Circus Life

Circus Life PDF Author: Micah Childress
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN: 162190394X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
The nineteenth century saw the American circus move from a reviled and rejected form of entertainment to the "Greatest Show on Earth." Circus Life by Micah D. Childress looks at this transition from the perspective of the people who owned and worked in circuses and how they responded to the new incentives that rapid industrialization made possible. The circus has long been a subject of fascination for many, as evidenced by the millions of Americans that have attended circus performances over many decades since 1870, when the circus established itself as a truly unique entertainment enterprise. Yet the few analyses of the circus that do exist have only examined the circus as its own closed microcosm--the "circus family." Circus Life, on the other hand, places circus employees in the larger context of the history of US workers and corporate America. Focusing on the circus as a business-entertainment venture, Childress pushes the scholarship on circuses to new depths, examining the performers, managers, and laborers' lives and how the circus evolved as it grew in popularity over time. Beginning with circuses in the antebellum era, Childress examines changes in circuses as gender balances shifted, industrialization influenced the nature of shows, and customers and crowds became increasingly more middle-class. As a study in sport and social history, Childress's account demonstrates how the itinerant nature of the circus drew specific types of workers and performers, and how the circus was internally in constant upheaval due to the changing profile of its patrons and a changing economy. MICAH D. CHILDRESS received his PhD in history from Purdue University and currently works as a RealtorĀ® in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His articles have appeared in Popular Entertainment Studies and American Studies.

Love Death Circus

Love Death Circus PDF Author: Jeffrey Raz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780997904840
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Love Death Circus is a love letter to the Bay Area circus community that has been the author's artistic home for over four decades. The novel follows Frank Singer, a veteran clown, through a year of death and dying, first a colleague, then his mother, his best friend and a mentor. As exotic as the characters are on-stage, they face the same scary world as everyone else when illness hits their community. Framed by a series of benefit performances, Love Death Circus takes you deep into an idiosyncratic community of artists with an outrageous sense of adventure reminiscent of Carl Hiaasen or Walter Mosley.

Circus Life

Circus Life PDF Author: Micah Childress
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN: 162190394X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
The nineteenth century saw the American circus move from a reviled and rejected form of entertainment to the "Greatest Show on Earth." Circus Life by Micah D. Childress looks at this transition from the perspective of the people who owned and worked in circuses and how they responded to the new incentives that rapid industrialization made possible. The circus has long been a subject of fascination for many, as evidenced by the millions of Americans that have attended circus performances over many decades since 1870, when the circus established itself as a truly unique entertainment enterprise. Yet the few analyses of the circus that do exist have only examined the circus as its own closed microcosm--the "circus family." Circus Life, on the other hand, places circus employees in the larger context of the history of US workers and corporate America. Focusing on the circus as a business-entertainment venture, Childress pushes the scholarship on circuses to new depths, examining the performers, managers, and laborers' lives and how the circus evolved as it grew in popularity over time. Beginning with circuses in the antebellum era, Childress examines changes in circuses as gender balances shifted, industrialization influenced the nature of shows, and customers and crowds became increasingly more middle-class. As a study in sport and social history, Childress's account demonstrates how the itinerant nature of the circus drew specific types of workers and performers, and how the circus was internally in constant upheaval due to the changing profile of its patrons and a changing economy. MICAH D. CHILDRESS received his PhD in history from Purdue University and currently works as a RealtorĀ® in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His articles have appeared in Popular Entertainment Studies and American Studies.

