Page 22 - The Outdoor Showman April-June 2023

CIRCUS NEWS
After 130 years, Lennon
Circus takes a break
Cheryl, the most recent Granny Lennon
to be proprietor of Lennon Bros’ Circus, finished the final pulldown in mid-April, paid the crew, and drove slowly back
to the family’s acreage near Hatton
Bale, Queensland. So that was that.
It was end of a journey that
started 130 years ago.
There were tears from performers
and staff who stood by the family to
the end. Most sympathised with, and admired, Cheryl, especially for her work trying to hold the show together.
But two years of forced Covid9 lockdowns, no income, then four months of floods, a month of sleet and even snow, playing to token tiny houses, wrote the circus off.
In 1893, the first Granny Lennon took
her tiny troupe of human and animal performers over unmade roads
across the Blue Mountains and into history in country New south Wales.
For exactly 130 years after that,
Lennons brought popular family
circus entertainment to Australian
and New Zealand audiences, in
drought, flood, good times and bad.
Lions and tigers, dogs, camels, monkeys and chimps, buffalo, even elephants at times, always lots of horses, traditional Australian clowning, whip-cracking and rope-spinning, the Muldoon Act, juggling, leaping, knockabout, fire, glamorous dancers, local and imported aerial ballet and solos, musical numbers, unicycle
and breakaway bike acts, wire and rope walkers, the flying trapeze - it was all there! For growing generations of young-at- heart, memories that last a lifetime.
For three years, after the great Depression and World War Two,
they were stranded in New Zealand, struggling to get back to Australia.
At other tough times, as many as four family members drove trucks interstate, to gear up to revive their circus.
After Cyclone Tracey destroyed
Darwin on Christmas Day, 1974,
the Territory government sent for Lennons, to raise morale among the dispirited and beaten survivors.
It was the start of 14 out of 20 over-the-top tours. Each year, they braved 2,500 kms
of mostly-dirt roads to Territory and West Australian outback towns, down to Perth. Bitumen didn’t come until 1988, the Bi-centenary of Captain Cook’s landing.
In 1976, long-time proprietor, performer, tentmaker and mechanic Lindsay
Lennon, with top-performer brother
Phillip, created Australia’s only long- term two-ring circus, a huge hit in Perth, Adelaide and Tasmania, pioneering saturation TV advertising in the process. Each year, with a large carnival out front, they’d also bring quality productions
to parts of North Queensland, leaving
a trail of faithful fans and friends. Most years, the itinerary included Sydney
and suburbs, plus country NSW.
They grew to 26 sets of vehicles, mostly trucks and caravans or trailers.
In the bush, locals would ask,
“Is it as good as Lennons?”
Lennons spawned other circuses, too: Burton’s, Stardust (1993) and Hudson’s. With animal activists gathering momentum in the 1990s, Lindsay helped gather Australia’s circus proprietors
to create the Circus Federation. When the fans’ magazine folded in the
1990s, Lindsay financed its revival.
His mother, Dollie, the second
Granny Lennon, a zig-zag trapeze performer, brought fairy-floss to
the many aboriginal communities
they played in the 1970s and 80s.
She remained involved in circus,
from the 1930s to her death, aged
101, in 2016, and co-wrote an autobiography, “Sawdust in my
Shoes”, that ran to two editions
and over two thousand sales.
All four of Lindsay’s sons, Geoffrey, Warren, Shane and Scott, and their
own families were at one time or another involved in Lennons Circus. With the show’s demise becoming inevitable, most drifted away, leaving Cheryl to run a quality circus that
costs were starting to beat.
Insurances, wages, lack of heavy-
licence drivers, animal costs, Council animal bans, fuel and registrations of
all sorts, lack of city and suburban sites, ground rents, the need for security fencing as Australia became more lawless, thefts - they battled on.
Covid lockdowns and years of
diabolical drought, followed by half a year of floods: that’s what beat them. Timing couldn’t have been worse.
As Hungarian Bobby the clown said, “There’s no business like no business.” Loyal staff used to say, “Poor Cheryl!
You can’t expect her to go on losing money, just to keep us all on the road.” Everyone agrees she did a great job. Then she couldn’t anymore. Nobody could have. Is it the end?
Maybe, maybe not. There’s half a
Diego Bonaldo, popular globe rider-trapezist, suffered a shoulder injury in a fall at Robina. He was back in the air later, something worked. Big business, that just kept getting better.
Fast-action dog act, Disco Dogs, at Hudson’s Circus, at Coomera, May.
Historic pony presentation, Lennons Circus.
Winners of the Golden Clown at the World Circus Championships, Monaco, Khazakstanis seryk, Madi, Alja and Danyk Abycheff, as they appeared with Circus Royale. They’re now Australians.
20 THE OUTDOOR SHOWMAN