni Family|Ferdinando Togni]], whose huge Circo Heros was Italy’s (and one of Europe’s) largest circus. Since the Ringling show was scheduled to play sport arenas, Castilla and Togni booked a winter tour of Castilla’s Circo Americano (which means, in Italian as in Spanish, "American Circus"), reinforced with the animals and casts of Circo Heros and Circus Williams, in major Italian sport arenas. (Chances that an American circus such as Ringling would visit Franco’s Spain were rather slim!)
 The combination of Togni’s and Williams’s talented troupes and vast animal collections, along with Castilla’s flair for production and marketing, generated a show that was far better than what Ringling had planned for its European visit. The Circo Americano’s star-studded show ended with a spectacular display of twenty-six elephants working together in the vast hippodrome, under the guidance of [[The Bauer Family|Erwin Bauer]], [[Circus Strassburger|Henry Strassburger]], [[Bruno Togni]], and Gunther Gebel-Williams&mdash;an image against which Ringling’s hastily gathered herd of eleven elephants performing in three separate groups couldn’t match. Eventually, Ringling’s poorly planned tour proved a disaster, and it was quickly aborted.

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 ===The Spanischer National Circus===
-[[File:Circus_Williams_Winter_Quarters.JPG|right|thumb|400px|Circus Williams Winter Quarters (c.1960)]]Her circus now on solid footings, Carola Williams took the road as sole manager for the 1957 season. In November, the circus moved to brand new winter quarters located at 7 Neurather Weg, in Mülheim, the southwest district of Cologne. Alfons, who held a diploma in hotel management, and Jeanette, who had a business degree, returned to the fold. During her student years in Cologne, Jeanette had been trained daily in dressage at the circus's winter quarters by a retired Dutch dressage rider named Schumacher, and she had become a talented high school equestrienne. On his side, under the tutleage of Fred Petoletti, Alfons was becoming a promising liberty horse trainer. Gunther Gebel, now in charge of the elephants, added a teeterboard stunt to his act, which had reached eleven heads, including a young African elephant that became his favorite, ''Kongo''. Always the horse enthusiast, Carola acquired a magnificent group of twenty-four Lipizzaner stallions, which became the pride of her stables, and were presented by Fred Petoletti.
+[[File:Circus_Williams_Winter_Quarters.JPG|left|thumb|400px|Circus Williams Winter Quarters (c.1960)]]Her circus now on solid footings, Carola Williams took the road as sole manager for the 1957 season. In November, the circus moved to brand new winter quarters located at 7 Neurather Weg, in Mülheim, the southwest district of Cologne. Alfons, who held a diploma in hotel management, and Jeanette, who had a business degree, returned to the fold. During her student years in Cologne, Jeanette had been trained daily in dressage at the circus's winter quarters by a retired Dutch dressage rider named Schumacher, and she had become a talented high school equestrienne. On his side, under the tutleage of Fred Petoletti, Alfons was becoming a promising liberty horse trainer. Gunther Gebel, now in charge of the elephants, added a teeterboard stunt to his act, which had reached eleven heads, including a young African elephant that became his favorite, ''Kongo''. Always the horse enthusiast, Carola acquired a magnificent group of twenty-four Lipizzaner stallions, which became the pride of her stables, and were presented by Fred Petoletti.
 Under its very recognizable oblong big top with four poles in line (atypical among Germany’s traditional four-pole-in-square round tents), Circus Williams developed its tours out of Germany, whose circus scene had become crowded. As it did for its Swedish foray in 1956, it often toured abroad in association with major local circuses: It was indeed a clever and much safer way to visit uncharted territories. It was not a rule however: In 1958, Circus Williams did a successful Austrian tour on its own, with a long halt in Wien.
