Jacko Fossett - Revision history

Djando at 21:02, 20 November 2024

2024-11-20T21:02:53Z

Djando: /* Image Gallery */

2024-11-20T21:01:48Z

‎Image Gallery

Djando: /* International Experiences */

2022-11-24T20:35:13Z

‎International Experiences

Djando: /* From Robert Brothers to Bertram Mills */

2022-11-24T20:30:49Z

‎From Robert Brothers to Bertram Mills

Djando at 20:51, 16 November 2022

2022-11-16T20:51:16Z

Djando: /* Image Gallery */

2022-10-17T22:33:38Z

‎Image Gallery

Djando: /* International Experiences */

2022-10-17T19:50:14Z

‎International Experiences

Djando: /* Clown */

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‎Clown

Djando: /* Clown */

2022-10-17T19:47:51Z

‎Clown

Djando: /* Image Gallery */

2022-10-17T19:15:51Z

‎Image Gallery

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:02, 20 November 2024
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−	[[File:~~Fossett_-_Ashwood~~.jpg\|right\|300px]]	+	[[File:Jacko_Fossett.jpg\|right\|300px]]
	==Clown==		==Clown==

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 File:Bertram_Mills_Circus_62.jpg|Bertram Mills Circus program cover featuring Jacko Fossett (1962)
 File:Mills_Jacko_Little_Billy_63.jpg|Jacko Fossett, Little Billy and Nikki at Bertram Mills Circus (1963)
 File:Jacko_Fossett_Antonio_Billy.jpg|Antonio, Jacko Fossett & Little Billy (c.1970)
 File:Belle_Vue_1973.jpg|Program Cover for Belle Vue Circus (1973)

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 Jacko and Little Billy, however, continued to work occasionally abroad. In the winter of 1973, they went to work for one month at the Kronebau, [[Circus Krone]]'s building in Munich. Jacko had known [[Carl Sembach]], Frieda Krone's husband (and Circus Krone's co-director with his wife), when he was still a lion trainer and was contracted by Chapman, in the early 1930s. Jacko and Little Billy were quite successful at the Kronebau, but their next engagement was in Paris, billed as "Les Fossetts," at the [[Cirque Pinder-Jean Richard]], where they flopped miserably.
-[[File:Fossett_and_Billy.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Jacko and Little Billy and their Trophy in Blankenberge (1978)]]Jacko and Billy's very broad slapstick clowning, which worked very well in Britain and in Northern Europe, didn't score well with French audiences, which were used to a more "theatrical" style of clowning, well-structured and spiked with verbal humor and music&mdash;a tradition beautifully illustrated then by French clowns such as [[Achille Zavatta]] or the [[Les Bario|Barios]], for instance, and even by the greatest British clown at the time, Blackpool Tower Circus's [[Charlie Cairoli]], who was of French origin.
+[[File:Fossett_and_Billy.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Jacko and Little Billy and their Trophy in Blankenberge (1978)]]Jacko and Billy's very broad slapstick clowning, which worked very well in Britain and in Northern Europe, didn't score well with Parisian audiences, which were used to a more "theatrical" style of clowning, well-structured and spiked with verbal humor and music&mdash;a tradition beautifully illustrated then by French clowns such as [[Achille Zavatta]] or the [[Les Bario|Barios]], for instance, and even by the greatest British clown at the time, Blackpool Tower Circus's [[Charlie Cairoli]], who was of French origin.
 Nonetheless, in 1978, they did well at the [[Cirque de la Voix du Nord]] in Lille, near the French-Belgian border, and then they won an award at the ''Festival International des Clowns'' held in the seaside resort of Blankenberge in Belgium. Then at the end of the 1978-1979 winter season at Belle Vue, Little Billy Merchant, who was now nearing his sixtieth birthday and had been in the ring or on stage for forty-one years, decided to retire from performing.  He went back home to Reading, in Berkshire, and in 1984, he moved to Skegness, a Lincolnshire seaside resort, where he and Fossett would eventually reunite. Said Jacko Fossett, Little Billy was "the best partner I have ever had, and the one with whom I never had an argument."

