I am a circus brat, my parents were trapeze artists. At this
point, most ask me if I am good on the trapeze. Ummm, this is not
an inherited trait! Also, I am not in the circus! While some think
that clowns can be a bit scary, most will agree that the circus is
fun!
The coords for the final can be found by solving the
following.
N 48 AB.CDE W122 FG.HIJ
The Latin word circus comes from the Greek word, kirkos, meaning
ring or circle. In Ancient Rome the circus was a building for the
exhibition of horse and chariot races, equestrian shows, staged
battles, displays featuring trained animals, jugglers and acrobats.
For A, find the year the Senate built a triple arch honoring Titus
and subtract 80.
The circus came to town, or rather to America, in 1793. Find the
town that hosted that great event and count the letters in the
name, divide this number by 3. While Englishman, Phillip Astley is
considered the father of the modern circus, the man credited with
bringing the circus to America is a father of the modern circus of
sorts in his own right. Find the name of this man. To find B, add
the number of M’s in his last name to the value calculated
above.
Phineas Taylor Barnum is often credited with saying "there's a
sucker born every minute." While there is no proof that he said
that, it is known that he said that "every crowd has a silver
lining," and acknowledged that "the public is wiser than many
imagine." While I have moments where I may disagree with that last
statement, I don’t think anyone can disagree that in the USA,
the circus has become synonymous with Ringling Bros. and Barnum
& Bailey Circus. Barnum was born July 5, 1810 and started his
salesmanship quite early in life at the age of 12. After a long
life in entertainment, Barnum joined James A. Bailey and James L.
Hutchinson to form P.T. Barnum's Greatest Show On Earth, And The
Great London Circus, Sanger's Royal British Menagerie and The Grand
International Allied Shows United. Given the lengthiness of that
name, understandably it soon became known as the Barnum &
London Circus. Barnum and Bailey split ways for a time before
reuniting to form Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show On Earth. I
wonder what happened to James L. Hutchinson? To find C, find the
number of years Barnum and Bailey were separated and multiply that
number by 2.
In recent times, the Cirque du Soleil has entered the circus
arena (pun intended). The Cirque du Soleil has humble beginnings
starting out as a group of street performers but they have grown
into an international sensation with more than 4,000 employees from
over 40 different countries, including 1,000 artists. To find D,
multiply the original number of street performers by the year they
started. Divide this number by 7936.
The Cirque du Soleil performs in many countries. To find E,
identify the countries these flags are from and use the first
letter in the country’s name. Add these letters together and
divide the sum by 7.5
Many acts are performed in the circuses these days. Common acts
include a variety of acrobatics, gymnastics (including tumbling and
trampoline), aerial acts (such as trapeze, aerial silk, corde
lisse), contortion, stilts and a variety of other routines.
Juggling is one of the most common acts in a circus; the
combination of juggling and gymnastics is called equilibristics and
include acts like plate spinning or the rolling globe. But we
mustn’t forget the clown.
Clowning has had a long history, across the world -- from
ancient Egypt to the middle ages to the current day. The father of
the modern circus, Philip Astley, created the first circus clown in
1768. To solve for F, find the stage name of this character whose
role remained a mainstay of the circus for over 100 years. Add
together the letters in his two names and divide that sum by 6.
These days, clowning has been taken to a new level by modern
clowns. To find G, find out who was named “America’s
Best Clown” by Time Magazine in 2001. From his name, subtract
4.
Juggling is one of the most common acts in the circus. Jugglers
juggle many things: balls, rings, clubs, knives, torches,
chainsaws. Enrico Rastelli was the most famous and, in the opinion
of many, the greatest juggler who ever lived. In addition to
leather soccer balls, he would juggle up to ten small balls, which
is generally considered the record. Rastelli was also known to
juggle plates and sticks, all of which was combined with
equilibristics, antipodism and acrobatics. In the world of
juggling, sideswaps is a notation for describing a series of
juggling throws. In basic site swap notation, one assumes that a
juggler is making alternating throws in a steady rhythm, and
assigns a number to each throw based on how many beats later the
thrown object will have just landed and will be available again to
be thrown.To discover H, find the sideswaps that notates a ball
held in the hand until that hand's turn comes up again and multiply
that number by itself.
”He’d fly through the air with the greatest of ease
that daring young man on the flying trapeze”, did I just get
the song stuck in your head? Ah, the thrill of the trapeze. Back in
the day, you would have a pretty young woman standing on the
platform whose job it was to catch the bar. There would be the man
who caught (the catcher) and the man who flew (the flyer). While
the flying trapeze is the style used in many circuses back when my
parents were flying, there are other types of trapeze including
static, swinging, Washington, dance, and multiple trapeze. In the
flying trapeze, a performer jumps from a platform with the trapeze
so that gravity makes the trapeze swing. To find the value of I,
find the year it is believed that the flying trapeze performance
was invented. I is equal to the second number of that year.
The photo at the top of this page shows some of the members of
the Flying Valentines. A history of the group can be found at
http://www.circushistory.org/Bandwagon/bw-1987Nov.htm
“Circus acts are one of a few professions which are generally
carried on by families. Due to the complexity of the tasks to be
mastered, the amount of time required in the training process, and
the intimacy which must exist between the teacher and the student
it is often the family members who are broken into the act first;
and if the novice is not already a member of the family he or she
may eventually marry into the family of the circus act. Persons who
join an act who are not blood relatives are usually spoken of,
thought of, and treated as if they were actually family members,
sharing meals and living quarters just as if they were members of
an extended family, often taking the family name as his or her own
stage name. In some cases new members as much as give up their own
family ties, and are "adopted" into the circus family. These
inductees are subject to all the emotional support, protection, and
affection as well as the petty jealousies, complaints, and
conflicts of the circus family in the same way that any real family
member would be. The family members often branch off to form
troupes of their own but retain the professional advantage of the
family name. To a certain extent all members of the troupe assume
responsibility for one another just as a family might and the
success and longevity of the troupe itself depends on the closeness
of the bonds between its members.”
This is the family I belong to. In 1926, the first of the Valentine
brothers to go into trapeze work was George D. Valentine. He
brought his brothers Fred and Bill on board shortly after. The
Valentino troupe toured with the Seils-Sterling Circus in 1933
calling themselves the "Original Flying Valentinos". Eventually,
the Valentine family troupe broke up because as Fred later stated,
"We don't work together because we've got different ideas." Ahhh,
brothers. While the Valentine brothers continued flying, the three
of them never worked as a trio again. To find J, subtract 5 from
the last number in the year the Original Flying Valentinos broke
up.
