Kio - Revision history

Djando: /* EMIL KIO, Jr. (1938-) */

2021-12-03T01:50:05Z

‎EMIL KIO, Jr. (1938-)

Djando: /* A Dynasty of Circus Magicians */

2021-12-01T17:46:39Z

‎A Dynasty of Circus Magicians

Djando: /* See Also */

2020-12-12T01:38:40Z

‎See Also

Djando: /* EMIL KIO (1894-1965) */

2020-04-14T19:49:19Z

‎EMIL KIO (1894-1965)

Djando: /* White Ties, Black Tails and Politics (1945-1950) */

2019-11-13T23:07:13Z

‎White Ties, Black Tails and Politics (1945-1950)

Djando: /* See Also */

2019-11-12T19:44:58Z

‎See Also

Djando: /* Image Gallery */

2019-11-12T02:33:52Z

‎Image Gallery

Djando: /* Matrimonial Scandals */

2019-11-12T02:32:22Z

‎Matrimonial Scandals

Djando: /* A Magic Clockwork (1950-1955) */

2019-11-12T02:31:59Z

‎A Magic Clockwork (1950-1955)

Djando: /* IGOR KIO (1934-2006) */

2019-11-12T01:55:54Z

‎IGOR KIO (1934-2006)

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 Emil Emilevich Hirschfeld-Renard was born on July 12, 1938, in Ordzhonikidze (today’s Vladikavkaz) in North Ossetia, Russia, the son of magician Emil Kio and his first wife, Kosherkhan (Kosha) Borukaeva. Even though he spent his childhood touring the country surrounded by magic boxes and trunks (he first appeared in the ring at age two), Emil, Jr. didn't seem initially destined to circus life: His father had decided that one of his two sons should study to make a career outside the circus world.
-[[File:Kio_German_Poster.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Emil Kio, Jr. in Germany(c.1985)]]Thus, in 1960, Emil graduated at Moscow Engineering and Construction Institute. Yet, due to his father's increasingly bad health, Emil, Jr. rejoined the circus to co-lead Kio's magic act and his company with his half-brother, Igor. The day after their father's death in December 1965 in Kiev, he was back in the ring performing three Sunday shows. However, when [[SoyuzGosTsirk]], the State Circus organization, decided to give the responsibility of Kio's act to his widow, Evgeniya, and its presentation to her son Igor, the Ministry of Culture assigned the creation of a second Kio unit to Emil.Jr. The act was re-created from scratch, with newly built props and a new company.
+[[File:Kio_German_Poster.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Emil Kio, Jr. in Germany(c.1985)]]Thus, in 1960, Emil graduated at Moscow Engineering and Construction Institute. Yet, due to his father's increasingly bad health, Emil, Jr. rejoined the circus to co-lead Kio's magic act and his company with his half-brother, Igor. The day after their father's death in December 1965 in Kiev, he was back in the ring performing three Sunday shows. However, when [[SoyuzGosTsirk]], the State Circus organization, decided to give the responsibility of Kio's act to his widow, Evgeniya, and its presentation to her son Igor, the Ministry of Culture assigned the creation of a second Kio unit to Emil, Jr. The act was re-created from scratch, with newly built props and a new company.
 For a few years, Igor's and Emil's acts were almost identical (upon SoyuzGosTsirk's request) and, once again, the creative director of the original act, [[Arnold Arnold]], had been involved. Arnold did his best to differentiate Emil's act from Igor's: New floor and set design, new costumes, new musical scores etc. Emil's new "Kio attraction" debuted in 1966. Emil didn't have Igor's natural flair for showmanship, and he turned out to present a much less assuming personality in the ring (one might say that he looked like an engineer doing a casual demonstration of physics).

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 ===A Dynasty of Circus Magicians===
-[[File:Kio.jpeg|thumb|left|400px|Emil Kio, Igor Kio, Emil Kio, Jr. (c.1965)]]Advertised simply as "KIO," the various Kio magic acts were what the Russians call an ''attraction'', a presentation that can fill up to the entire second half of a circus performance. Kio’s original act had been created by magician Emil Hirschfeld-Renard in 1932. After his death in 1965, the act was inherited by Emil's younger son and assistant, Igor (who presented it in his father’s version until 1976, and then completely revamped it), and was reproduced in 1966 as a second Kio unit presented until the early twenty-first century by Igor’s elder brother, Emil, Jr.
+[[File:Kio.jpeg|thumb|left|400px|Emil Kio, Igor Kio, Emil Kio, Jr. (c.1965)]]Advertised simply as "KIO," the various Kio magic acts were what the Russians call an ''attraction'', a presentation that can fill up the entire second half of a circus performance. Kio’s original act had been created by magician Emil Hirschfeld-Renard in 1932. After his death in 1965, the act was inherited by Emil's younger son and assistant, Igor (who presented it in his father’s version until 1976, and then completely revamped it), and was reproduced in 1966 as a second Kio unit presented until the early twenty-first century by Igor’s elder brother, Emil, Jr.
 A true pioneer of circus magic shows, Emil Kio managed to fit large-scale illusions into the challenging environment of the circus ring: A space fully lit, offering a 360º visibility, with an open space above and no back curtain or wings&mdash;thus leaving the magician to work surrounded by thousands of eyes, with no easy way to conceal anything. Kio also personalized apparatus-centered illusions dating back to the "Golden Age of Magic" (roughly 1890-1920), which he presented on a spectacular scale. In most instances he had to find new and subtle solutions to create his deceptions in his unusual performing space.