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 Yet sadly, tragedy struck again: In 1960, Alfons was killed in a car accident in Belgium, where the circus was touring. For a long time now, Carola Williams had considered Gunther as her second son; he entered the family quite officially in 1961, when he married Jeanette, and from then on, he would be officially known as Gunther Gebel-Williams. Unfortunately, the marriage was perhaps more the result of circumstances than anything else; it lasted only six years. Nonetheless, Gunther remained with the circus that had adopted him, and of which he had become an essential constituent and partner. If he had divorced Jeanette, he remained, in effect, her adoptive brother…
-[[File:Spanischer_National_Circus_Poster_1962.jpg|left|thumb|400px|Spanischer National Circus Poster (1962)]]In the winter of 1960-1961, the couple-to-be had performed at the [[Cirque d’Hiver]] in Paris, where Circus Williams had contracted its animal acts. The lineup included the twenty-four Lipizzaner horses and a mixed group of horses, camels, and zebras presented by Fred Petoletti; Tini Berman and her lions; Gunther and Jeanette in their high school act; and Gunther with Circus Williams’s group of eleven elephants, with its spectacular teeterboard finale. Unlike Cirque Medrano, the Cirque d’Hiver had a sizeable hangar backstage used to exhibit the Bouglione menagerie (the [[The Bouglione Family|Bougliones]], a dynasty of animal trainers, are the owners of the Cirque d’Hiver), and in that relatively limited space, the line-up of the Williams elephants alongside the Bougliones’ resident group of four made for quite an impressive image.
+[[File:Spanischer_National_Circus_Poster_1962.jpg|right|thumb|400px|Spanischer National Circus Poster (1962)]]In the winter of 1960-1961, the couple-to-be had performed at the [[Cirque d’Hiver]] in Paris, where Circus Williams had contracted its animal acts. The lineup included the twenty-four Lipizzaner horses and a mixed group of horses, camels, and zebras presented by Fred Petoletti; Tini Berman and her lions; Gunther and Jeanette in their high school act; and Gunther with Circus Williams’s group of eleven elephants, with its spectacular teeterboard finale. Unlike Cirque Medrano, the Cirque d’Hiver had a sizeable hangar backstage used to exhibit the Bouglione menagerie (the [[The Bouglione Family|Bougliones]], a dynasty of animal trainers, are the owners of the Cirque d’Hiver), and in that relatively limited space, the line-up of the Williams elephants alongside the Bougliones’ resident group of four made for quite an impressive image.
 In 1962, the Spanish impresarios Manuel Feijóo and [[Arturo Castilla]] decided to establish a version of their [[Circo Americano (Feijóo y Castilla)|Circo Americano]]  in Germany. At the time, Germany and Spain (then still under General Franco’s rule) had established important political and commercial relations, which led a great number of Spanish workers to immigrate to Germany. Thus Arturo Castilla entered into a partnership with Circus Williams, which, on March 23, 1962, began touring Germany under the title ''Spanischer National Circus''.

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 For the 1950-51 Christmas season, the Williamses and their animals were hired by [[Tom Arnold]] for his annual circus production at the [[Harringay]] Arena in London. But it was to be a fateful engagement: On December 22, 1950, during a rehearsal, Harry was violently ejected from his chariot while practicing Circus Williams’s signature Roman chariot race; he died of his injuries three weeks later, on January 10, 1951. It was evidently a terrible family&mdash;as well as professional&mdash;tragedy.
-[[File:Adolf_Althoff_and_Frederike_Hagenbeck.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Adolf Althoff and Frederike Hagenbck (1955)]]Left alone at the helm of Circus Williams, Carola leased it to her first husband, Harry Barlay, for the 1951 season. She sent Gunther Gebel to her brother Franz, who began to teach Gunther elephant training in his circus (Franz Althoff had a important herd of thirteen elephants); much too aware of the hazards of circus life, Carola also decided that her children, Alfons and Jeanette, would receive a proper academic education. Then she went to Italy to help her brother Adolf, whose circus had gone bankrupt.
+[[File:Adolf_Althoff_and_Frederike_Hagenbeck.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Adolf Althoff and Frederike Hagenbeck (1955)]]Left alone at the helm of Circus Williams, Carola leased it to her first husband, Harry Barlay, for the 1951 season. She sent Gunther Gebel to her brother Franz, who began to teach Gunther elephant training in his circus (Franz Althoff had a important herd of thirteen elephants); much too aware of the hazards of circus life, Carola also decided that her children, Alfons and Jeanette, would receive a proper academic education. Then she went to Italy to help her brother Adolf, whose circus had gone bankrupt.
