Les Castors - Revision history

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‎See Also

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‎The Dedessus le Moutier Family

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‎Image Gallery

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‎Les Castors

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‎Les Castors

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‎Les Castors

DjandoAdmin at 21:40, 6 August 2021

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‎Image Gallery

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‎Les Castors

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‎Les Castors

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 ==See Also==
 * Video: [[Les_Castors_Video_(1971)|Les Castors, icarists]], at Paris's Cirque d'Hiver (1971)
 * Video: [[Les_Castors_Video_%281973%29|Les Castors, icarists]], at Circus Knie (1973)

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 The family’s surname, Dedessus le Moutier, is rather ancient and may have old aristocratic roots. One might regret, however, that no romantic tale exists in the family lore of a noble ancestor who would have fallen in love with a beautiful ropedancer or equestrienne, and left a respectable and sedentary lifestyle to follow her on the road: For once, at least, it could have had a ring of truth.
-[[Image:Cirque_de_Dessus-le-Moustier_(c.1900).jpg|thumb|left|400px|left|Cirque de Dessus le Moustier (c.1900)]]The first Dedessus le Moutier known to have joined the circus was a woman, Marie-Célestine, whose son, Alphonse, created the Cirque Moustier. Alphonse had no less than ten children; one of them, Charles, was Louis’s father and the grandfather of Toly, Charly, Eddy, and their sister, Nora (b. 1938, first married to [[Rodolphe Gruss]] [1938-1964], then to the clown [[Les Chabri|Toto Chabri]]).
+[[Image:Cirque_de_Dessus-le-Moustier_(c.1900).jpg|thumb|left|400px|left|Cirque de Dessus le Moustier (c.1900)]]The first Dedessus le Moutier known to have joined the circus was a woman, Marie-Célestine, whose son, Alphonse, created the Cirque Moustier. Alphonse had no less than ten children; one of them, Charles, was Louis’s father and the grandfather of Toly, Charly, Eddy, and their sister, Nora (1938-2025, first married to [[Rodolphe Gruss]] [1938-1964], then to the clown [[Les Chabri|Toto Chabri]]).
 The name seems to have been originally spelled Dedessus le Moustier, and the family became known in the circus world simply as Moustier. But the spelling of itinerant performers’ names often changed with the transcripts of local permits, the various circumstances of life on the road, and, in our case, even the complaints of distant, upright relatives: At some point, the Cirque Moustier became Cirque ''de Dessus le Moustier'', a truly aristocratic spelling, which thumbed its nose at some sedentary Dedessus le Moustiers who had objected to seeing their name disgraced on the façade of a circus!

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 <Gallery>
 Image:Cirque_de_Dessus-le-Moustier_(c.1900).jpg|Cirque de Dessus le Moustier (c.1900)
 Image:Les_Castors_at_Cirque_Medrano.jpeg|Les Castors at Cirque Medrano (1956)
 Image:Les_Castors_and_the_Rickshaw_Bros.jpeg|Les Castors at Circus Wilkie (c.1960)

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 The Castors have also worked with [[Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey]] in Stuttgart, Germany, during its short-lived European engagement in 1963; at Sun City Casino, Bophuthatswana, in South Africa; and in North Korea, Japan, Israel, and the Arab Emirates, among other countries. After they had played the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in 1975, their father left the act, and went to teach acrobatics at [[Annie Fratellini’s]] Ecole Nationale du Cirque in Paris. The Castors have since continued their long career on their own.
-In the past two decades (as of 2014), Toly, Charly and Eddy Castors, as they are known in the business, have worked extensively in varieté shows in Germany and the U.S., most notably with Teatro ZinZanni in San Francisco and Seattle, and Palazzo Varieté in Vienna, Bale, Mannheim, and Stuttgart&mdash;for both of which organizations they have also written and directed shows. Additionally, they have run a regular variety show, ''Les rendez-vous du Musicool'', at the [[Cirque d’Hiver]]’s "Théâtre de la Ménagerie" in Paris.
+In the late nineteen-nineties and early twenty first century, Toly, Charly and Eddy Castors, as they are known in the business, have worked extensively in varieté shows in Germany and the U.S., most notably with Teatro ZinZanni in San Francisco and Seattle, and Palazzo Varieté in Vienna, Bale, Mannheim, and Stuttgart&mdash;for both of which organizations they have also written and directed shows. Additionally, they have run a regular variety show, ''Les rendez-vous du Musicool'', at the [[Cirque d’Hiver]]’s "Théâtre de la Ménagerie" in Paris.
 They eventually retired from performing. Charly lives in Seattle, in the United States, (where he had a French cooking show on local television, and heads Seattle's famous ''Moisture festival'') and his brothers live in France, where they also pursue their own personal interests&mdash;Eddie directing shows, Toly writing and drawing cartoons, among other activities.