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 ==See Also==
 * Video: [[Kio_Video_(1964)|Emil Kio, with Igor and Emil Jr., magic act (excerpts)]], at the Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard in Moscow (1964)
 * Video: [[Emil_Kio,_Jr._Video_(1966)|Emil Kio, Jr., magic act (excerpts)]], at Leningrad's State Circus (1966)

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 ==EMIL KIO (1894-1965)==
-[[File:Alessandro_Ciniselli.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Alessandro Ciniselli (1886)]]Emil Teodorovich Hirschfeld-Renard (Эмиль Теодорович Гиршфельд-Ренард) was born in Moscow on April 11, 1894 in a Jewish family that came from Kuldīga (Goldingen in German), the capital of the Courland Governorate of the Russian Empire (in today’s Latvia), a city that had an important Jewish population. He was the eldest son of Theodor Emilevich Hirschfeld-Renard and Beatrice, née Fukelman, and had two brothers, Felix, an economist who was eventually arrested as a Trotskyist anarchist during Communist purges, and Garry (Harry), who became an aeronautic engineer. (The origins of the French part of the family surname, Renard, remain unknown.)
+[[File:Alessandro_Ciniselli.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Alessandro Ciniselli (1886)]]Emil Teodorovich Hirschfeld-Renard (Эмиль Теодорович Гиршфельд-Ренард) was born in Cëcis, in Latvia (then part of the Russian Empire) on April 11, 1894. His parents belonged to the large German-Jewish community of Latvia; his mother came from Kuldīga (Goldingen in German), the capital of the Courland Governorate of the Russian Empire, a city that had an important Jewish population. Emil was the eldest son of Theodor Emilevich Hirschfeld-Renard and Beatrice, née Fukelman, and had two brothers, Felix, an economist who was eventually arrested as a Trotskyist anarchist during Communist purges, and Garry (Harry), who became an aeronautics engineer. (The origins of the French part of the family surname, Renard, remain unknown.)
-Theodor Hirschfeld, a salesman, settled in pre-revolutionary Moscow. Facing his house (on the animated Sretenka Street) was a small satiric theatre, the Odeon. Its shows were forbidden to minors but, at age sixteen, young Emil began to visit it with his father’s complicity: he hid himself under Theodor’s ample winter coat. The shows at the Odeon consisted notably of satiric sketches and songs poking fun at the actuality, written by popular artists Nikolai Smirnov-Sokolsky (1898-1962, who would become a close friend of Kio's) and Grigory Afonin (who became a silent-movie star).
+Theodor Hirschfeld, a salesman, eventually settled in pre-revolutionary Moscow. Facing his house (on the animated Sretenka Street) was a small satiric theatre, the Odeon. Its shows were forbidden to minors but, at age sixteen, young Emil began to visit it with his father’s complicity: he hid himself under Theodor’s ample winter coat. The shows at the Odeon consisted notably of satiric sketches and songs poking fun at the actuality, written by popular artists Nikolai Smirnov-Sokolsky (1898-1962, who would become a close friend of Kio's) and Grigory Afonin (who became a silent-movie star).
 If not poor, the Hirschfeld family was not wealthy either and, when his father died in 1916, twenty-two-year-old Emil had to find a job. He applied for a position at the Odeon and, since he had become quite familiar with its shows, he was hired to replace one of the company’s actors. One piece consisted of a curtain painted with a human body, with holes in the place of various organs, through which performers showed their heads: Emil made his acting debut playing a liver! He eventually graduated to more substantial parts under the guidance of the Odeon’s owner and director, Nicolai Grinevskiy.
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 Emil Kio passed away on December 19, 1965 in Kiev, during an engagement there at the State Circus building. His funeral in Moscow was attended by all major players of the Soviet Circus, as well as a host of important personalities from the Soviet government&mdash;and everywhere, the international magic community paid tribute to Kio’s remarkable achievements. He was buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy cemetery, the resting place of the Soviet Union’s heroes&mdash;that is, the major personalities of politics, sciences and the arts. In 1989, the USSR Postal Service produced a postage stamp honoring the late magician.
 ==IGOR KIO (1934-2006)==