 For the winter season of 1951-1952, Circus Williams returned under Carola’s management and performed at the [[Cirque Royal]] in Brussels. It was the last show given in the Belgian capital's old circus building: It would close for two years immediately after the Williams run for important reconstruction work. Carola Williams would return to Brussels’s brand new circus building in the winter of 1954-1955, with a show produced in association with her brother Franz and [[Harry Belli]].

@@ Line 51: / Line 51: @@
 For the 1950-51 Christmas season, the Williamses and their animals were hired by [[Tom Arnold]] for his annual circus production at the [[Harringay]] Arena in London. But it was to be a fateful engagement: On December 22, 1950, during a rehearsal, Harry was violently ejected from his chariot while practicing Circus Williams’s signature Roman chariot race; he died of his injuries three weeks later, on January 10, 1951. It was evidently a terrible family&mdash;as well as professional&mdash;tragedy.
-[[File:Adolf_Althoff_and_Frederike_Hagenbeck.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Adolf Althoff and Frederike Hagenbck (1955)]]Left alone at the helm of Circus Williams, Carola leased it to her first husband, Harry Barlay, for the 1951 season. She sent Gunther Gebel to her brother Franz, who began to teach Gunther elephant training in his circus (Franz Althoff had a important herd of thirteen elephants); much too aware of the hazards of circus life, Carola also decided that her children, Alfons and Jeanette, would receive a proper academic education. Then she went to Italy to help her brother Adolf, whose circus had gone bankrupt.
+[[File:Adolf_Althoff_and_Frederike_Hagenbeck.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Adolf Althoff and Frederike Hagenbck (1955)]]Left alone at the helm of Circus Williams, Carola leased it to her first husband, Harry Barlay, for the 1951 season. She sent Gunther Gebel to her brother Franz, who began to teach Gunther elephant training in his circus (Franz Althoff had a important herd of thirteen elephants); much too aware of the hazards of circus life, Carola also decided that her children, Alfons and Jeanette, would receive a proper academic education. Then she went to Italy to help her brother Adolf, whose circus had gone bankrupt.
 For the winter season of 1951-1952, Circus Williams returned under Carola’s management and performed at the [[Cirque Royal]] in Brussels. It was the last show given in the Belgian capital's old circus building: It would close for two years immediately after the Williams run for important reconstruction work. Carola Williams would return to Brussels’s brand new circus building in the winter of 1954-1955, with a show produced in association with her brother Franz and [[Harry Belli]].
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 A shrewd businesswoman, Carola then bought the title ''Friederike Hagenbeck'' from one of the Hagenbecks' wives, and sent a second show, ''Circus Frederike Hagenbeck'', on the road. Adolf and Carola would manage the two circuses (Williams and Hagenbeck) conjointly until 1956. In the absence of Alfons and Jeanette, Carola also began to give young Gunther Gebel more responsibilities, notably in the animal department.
-[[File:Adold_Althoff_and_Elepahnts.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Adolf Althoff and the Williams Elephants (1952)]]Adolf Althoff, who was a very good elephant trainer, continued Gunther’s education in that chapter. When Adolf eventually left Circus Williams, Gunther took over its growing herd of elephants. Additionally, Adolf completed Gunther's equestrian education, and trained him as a “jockey”, teaching him notably to jump from the ground onto a galloping horse, holding a light sulky in his hands! He began to perform as a jockey with the [[The Enders Brothers|Enders]] brothers, who would remain with Circus Williams for many years. The jockey act was relatively dangerous, however, and Carola eventually forbade Gunther to perform the jump with the sulky. (Jakob Enders took over the trick, which became his trademark.) Gunther also polished off his equestrian education with Circus Williams's new Master Equestrian, the talented [[Fred Petoletti]], the son of the great horse trainer [[Carl Petoletti]] of [[Circus Sarrasani]] fame.
