Saturday, April 28, 2007

CHARLIE CAIROLI & CO. : Cirque Bouglione



I don't have a lot of time, I have to catch a plane. This clip will have to speak for itself.

I'm hoping that John Cooper will be so kind as to fill us in with some more information on this one.



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your wish is my .....

Another clip from "La Piste Aux Etoiles" at Cirque d'Hiver Bouglione. (The building is owned by the Bouglione family).
In the still at the very start we see the brilliant Jimmy Buchanan on the left. Charlie himself in the middle. The gentleman on the right is Paul Conner (which was not his given name) who was the 4th whiteface to work with Charlie at Blackpool Tower Circus. The fourth member of the act is Charlie Cairoli Junior.
A year or so ago I asked Junior what year this was. He said it was 1973.
Notice that Charlie uses a coloured liquid (probably not actually milk) for better visibility. Furthermore, he uses a French-style milk bottle. Attention to detail.
Keep an eye on the girls in the background. At least one of them finds it hard not to giggle!
Junior is still alive, but has had health problems.
As far as I'm aware, Paul is still with us too.
Charlie and Jimmy have both gone to a better place.

Good enough, Pat?!

John.

Anonymous said...

This isn't fully relevant to the clip, but it does concern Cirque d'Hiver.
Since the series of winter shows began in 1999, the musical director there has been Tony Bario, whose father was Freddy Bario, and mother Henny Sosman, both of the clown act Les Barios, which has appeared within these pages some time last year.
Sad to tell, Tony Bario has just died. Unfortunately I have not been able to discover details beyond that, but he cannot have been very old. Those of you who have been to d'Hiver during that period are sure to agree with me that the shows will never be the same again.
R.I.P.

John.

sandy davidson said...

the date of this great video is 24 nov 1977 also in gala was norman barrett & mary chipperfield keep finding them pat sandy davidson

Pat Cashin said...

Are you sure that it's 1977???

A lot of the clothes and the hairstyles in these Cirque Bouglione clips would be horribly outdated by 1977.

Although Gunter Gebel Williams wore flare pants on his farewell tour despite the fact that they'd been out of style for almost a decade by then and wouldn't come back into style for quite a few years.

~P