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 If the proximity of the audience in the circus had helped Kio improve his connection and interaction with them, it also caused a few problems. The luxurious oriental robes, which may have worked on a distant stage decorated within an "oriental" setting, were deemed offensive to the proletarian crowds who closely surrounded the ring. The new Soviet circus culture tended to reject the ''balaganshchik'' (fairground showman) tradition of colorful and somewhat gaudy costumes and imagery. For displaying his opulent oriental imagery, Kio was accused of promoting the bourgeois culture of luxury&mdash;that is, a culture of waste. Furthermore, the army of assistants under his control evoked the "imperialistic" master-servant relationship…
-[[File:Kio_Propaganda.jpeg|thumb|right|400px|Kio's Anti-Capitalist Propaganda]]This dilemma was one of the great contradictions of the early Soviet Circus: Opulence was amoral and thus to be avoided, but in turn, this principle deprived the audience of the visual aesthetic appeal specific to circus performances. Even clowns and acrobats abandoned sequins and ornate costumes in favor of an extreme "proletarian" sobriety. It had, however, unexpected effects: Presentations supposed to criticize the western culture became a way to justify the use of western aesthetics and music.
+[[File:Kio_Propaganda.jpeg|thumb|right|400px|Kio's Anti-Capitalist Propaganda (c.1947)]]This dilemma was one of the great contradictions of the early Soviet Circus: Opulence was amoral and thus to be avoided, but in turn, this principle deprived the audience of the visual aesthetic appeal specific to circus performances. Even clowns and acrobats abandoned sequins and ornate costumes in favor of an extreme "proletarian" sobriety. It had, however, unexpected effects: Presentations supposed to criticize the western culture became a way to justify the use of western aesthetics and music.
 In 1947, GosTsirk decided to turn Kio’s act into a satirical revue. With the growing post-World War II tensions between the Soviet Union and the West, the idea to make fun of western capitalism was indeed a perfect excuse to justify the use of its aesthetics: jazz, nightclub elegance, showgirls in attractive (and scant) costumes, all mixed in a vaguely art-déco visual concept. Bolshoi Theatre’s Vadim Ryindin, one of Russia’s greatest set designers, conceived for the act a seamless visual image that included floor, ring curb, props and even the curtain at the ring entrance.

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 * Video: [[Emil_Kio,_Jr._Video_(1966)|Emil Kio, Jr., magic act (excerpts)]], at Leningrad's State Circus (1966)
 * Video: [[Igor_Kio_Video_(1967)|Igor Kio, magic act (excerpts)]], at the Anaheim Convention Center in Los Angeles (1967)
 ==Image Gallery==

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 File:Kio_1945_Poster.jpeg|GosTsirk Poster for its New Program starring Kio (1945)
 File:Kio_Propaganda.jpeg|Kio's Anti-Capitalist Propaganda (c.1947)
 File:Kio_Poster_Carriage.jpg|Emil Kio Poster (c.1950)
 File:Emil_Kio.jpeg|Emil Kio (c.1950)

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 By then, Igor was already quite a celebrity&mdash;but not as much for his talents as an illusionist as for his romantic life. In 1962, he was performing with his father at the State Circus of Sochi. Situated on the Black Sea, Sochi benefits from a subtropical climate that makes it in the summer the equivalent of the French and Italian Rivieras: It was the summer resort of the Sovi-et elite (a status it has kept in the new Russia). There, eighteen-year-old Igor met thirty-three-year-old Galina Brezhneva, daughter of Leonid Brezhnev, then Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
-[[File:Galina_Brezhneva.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Galina Brezhneva (c.1950)]]Brezhneva loved circus and circus folks&mdash;to the point of having married star acrobat (and future circus director) [[Evgeniy Milaev]]. Igor and Galina fell in love, and Galina, ignoring the fact that she already had a husband, went on to marry secretly the young Igor Kio! Yet, nothing was secret in the Soviet Union&mdash;especially when anyone related to key members of the Communist Party was concerned&mdash;and indeed, Leonid Brezhnev was informed of his daughter's conduct and was not amused. He had the marriage swiftly cancelled by the KGB: It had lasted only nine days!
+[[File:Galina_Brezhneva.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Galina Brezhneva (c.1950)]]Brezhneva loved circus and circus folks&mdash;to the point of having married star acrobat (and future circus director) [[Evgeniy Milaev]]. Igor and Galina fell in love, and Galina, ignoring the fact that she already had a husband, went on to marry secretly the young Igor Kio! Yet, nothing was secret in the Soviet Union&mdash;especially when anyone related to key members of the Communist Party was concerned&mdash;and indeed, Leonid Brezhnev was informed of his daughter's conduct and was not amused. He had the marriage swiftly cancelled by the KGB: It had lasted only nine days!
 Inevitably, the supposedly secret marriage and its outcome became public knowledge, and, in view of the bride’s identity, caused a national scandal. (It would be later revealed that Galina had also dubious criminal connections and a taste for jewelry theft.) Yet, the adventure established forever Igor's reputation and his lifelong place in the Soviet equivalent of Western tabloids. Igor and Galina’s liaison would continue for a while, however. Then Emil Kio thought it would be better to find a suitable wife for his son and elected [[Yolanta Olkhovikova]] (from the famous Russian circus dynasty), who was Igor's age and presented a trained parrots act.