+[[File:Adold_Althoff_and_Elepahnts.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Adolf Althoff and the Williams Elephants (1952)]]Adolf Althoff, who was a very good elephant trainer, continued Gunther’s education in that chapter. When Adolf eventually left Circus Williams, Gunther took over its growing herd of elephants. Additionally, Adolf completed Gunther's equestrian education, and trained him as a “jockey”, teaching him notably to jump from the ground onto a galloping horse, holding a light sulky in his hands! He began to perform as a jockey with the [[The Enders Brothers|Enders]] brothers, who would remain with Circus Williams for many years. The jockey act was relatively dangerous, however, and Carola eventually forbade Gunther to perform the jump with the sulky. (Jakob Enders took over the trick, which became his trademark.) Gunther also polished off his equestrian education with Circus Williams's new Master Equestrian, the talented [[Fred Petoletti]], the son of the great horse trainer [[Carl Petoletti]] of [[Circus Sarrasani]] fame.
 In 1953, Circus Williams hired a young Dutch cat trainer, [[Tini Berman]], known to the business as "Miss Yvonne," who presented a group of lions from [[Circus Knie]]. Gunther Gebel fell head over heels for her, and his interest for big cats grew exponentially. To his delight, he was eventually asked to replace her in the big cage for one performance: This was his first experience working with cats in the ring, and he liked it. (Yet his longing for Tini didn’t go anywhere: She was happily married.)

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 ===A New Era===
-For the 1950-51 Christmas season, the Williamses and their animals were hired by [[Tom Arnold]] for his annual circus production at the [[Harringay]] Arena in London. But it was to be a fateful engagement: On December 22, 1950, during a rehearsal, Harry was violently ejected from his chariot while practicing Circus Williams’s signature Roman chariot race; he died of his injuries three weeks later, on January 10, 1951. It was evidently a terrible family&mdash;as well as professional&mdash;tragedy.
+[[File:Adold_Althoff_and_Elepahnts.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Adolf Althoff and the Williams Elephants (1952)]]For the 1950-51 Christmas season, the Williamses and their animals were hired by [[Tom Arnold]] for his annual circus production at the [[Harringay]] Arena in London. But it was to be a fateful engagement: On December 22, 1950, during a rehearsal, Harry was violently ejected from his chariot while practicing Circus Williams’s signature Roman chariot race; he died of his injuries three weeks later, on January 10, 1951. It was evidently a terrible family&mdash;as well as professional&mdash;tragedy.
 Left alone at the helm of Circus Williams, Carola leased it to her first husband, Harry Barlay, for the 1951 season. She sent Gunther Gebel to her brother Franz, who began to teach Gunther elephant training in his circus (Franz Althoff had a important herd of thirteen elephants); much too aware of the hazards of circus life, Carola also decided that her children, Alfons and Jeanette, would receive a proper academic education. Then she went to Italy to help her brother Adolf, whose circus had gone bankrupt.
-[[File:Adold_Althoff_and_Elepahnts.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Adolf Althoff and the Williams Elephants (1952)]]For the winter season of 1951-1952, Circus Williams returned under Carola’s management and performed at the [[Cirque Royal]] in Brussels. It was the last show given in the Belgian capital's old circus building: It would close for two years immediately after the Williams run for important reconstruction work. Carola Williams would return to Brussels’s brand new circus building in the winter of 1954-1955, with a show produced in association with her brother Franz and [[Harry Belli]].
+For the winter season of 1951-1952, Circus Williams returned under Carola’s management and performed at the [[Cirque Royal]] in Brussels. It was the last show given in the Belgian capital's old circus building: It would close for two years immediately after the Williams run for important reconstruction work. Carola Williams would return to Brussels’s brand new circus building in the winter of 1954-1955, with a show produced in association with her brother Franz and [[Harry Belli]].
 Carola was definitely back at the helm of Circus Williams for its 1952 season. She had invited Adolf Althoff, now without a circus, to come and help her. Adolf brought with him his wife, Maria, an equestrienne; Maria's nephews, the [[The Enders Brothers|Enders]] brothers&mdash;talented jockeys whom Maria had raised after the death of her sister&mdash;and Hans and Jeanette Schroer. Born Althoff, Jeanette Schroer was Carola's sister, and an outstanding high school rider; she became a model and idol to her niece and namesake, Jeanette Williams. Hans Shroer became the show's announcer and Concessions manager.