Deux Ex Machina
With all the discussion of the “Political Circus” using circus as a derogatory statement to describe the current disorganized and chaotic state of affairs - we at Bella headquarters decided to set the record straight…
Chaos vs. Circus
The feat of sustainably organizing and mobilizing the sheer amount of resources and manpower were so impressive and unheard of, Ringling Brother & Barnum and Bailey Circus caught the attention of both the German government and the American military. The US Army studied and consulted with the Circus for ways to feed, move, and house large groups of people during WWII.
Contrary to popular belief, a circus is not chaos. A circus is an incredible and efficient feat of logistical planning, coordination, and execution with an amazing ability to roll with the punches. Afterall, the show must go on!
In the late 1800's and early 1900's, traveling circuses were thriving in the US. This in part was a result of the US's economic landscape. Unlike Europe, much of America was still in the process of developing and the cities and towns were too small to support a permanent local circus of their own. As a result, the business model became the circus comes to you! Taking advantage of the US’s growing infrastructure, the circuses that could afford it, travelled largely by train from city to city. Some of these were very successful and grew to enormous proportions. They were, as McClure Magazine put it in 1895, a “kingdom on wheels… that folds itself up like an umbrella.”
“According to the Ringling Brothers Golden Jubilee programme in 1933, the show travelled over 20,000 miles in over 100 double-length rail- road cars, with 1,500 employees, 735 horses, six herds of elephants and 1,000 other wild animals. The circus had its own lawyer, doctor, dentists and detectives, and the kitchen served 4,800 meals a day, cooking 10,000 pancakes for breakfast (Wood 2002: 215, see also Davis 2002: 38).”
From: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0170840611403668.
Ringling Brothers, was the last show to travel by rail, closed their touring shows in 2017 (there are rumors that there are new projects in the works!!!) Many Circuses such as Universoul Circus and Circus Vazquez run successful tours every year but there is also a new relatively new trend towards more localized companies. Some location specific circuses include the Big Apple Circus, Circus Flora, Circus Sarasota, Lone Star Circus, Midnight Circus.
History or culture buff? Read more about the context and assumptions we make about circus: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0170840611403668
Although Circus Bella runs on a much smaller scale than the classic train-circus, it is still a lot to juggle.
In 2019, the show travelled 45 miles (2300 if you count Colorado) in a 20 Penske Box Truck (entire set and props), a Ford F150 (some Gentiles) 2 minivans (more Gentiles and sound equipment), and 6ish personal vehicles. The circus carries a robust first aid kit, a carafe of coffee, a few bags of peanut butter pretzels and fresh spring water (Thanks Michael Pinkham). Feeding our 22 hungry company members is a DIY adventure. Read here about what goes on in the Bella Kitchen.
Over the years, we have had the mishaps and misadventures that come with the territory. Sometimes they are small but impactful like the time we locked ourselves out of the back of the truck (Abigail used the wrong pad lock). Sometimes it is a larger scale ordeal and the best we can do is prepare; once, we were required to conduct a fire drill and proved to the SFPD that we can move the offending part of our set in 7 seconds. However, some things can and will always catch you off-guard. Once and only once, we hit an irrigation system and we had to rally to move the entire set 100 yards. The company quickly organized to accomplish this unexpected task and we managed to start only 10 minutes late. No matter what comes our way, we address things quickly and efficiently in order to do what we said we came here to do.
