Circus; The Flyers

National Educational Television and Radio Center · 1964

Flying is a distinctly American part of the circus. While many of the aerial acts are European in origin, the sensational men and ladies on the flying trapeze did their first tricks and developed the first flying rigging under American canvas. To this day flying remains an American specialty. This program is devoted to the artistry of some of the greatest flyers of yesterday and today. Among those seen in old and new footage are: Alfredo Cadona, who took his life at forty after a pulled muscle hampered his performance ability; Antoinette Concello, the most famous lady flyer of her day, who conquered the impossible triple somersault today (Miss Concello is in charge of the Ringling Flying Ballet.); the Flying Artones; Reggie Armor and Bob Yerkes and their wives Bonnie and Dottie, among todays best flyers; the Flying Alexander, a group which stars triple somersaulting Faye Alexander; and Adrian Catarzi, a graduate of the Florida State University training course in circus entertaining. A segment of the program examines the triple somersault considered by many the most difficult trick in the circus. Reggie Armor, Faye Alexander and Adrian Catarzi all demonstrate the trick. Running Time: 28:45 (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche) This series is concerned with the American circus in its original and enduring image: the noisy, steamy, tented, traveling circus a form that began in 1826 with a farmer named Howe, a fifty-foot tent, and one wagon. Howe, and many others in the eighteen hundreds, turned a popular type of Roman entertainment at the time of Christ into a peculiarly American thing that has mirrored and grown side by side with the growth of this country. The circus is its people. And in this series the people of the circus, past and present, are the focal point. In that sense Circus! takes place backstage and in the very heart of the performance. The series shows the degree of skill it takes an individual circus performer to execute the tricks of his profession, the hardships of life in the circus, the feelings of those who devote their lives to the Big Top. The viewer comes to know these things from the words of the performers themselves. As the viewer watches them perform, they sometimes explain, they sometimes criticize. Always their comments shed new light on the legendary, but little understood world of the circus. The 10 half-hour episodes that comprise this series were originally recorded on film. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)