Friday, March 20, 2009

THE CAROLI FAMILY?


Is this an early photo Ernesto, Francesco and Enrico? Who are they working with?

9 comments:

Peppo the Clown said...

Pat, I very much doubt they are the Francescos/Caroli. What calls my attention is that they look "like" some other clowns, but they are not. From left to right they look like Porto, Alfredo Rastelli, Bario and a "standard" white face... but... who are them?. First time I see them...

GothamTomato said...

That is some freaky looking make-up on the two in the middle.

Anonymous said...

peppo has a point they all look some other clows. mixtures of makeups.
the first one coold look like the tramp style of the carolis and the third lloks a bit like enrico as an august with the moustache etc. but the white certainly isnt Fransesco even not in his younger years ( he was already whiteface in his teenyears)

95% sure these arent the carolis. who are they. no idea

Anonymous said...

This clowns are the Caroli family : Camilo, Francesco, Ernesto and Enrico. I have an other photography which comes from "Studio Endrey", 49 rue des Filles du Calvaire, Paris.

Philippe Héran

Anonymous said...

when these are the carolis it must be a very early photo.because after that they al changed a lot.

I cant even recognise fransesco in this. I cant recognise that very italian nose at all.

strange.

Raffaele De Ritis said...

They are the Carolis.
The first on the left is Camillo Caroli, the elder of the brothers.
The third, with large shoes, is Enrico, for sure. Enrico's make up is unique and perfectly recognizable. The other two must be Ernesto and Francesco. Francesco, being the smaller of the brothers, must be the second one from right, even if I knew from him that he always played white face.
The small auguste make up is someway inspired by an italian popular strip comic character of the time, called Cirillino, as most clowns of the time used. Interesting that his costume is very close to the Rastelli style.
They started the clown act in the late 30s in Germany, as a second act besides their legendary horse jockey troupe.

Some dates:

Camillo 1904-1957
Enrico 1912-1983
Ernesto 1916-1994
Francesco 1922-2004

Anonymous said...

another clue why i think these arent the carolis.
i never heard of a camilo, not in the clownact and not in the riding act.
the heigts! fransesco was always the tallest of the three en enrico the august the smallest. this is completly the way around in this picture. ( so then fransesco must have been under 16 or so. is not likely)

does philipe héran has any idea wich year his ( and this) photo is. this one only can be a very early photograph because fransesco had the costumes and make-up we all know very early.
the only thing that seems a bit caroli like is taht the third august withthe hugeshoes has elements in his make-up that resembles enricos later make-up.

Anonymous said...

This photo appears in the brochure of archive photos that was provided with the printed programme at Cirque d'Hiver for the 2008-09 season. Within thta brochure it is captioned as Ernesto, Francesco and Enrico Caroli, plus partner (who is named). Initially there were 4 brothers doing the riding act, so I assume that the 4th brother was Camillio.

Anonymous said...

Further to my earlier posting, I have checked the brochure to which I refer, and the caption is "Ernesto, Francesco, Enrico Caroli et Gutenberg". I'd assumed it was from left to right, but now I wonder. Must remember to take the brochure to d'Hiver next winter and ask Alberto Caroli - who is a grandson of Enrico.