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 In the past two decades (as of 2014), Toly, Charly and Eddy Castors, as they are known in the business, have worked extensively in varieté shows in Germany and the U.S., most notably with Teatro ZinZanni in San Francisco and Seattle, and Palazzo Varieté in Vienna, Bale, Mannheim, and Stuttgart&mdash;for both of which organizations they have also written and directed shows. Additionally, they have run a regular variety show, ''Les rendez-vous du Musicool'', at the [[Cirque d’Hiver]]’s "Théâtre de la Ménagerie" in Paris.
-They eventually retired from performing.Charly lives in Seattle, in the United States, (where he had a French cooking show on local television, and heads Seattle's famous ''Moisture festival'') and his brothers live in France, where they also pursue their own personal interests&mdash;Eddie directing shows, Toly writing and drawing cartoons, among other activities.
+They eventually retired from performing. Charly lives in Seattle, in the United States, (where he had a French cooking show on local television, and heads Seattle's famous ''Moisture festival'') and his brothers live in France, where they also pursue their own personal interests&mdash;Eddie directing shows, Toly writing and drawing cartoons, among other activities.
 ==See Also==

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:40, 6 August 2021
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		+	[[File:Moustier_Family.jpg\|right\|400px]]
	==Icarists, Foot Jugglers==		==Icarists, Foot Jugglers==

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 Image:Les_Castors_at_Cirque_Medrano.jpeg|Les Castors at Cirque Medrano (1956)
 Image:Les_Castors_and_the_Rickshaw_Bros.jpeg|Les Castors at Circus Wilkie (c.1960)
-Image:Toly_M.jpg|Toly M.
+File:Moustier_Family.jpg|The Dedessus Le Moutier Family (1973)
 Image:Charlie_Castors_and_Les_Castors_(1999).jpg|Les Castors at Teatro ZinZanni (1999)
 Image:Toly_Castors_at_Teatro_ZinZanni.jpg|Toly Castors at Teatro Zinzanni (2009)

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 Originally, the family presented their act in Native-American costumes. The name "Castors" came from ''The Red Ryder'' comics, of which Toly was fond; the Red Ryder had a young Native-American sidekick named Little Beaver (''Petit Castor'' in French), and the young Moustiers thus became known as Les Castors&mdash;a name they will keep into adulthood.  Nora left the act when she married Rodolphe Gruss in 1962, and Nona left at the same time. By then, Toly was twenty, and Charly and Eddy were in their late teens; the act finally became theirs, their father just assisting them.
-Throughout their long career, Les Castors have been featured in practically every major European circus, as well as in every major variety theater. They even performed at the [[Circus Nikulin|"Old Circus"]] on Tsvetnoy Boulevard in Moscow and at the [[Circus Ciniselli|"Circus on the Fontanka"]] in Leningrad (today the Circus Ciniselli in St. Petersburg) with ''Le Cirque Français'', the first western circus troupe to visit the USSR in 1960, and participated in a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her Silver Jubilee in 1977.
+Throughout their long career, Les Castors have been featured in practically every major European circus, as well as in every major variety theater. They even performed at the [[Circus Nikulin|"Old Circus"]] on Tsvetnoy Boulevard in Moscow and at the [[Circus Ciniselli|"Circus on the Fontanka"]] in Leningrad (today the Circus Ciniselli in St. Petersburg) with ''Le Cirque Français'', the first western circus troupe to visit the USSR in 1960, and participated in a Royal Variety Performance for Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her Silver Jubilee in 1977.
 The Castors have also worked with [[Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey]] in Stuttgart, Germany, during its short-lived European engagement in 1963; at Sun City Casino, Bophuthatswana, in South Africa; and in North Korea, Japan, Israel, and the Arab Emirates, among other countries. After they had played the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in 1975, their father left the act, and went to teach acrobatics at [[Annie Fratellini’s]] Ecole Nationale du Cirque in Paris. The Castors have since continued their long career on their own.