links
Here we see another great painting by Fortunio Matania R.I. showing the world famous Tower Circus Blackpool.
The Blackpool Tower was modelled on the Paris Eifel Tower – about half size. Below is the incredible photograph of the Circus Bouglione placed completely below the tower in 1948! Most unlikely that this could happen now.
The painting shows, unusually, two lady riders performing dangerously on the one horse. Usually it is a male who holds the upper balancer. The date for the artwork is not shown.
See below, The four Directors who formed the then Blackpool Tower Company were, J. Bickerstaff, W.F. Anderton, A.L. Dickins and W. Bratby. William Bratby (1852 – 1911) was a cousin to my father Richard Bratby. (‘Sandow’)
In 1889 it was the Great Exhibition and Gustav Eifel’s new tower of just under 1,000ft was centrepiece. John Bickerstaff, a Blackpool businessman who was to found the Blackpool Tower Company was inspired to create an half sized replica in Blackpool with the vision of putting a circus within the area. Bickerstaff had visited the New Cirque in Paris which had a revolutionary hydraulic sinking ring for aquatic use and Bickerstaff’s idea was to place one within Blackpool Tower. The Standard and Debenture Corporation of London promoted the Blackpool Tower Company, and a site was bought from the Central Promenade Estate Arcade in November 1890 for £60,000. Bickerstaff and his fellow Directors W. F. Anderton, A. L. Dickins, A Lowcock, William Bratby and General Manager George Harrop – steered the great project by purchasing most of the shares. A compentition was organised for the design of the Tower and at a meeting of the Directors the design submitted by Manchester architects James Maxwell and Charles Tuke was chosen on the afternoon of 1st July 1891. This photo shows the Tower under construction.
Cirque Bouglione in France and the family name are a very long established circus dynasty. The very large family enterprise is still one of the greatest in Europe with the touring complex and also a grand winter show in their famous building in Paris owned by the family and used for that equally famous film ‘Trapeze’ (1956) starring Bert Lancaster who was actually a circus flyer before his Hollywood career.
Here we see a most incredible picture of their large circus pitched under the Eiffel Tower in Paris 1948.
Every gratitude for this photograph to David Larible yet another world famous traditional circus clown. (see photo thread for his persona)
