CIRCUS 1870-1950 - XL

For a hundred years, the American circus was the largest show-biz industrythe world had ever seen. During the heyday of the American circus from themid-1800s to mid-1900s, traveling circuses performed for audiences of up to10,000 per show, employed as many as 4,000 men and women, and crisscrossedthe country on 20,000 miles of railroad in one season alone. The spectacleof death-defying daredevils, strapping super-heroes and scantily-cladstarlets, fearless animal trainers, and startling freaks gripped theAmerican imagination, outshining theater, vaudeville, comedy, and minstrelshows of its day, and ultimately paved the way, for film and television totake root in the modern era. Long before the Beat generation made "on theroad" expeditions popular, the circus personified the experience andoffered many young Americans the dream of adventure, reinvention,excitement, and glamour. In 600 pages and 1,000 color and black-and-whiteillustrations, including about 200 of the earliest color photographs ofthe circus ever taken and many posters by the famous Strobridgelithographers, this book brings to life the grit and glamour behind thecircus phenomenon. Organized into nine thematic chapters, the book shedsnew light on circus history, from a behind-the-scenes look at life on themove, to the freedoms enjoyed by early female performers, to theinnovative production skills that demanded as much know-how as amodern-day film production. For the first time ever, contemporary readerscan now experience the legend of the American circus in full effect. Thebook's broad subject matter, riveting images, and diverse visual materialwill appeal both to the circus aficionado and those who have never beforebeen to circus. Noteworthy features include: approximately 200behind-the-scenes, unpublished extremely rare Kodachrome slides of thecircus from the early 1940s-1950s; 300+ riveting lithographic posters thatare considered masterpieces of their time, including many by the famousStrobridge Lithography Company; 100s of black-and-white photographs culledfrom fifteen circus archives and collections in the US; over 15 originalsideshow banners, most of which have never before been published; rarecolor and black-and-white lithographs and engravings from the 16th - 19thcenturies illustrating the worldwide roots of the circus; black-and-whitephotographic gems by key early circus photographers Harry Atwell, F. W.Glasier, and Edward Kelty; and iconic circus photographs by August Sander,Weegee, and little-known circus images by Stanley Kubrick, Charles and RayEames, and Harold Edgerton