HAMS IN HOLLYWOOD?

A complete surprise to me. I didn't see one ham while I lived in Hollywood. Not one! I saw thousands!


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(SOURCE: Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus Magazine and Daily Review, 1940)

"Hello, I'd like to order a ham for my party. 

Are any of the Barrymore's available?"

Ham on the red carpet.

Hams eating ham?

Goodbye!

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(SOURCE: Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus Magazine and Daily Review, 1940)

BIG FLOPPY SHOES optional

Suitable for framing? Hang it on a child's bedroom wall. Just an idea.


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(SOURCE: Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus Magazine and Daily Review, 1940)

Clown FELIX ADLER

The clowns I've featured in photos have been nameless, except for Felix Adler. The reason Adler is named in the Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus Magazine and Daily Review is because he was the head clown at the circus.


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(SOURCE: Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus Magazine and Daily Review, 1940)

First Clown to Appear on Television

Felix Adler entertained millions in his role as head clown for Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus. In the hierarchy of clowns, he ranked at the top as a whiteface clown.

He performed with such famous clowns as Lou Jacobs and Emmett Kelly.

All three circus greats lived and practiced their routines in Sarasota.

Adler's costume took up a lot of space because he buttressed his posterior with a couple of basketballs hitched in place with a custom sling similar to a brassiere. He wore traditional whiteface clown makeup adding a big rhinestone on the tip of his nose.

Often the clown topped his garb with a big jello mold for a hat. Remember, the early days of television and product sponsorship? Adler had ties to Jell-O!

Piglets played integral roles in Adler's clowning. He named each one Amelia after his wife and as the piglets became full fledged pigs, he traded them in for a new piglet whom he promptly named Amelia.

The first clown to appear on television, Adler earned his title "The White House Clown" by performing for three presidents (Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Franklin D. Roosevelt). He and his wife were the first American husband and wife clown team. (SOURCE: Squidoo/Felix Adler)

Felix Adler died on February 1, 1960. The following is his obituary from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on February 2nd.




(SOURCE: Sarasota Herald-Tribune)

Notice the handwork of the staff artist on the photo of Adler. Apparently the image was less than satisfactory for reproduction so the artist did a bit of doodling. Sort of surprised that the newspaper from the town where the circus was headquartered did not have a decent photo of the most important clown.

FELIX ADLER loved Wheaties, and so did ANTOINETTE CONCELLO

I really have no idea if the famous Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey clown Felix Adler loved Wheaties, but the ad would have you believing he did. Most likely just another ad, like the cigarette ads from long ago, where words are put into a celebrities mouth.


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(SOURCE: Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus Magazine and Daily Review, 1940)

These days the only safe way to let a celebrity speak on behalf of your product is to make sure they follow the script. Try to imagine Lindsay Lohan representing any company. How about a car ad with her behind the wheel careening towards a palm tree. A present day clown. Sad, very sad.

As to Antoinette Concello, the aerialist:

Antoinette Concello was a member of the famous "Flying Concello" aerial troupe, a family of flying trapeze artists. In the 20th Century multi-ring circus, the flying trapeze was the main attraction in the center ring of the "Big Top." The Flying Concellos were the premier troupe of aerialists in the 1920s, and Antoinette became known as the "greatest woman flyer of all time" because she was the only woman to complete the fabled "triple" (see Carol Reed's 1956 film "Trapeze" for background about this legendary stunt). A triple means that the aerialist completes three full somersaults while "flying" through the air after leaving their bar and being caught by a "catcher" hanging upside down on the opposite bar. It is a dangerous stunt.



Antoinette appeared with the troupe as one of the acts in Cecil B. DeMille's 1952 Best Picture Oscar-winning movie "The Greatest Show on Earth," which uses Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Baily Circus as a backdrop. The red-coated Ringling ringmaster Fred Brandna would introduce her act by announcing that Antionette was the first and only woman to achieve the triple, and added that she did it with "incomparable grace". The legendary flyer did not disappoint her audience, performing the fabled triple at every performance.



Antoinette Concello was inducted into the Circus Hall of Fame in 1963.

She died in 1984. (SOURCE: IMDB)

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(SOURCE: Sarasota Herald-Tribune, February 7, 1984)

I will have more about Felix Adler in another post.