Life is a Circus

Life is a Circus PDF Author: Angela Witczak
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781647467326
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


When Your Life Is Like a Circus

When Your Life Is Like a Circus PDF Author: Dennis Hampel
Publisher: Xulon Press
ISBN: 1609578198
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
"WHEN YOUR LIFE IS LIKE A CIRCUS"....and whose life isn't? Here's the story of a family of entertainers with 48 years of real life experiences of international entertainment in circuses and stage productions that included hanging from a helicopter while strapped in a straightjacket! Brushes with death from rogue elephants, traveling hundreds of "mountain miles" a day, and meeting strangers who turned out to be 'angels' who showed up at "just the right time" are all integral parts of this exciting testimony of a family who felt God was directing their paths and who learned how to listen to His directions as they enjoyed His blessings along the way. This book contains the story of an entire family who took their God given talents and developed programs to motivate "children of all ages" to be the very best they were created to be! It's a true life story that can inspire the reader with the motivation to get thru challenges as THEY listen to God's direction in THEIR personal lives encouraging everyone to "MAKE CHRIST THEIR RINGMASTER"!

The Meaning of the Circus

The Meaning of the Circus PDF Author: Paul Bouissac
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350044156
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2019 This book documents and discusses the meaning(s) of the creative process at play in the crafting and staging of circus acts. It highlights the experience of circus artists as their skills develop and mature into public performances that create aesthetic and emotional values in the modern economy of live spectacles. It scrutinizes the meaning that circus acts produce for the spectators and for the artists themselves who live this process from the inside. This is a book for those studying semiotics and wanting to see it applied to a real life milieu in accessible and passionate prose. The Meaning of the Circus is grounded on the personal experience of Professor Paul Bouissac as both a circus entrepreneur and a researcher with decades of primary material on the significance of past and contemporary circus acts. It is based on substantial accounts provided by many men and women who have agreed to share the challenges, joys, and anxieties of their life as artists. Personal and rigorous, it contributes to the hermeneutics of the circus arts by adding existential depth to the production and reception of their performances.

Circus World

Circus World PDF Author: Andrea Ringer
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252056744
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
From the 1870s to the 1960s, circuses crisscrossed the nation providing entertainment. A unique workforce of human and animal laborers from around the world put on the show. They also formed the backbone of a tented entertainment industry that raised new questions about what constituted work and who counted as a worker. Andrea Ringer examines the industry-wide circus world--the collection of shows that traveled by rail, wagon, steamboat, and car--and the traditional and nontraditional laborers who created it. Performers and their onstage labor played an integral part in the popularity of the circus. But behind the scenes, other laborers performed the endless menial tasks that kept the show on the road. Circus operators regulated employee behavior both inside and outside the tent even as the employees themselves blurred the line between leisure and labor until, in all parts of the show, the workers could not escape their work. Illuminating and vivid, Circus World delves into the gender, class, and even species concerns within an extinct way of life.

Circus Bodies

Circus Bodies PDF Author: Peta Tait
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134331215
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
Examining photographs, illustrations, films and live performances, Peta Tait presents an extraordinary survey of 140 years of trapeze acts and the cultural identities that are presented by bodies in fast, physical aerial movement.

Circus

Circus PDF Author: Rupert Croft-Cooke
Publisher: London : Elek
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
An illustrated historical account of the circus's origins and development and of its lore and legends, describing acts and performers from the Circus Maximus to Madison Square Garden.

The End of the Circus

The End of the Circus PDF Author: Paul Bouissac
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350166502
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
This book analyses two features of the traditional circus that have come under increasing attack since the mid-20th century: the use of wild animals in performance and the act of clowning. Positioning this socio-cultural change within the broader perspective of evolutionary semiotics, renowned circus expert Paul Bouissac examines the decline of the traditional circus and its transformation into a purely acrobatic spectacle. The End of the Circus draws on Bouissac's extensive ethnographic research, including previously unpublished material on the training of wild animals and clown make-up, to chart the origins of the circus in Gypsy culture and the drastic change in contemporary Western attitudes on ethical grounds. It scrutinizes the emergence of the new form of circus, with its focus on acrobatics and the meaning of the body, showing how acrobatic techniques have been appropriated from traditional Gypsy heritage and brought into the fold of mainstream popular entertainment. Questioning the survival of the new circus and the likely resurgence of its traditional forms, this book showcases Bouissac's innovative approach to semiotics and marks the culmination of his ground-breaking work on the circus.

Everybody's

Everybody's PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American periodicals
Languages : en
Pages : 1090

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Book Description