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 In the fifties, instead of chastising the West, circus propaganda began to focus on celebrating Soviet achievements: Acrobats incarnated the People’s strength and bravery; animal trainers the triumph of man over nature; aerialists celebrated space conquests; Cosack riders and tumblers highlighted the various ethnic traditions of the Soviet Union; and the clown personified the victorious struggles of everyday man. As a magician, Kio revamped himself into a subtly ironical and enigmatic tuxedoed character.
-[[File:Kio_Poster_Carriage.jpg|thumb|left|400px|The New Kio (c.1950)]]Officially, magic was now seen as a triumph of ingenuity and rationality that stimulated the audience’s intelligence; Russian circus historian Yuriy Dmitriev wrote, "Kio seemed to tell his audience, 'dear friend, I'm here with a series of spectacular puzzles: it's up to you to find a solution, but nothing here is an impossible mystery.'" If in modern magic, the aesthetic debate is between simple puzzle vs. sophisticated theatrical mystery, Kio seemed to achieve an acceptable balance between the two&mdash;an approach that was not different, in fact, from that of his contemporary Western colleagues.
+[[File:Kio_Poster_Carriage.jpg|thumb|left|300px|The New Kio (c.1950)]]Officially, magic was now seen as a triumph of ingenuity and rationality that stimulated the audience’s intelligence; Russian circus historian Yuriy Dmitriev wrote, "Kio seemed to tell his audience, 'dear friend, I'm here with a series of spectacular puzzles: it's up to you to find a solution, but nothing here is an impossible mystery.'" If in modern magic, the aesthetic debate is between simple puzzle vs. sophisticated theatrical mystery, Kio seemed to achieve an acceptable balance between the two&mdash;an approach that was not different, in fact, from that of his contemporary Western colleagues.
 In 1946, GosTsirk introduced the Central Studio for Circus Arts, a facility with no equivalent in the world, created for the concept and development of new acts in a collaborative spirit. The Soviet State Circus was becoming the Russian version of the Hollywood studio system: Ample time and support for design and planning with the help of directors and writers, engineers and specialized shops to build the necessary equipment, process management and creative pre-production&mdash;a way to rethink the creative process in circus arts that would later be acknowledged as having influenced the working methods of [[Cirque du Soleil]] and similar organizations.

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 ==IGOR KIO (1934-2006)==
-[[File:Igor_Kio_Portrait.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Igor Kio (c.1970)]]Of Emil’s two sons, Igor Kio was the most gifted and certainly the most colorful. He was born Igor Emilevich Hirschfeld-Renard in Moscow on March 13, 1944. His mother was twenty-four-year-old Evgeniya Smirnova (1920-1989), a dancer in Kio’s act, who would become Emil Kio’s fourth wife (they were not yet married at the time of Igor’s birth).
+[[File:Igor_Kio_Portrait.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Igor Kio (c.1970)]]Of Emil’s two sons, Igor Kio was the most gifted and certainly the most colorful. He was born Igor Emilevich Hirschfeld-Renard in Moscow on March 13, 1944. His mother was twenty-four-year-old Evgeniya Smirnova (1920-1989), a dancer in Kio’s act, who would become Emil Kio’s fourth wife (they were not yet married at the time of Igor’s birth).
 As a kid, Igor, who was a football (soccer) fan, begun training, through his father’s connections, with Russian football legend Konstantin Beskov, but his parents didn't want him to leave the circus, and nothing came of it. For a short time, he was also apprentice editor at the State circus magazine ''Эстрада и Цирк'' (“Variety and Circus”). Nonetheless, he and his elder brother, Emil, Jr. had participated in their father’s act since a very young age (appearing first among Kio’s group of midgets when they were children), and Igor finally stuck to serving as his father’s principal assistant.