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 Eventually, though, the situation changed: Bertram Mills's iconic clown, the very popular [[Coco]], was aging and in ill health and, in the winter of 1961, victim of a bout of influenza, he had to be replaced in the show at London's Olympia. Cyril Mills needed now a clown with enough stature to take Coco's place in case of another health problem. (Bertram Mills had a permanent troupe of clowns, in addition to the guest clowns featured in each season's new show.) He went back to Jacko Fossett, who finally accepted. Jacko made his debut with Bertram Mills Circus on the tenting show in 1962.
-At Bertram Mills, Jacko Fossett reunited with his old mentor, Jimmy Scott (who worked only in the winter shows at Olympia), and met his future partner, [[Little Billy Merchant]] (1919-2001), a talented diminutive auguste who had joined Mills in 1950. In 1963, Jacko's old friend from his Robert Bros. Circus days, Norman Barrett, also came aboard, and would become Bertram Mills Circus's last ringmaster. The veteran Coco remained with the show until its closure in 1967&mdash;although his participation to the show in the last years was more symbolic than truly active&mdash;and so did Jacko, Jimmy Scott, and Norman Barrett. (Little Billy left in 1965 and didn't participate in the two "last seasons" at Olympia.)
+At Bertram Mills, Jacko Fossett reunited with his old mentor, Jimmy Scott (who worked only in the winter shows at Olympia), and met his future partner, [[Little Billy Merchant]] (1919-2001), a talented diminutive auguste who had joined Mills in 1950. In 1963, Jacko's old friend from his Robert Bros. Circus days, Norman Barrett, also came aboard, and would become Bertram Mills Circus's last ringmaster. The veteran Coco remained with the show until its closure in 1967&mdash;although his participation to the show in the last years was more symbolic than truly active&mdash;and so did Jacko, Jimmy Scott, and Norman Barrett. (Little Billy left in 1965 and didn't participate in the two "last" seasons at Olympia.)
 ===From Britain to The Continent===

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 ===Early Years===
-He was born Robert George John Francis Fossett on November 11, 1922, in Kingston upon Hull, a port city in East Yorkshire where his father, John Fossett, was performing as a clown with the [[Sir Robert Fossett Circus]]. His mother was Maria Fossett, née Proctor, a tightwire artist who came from a large family of fairground entertainers. Jack (as Jacko Fossett was known to his friends and family) had three elder sisters, Margaret, Emmie, and Louise, who, as a trio, performed a trapeze act.
+He was born Robert George John Francis Fossett on November 11, 1922, in Kingston upon Hull, a port city in East Yorkshire where his father, John Fossett, was performing as a clown with the [[Sir Robert Fossett Circus]]. His mother was Maria
 [[File:Jacko_Fossett_Sr.jpg|left|300px|thumb|John "Jacko" Fossett (c.1920)]]John Fossett was one of the eleven children of Robert Fossett III (whose own father, "Sir" Robert Fossett, was the founder of the eponymous circus) and Isabelle Bailey. After the death of his father in December 1922, John, with some of his siblings, founded the ''Fossett Family Circus'', while his brother Robert IV revived the ''Sir Robert Fossett'' title. Like all circus children, Jack Fossett learned an array of circus disciplines from his extended family. Unfortunately, despite changing its name to a glorious ''Fossett's Imperial Circus'', the Fossett Family Circus failed and eventually closed in 1928.

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 Nonetheless, in 1978, they did well at the [[Cirque de la Voix du Nord]] in Lille, near the French-Belgian border, and then they won an award at the ''Festival International des Clowns'' held in the seaside resort of Blankenberge in Belgium. Then at the end of the 1978-1979 winter season at Belle Vue, Little Billy Merchant, who was now nearing his sixtieth birthday and had been in the ring or on stage for forty-one years, decided to retire from performing.  He went back home to Reading, in Berkshire, and in 1984, he moved to Skegness, a Lincolnshire seaside resort, where he and Fossett would eventually reunite. Said Jacko Fossett, Little Billy was "the best partner I have ever had, and the one with whom I never had an argument."
-Jacko Fossett had another bad experience when he participated in the [[International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo]] in 1983. The first night didn't go well, but the festival's ringmaster, [[Sergio]], who was also a well-seasoned clown, helped him adapt his material and style to French audiences, and he fared much better the second night. However, he was generally well received when he performed abroad, including in such shows as the huge ''ATA'' ([[Artisten Tiere Attraktionen]]) at Vienna's Stadthalle, or Michael Edgley's ''The World's Greatest Circus Spectacular'' in Australia (1983). He also performed in Puerto Rico, and in Italy with [[Enis Togni]].
+Jacko Fossett had another bad experience when he participated in the [[International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo]] in 1983. The first night didn't go well, but the festival's ringmaster, [[Sergio]], who was also a well-seasoned clown, helped him adapt his material and style to French audiences, and he fared much better the second night. However, he was generally well received when he performed abroad, including in such shows as the huge ''ATA'' ([[Artisten Tiere Attraktionen]]) at Vienna's Stadthalle, or [[Michael Edgley]]'s ''The World's Greatest Circus Spectacular'' in Australia (1983). He also performed in Puerto Rico, and in Italy with [[Enis Togni]].
 In 1990, Jacko was able to fulfill an old dream: working at the legendary Blackpool Tower Circus, home of superlative clowning thanks to Charlie Cairoli. Cairoli had passed away in 1980 and had never been replaced by a similar resident star clown; indeed, he would have been a very hard act to follow! After Charlie's death, the circus had hired a string of guest clowns, some of whom extremely talented. Jacko went to perform at Blackpool the year before the circus was taken over by [[Laci Endresz]], whose son, the talented auguste [[Mooky]], has since become the Tower Circus's resident star clown.

