Page 29 - The Outdoor Showman APR-JUN 2020

RODEO NEWS
That’s how he learnt to move a big show long distances, and do without sleep.
“You gotta do what you’ve gotta do,” he said. A lot of circus people and showies nodded “yes.” They’d been there, done that.
In Victoria, Tony and Cathy Maynard took Eroni’s Circus off the road, full-size liberty horses and all.
Tony put the biggest Kenworth prime mover to work driving interstate. Transport was one of the few “essential industries” allowed during lock-down.
“Infamous,” the over-18s-only Cabaret circus of Pepe Ashton’s family, had
to cancel long-term bookings around Southeast Queensland.
Then they trekked 300-plus kms to a friend’s property near Hervey Bay. Bekky, Michelle and the now-adult kids kept training.
The rest of the Circus Joseph Ashton
Big Tops and great hire tents are back with Mervyn and Nikki at Pepe’s 100-acre property near Beverley, WA.
Damien Syred was probably hardest-hit of all. He had to close both circuses, the product of 14 years running Circus Royale and a couple of years The Great Chinese Circus.
Performers had to be sent back from Melbourne to China, New Zealand,
South America and many parts of Australia.
Then he ferried two lots of vehicles, liberty ponies and dogs, costumes and props back from around Melbourne to near Bacchus Marsh.
Paul and Norah Gilmore, with a string
of agricultural show bookings suddenly cancelled, left performing on the NSW North Coast, and tried to beat it into Queensland. The border blockade beat them.
They holed up with their big assortment of performing animals, up a couple of thousand feet at Armidale, in the New England, for winter...
That’s where Joe Perry, Sole Bros Circus, reckoned he never made any money unless there was sleet on the tent. Sometimes snow. Brrr...
Yuri at Circus Rio, after a disastrous six months in all-but-broke South Australia and country Victoria, called it a day around Adelaide, and sent dancing girls and sight acts back home to Australia, South America and Russia.
Lennon’s and Burton’s Circuses
postponed a North Queensland itinerary that they’d booked more than a year ago. They convoyed into Geoff and Cheryl Lennon’s property at Kensington Grove, a couple of kms off the Warrego Highway near Hatton Vale.
Marty Grant and crew put up a tent cupola (no tent) and started rehearsing new flying trapeze tricks. Rod and Melanie’s camels, liberty Welsh ponies, donkeys and llamas get regular work-outs.
Nearby, Warren and Danielle Lennon, after building up the biggest dance- school on the South side of Brisbane
at Springfield near Ipswich, had to just look on, unable to work either the school or Warren’s dodgem-cars. Six-foot professional ballet-dancer son Jordan made it back from working With the Royal NZ Ballet, just in time to self-quarantine at home, along with sister Zoe.
At Forest Hill, near Laidley, long-time (and Command Performance) circus entertainers, Gary and Lorraine Grant, kept show people all over entertained on social media.
Robert Perry, another long-time circus proprietor, posted long-remembered photos and stories.
Bernice has been in and out of Gold Coast University Hospital more than 40 times, with people wishing her good luck with recurring cancer. Many gave her top marks for being “circus tough.”
In kiwi land, retired circus proprietor
Tony Ratcliff is in the last phase of producing a major book, with pictures, on the Bullen Circus family and history.
We’d rather...
Latest info is that our circuses mightn’t be back on the road for months.
And grudgingly, we know that’s best for all Australians. This virus has to be beaten, or we’ll all be going to unexpected funerals.
But not one circus person wouldn’t rather be back on the road - weather, blown motors, bank managers and
all. We’d all prefer to be free, on the
road again, breathing clear country air, over-worked and under-paid, living a privileged life-style with friends, bringing entertainment and smiles to a nation that will once again be glad to see us.
We’ll be glad to see them, too. We’ll both need mutual cheering up.
We’re itching to go, knowing we can’t, just yet. And we know we will overcome.
The show must go on.
Vale Stefan Krajcik
Stefan Krajcik died at 3.30am, Friday, 27th March, in Palliative care at Balaklava, SA, 93 years old.
Animal trainer/presenter with Bullens Circus in the 1960s, Stefan was later pony presenter and Ring Boss with Bullens/Moscow in the 1970s, (he spoke six languages, some with a heavy Czech accent), Elephant ‘Tanya’ presenter and pony and dog presenter with Frank Gasser’s Circus Royale and Royale American 3-Ring Circus, 1970s-80s, and spells with Sole’s, Lennon’s and most circuses in Australia and NZ.
Highly respected and very well- liked, he retired in the 1990s with partner Frances Marchenko, step-son, juggler-plate spinner-dog trainer Ralph (“Ravello”) Marchenko and Irish-trained trapezist-aerialist Kady, to Hoyleton, SA, while
the Ravello’s featured at SA and Victorian Agricultural shows and Adelaide’s Crazy Horse nightclub for the next few years.
In deteriorating health, Stefan was in Balaklava Hospital/Nursing Home for several years, but retained a keen interest in show business.
He was cremated, and the ashes placed alongside those of Frances.
Cirque du Soleil shuts
Canada-based Cirque du Soleil has closed all productions world-wide, laying off 4,679 employees and with debts of more than $US900-million.
Three main investors (50-percent owners, Luxembourg-based TPG capital, $27.5-million, Chinese company, 25-per centers, Fosun, $12.5-million, and 20-percenters, Canada’s Caisse du depot et placement, $10-million) had in
March bailed out the operation with an additional $50-million.
They bought the company in 2015 for
a reported $1.5-billion. In May, Moody’s Ratings downgraded the stock to junk status.
Chairman Mitch Garber said all shows were cancelled as a result of Covid19 virus. Last year, they sold 15-million in tickets, and grossed $1.5-billion. Wages were more than $400-million.
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