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:48, 17 October 2022
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−	A very popular British clown, Jacko Fossett (1922-2004) belonged to the English branch of the extremely prolific [[Fossett Family\|Fossett]] circus family, whose origins date back to the mid-nineteenth century in Ireland. So numerous the Fossett clan is that it was once said that every circus in the British Isles harbored at least one Fossett! (Jacko Fossett said: "It's not a family, it's a disease!") The family produced several good clowns, among whom Harry Fossett ("Funny Harry"), [[Tommy Fossett]], better known as "Professor Grimble," and Jacko's own father, also known as Jacko ~~Fossett~~. The junior Jacko Fossett, however, enjoyed a very successful career that spanned nearly sixty years not only in the British Isles, but also abroad.	+	A very popular British clown, Jacko Fossett (1922-2004) belonged to the English branch of the extremely prolific [[Fossett Family\|Fossett]] circus family, whose origins date back to the mid-nineteenth century in Ireland. So numerous the Fossett clan is that it was once said that every circus in the British Isles harbored at least one Fossett! (Jacko Fossett said: "It's not a family, it's a disease!") The family produced several good clowns, among whom Harry Fossett ("Funny Harry"), [[Tommy Fossett]], better known as "Professor Grimble," and Jacko's own father, also known as "Jacko." The junior Jacko Fossett, however, enjoyed a very successful career that spanned nearly sixty years not only in the British Isles, but also abroad.

	===Early Years===		===Early Years===

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:47, 17 October 2022
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−	A very popular British clown, Jacko Fossett (1922-2004) belonged to the English branch of the extremely prolific [[Fossett Family\|Fossett]] circus family, whose origins date back to the mid-nineteenth century in Ireland. So numerous is the Fossett clan that it was once said that every circus in the British Isles harbored at least one Fossett! (Jacko Fossett said: "It's not a family, it's a disease!") The family produced several good clowns, among whom Harry Fossett ("Funny Harry"), [[Tommy Fossett]], better known as "Professor Grimble," and Jacko's own father, also known as Jacko Fossett. The junior Jacko Fossett, however, enjoyed a very successful career that spanned nearly sixty years not only in the British Isles, but also abroad.	+	A very popular British clown, Jacko Fossett (1922-2004) belonged to the English branch of the extremely prolific [[Fossett Family\|Fossett]] circus family, whose origins date back to the mid-nineteenth century in Ireland. So numerous the Fossett clan is that it was once said that every circus in the British Isles harbored at least one Fossett! (Jacko Fossett said: "It's not a family, it's a disease!") The family produced several good clowns, among whom Harry Fossett ("Funny Harry"), [[Tommy Fossett]], better known as "Professor Grimble," and Jacko's own father, also known as Jacko Fossett. The junior Jacko Fossett, however, enjoyed a very successful career that spanned nearly sixty years not only in the British Isles, but also abroad.

	===Early Years===		===Early Years===

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 Jacko Fossett retired to Skegness, where he and Connie shared a house with Connie's twin sister, Marjorie, at 6 North Shore Road. Connie had served as Jacko's partner in some entrées, and their marriage had been a very successful one. Of course, it was not always easy to be Jacko's wife: "I used to lie in bed at night," he recalled, "and a gag would come to me. I'd have to wake up my wife and she'd have to write it down in case I forgot it by the morning."
 In Skegness, Jacko had reunited with his old friend and partner, Billy Merchant. In their last years, they retired to the same nursing home. Billy passed away on May 26, 2001. Jacko followed him three years later, on June 1, 2004. Connie died the following year on May 9, 2005. Jacko Fossett and Little Billy Merchant had been two of Britain's best augustes of the second half of the twentieth century, and two of the most beloved.
 ==Image Gallery==