Feb

13

Old Time Circus in New Time Files

February 13, 2008 |

When I’m performing as a visualist one of the genres that I sometimes like to use is vintage circus.   There always seems  to be a lot of people that come and ask where one can find the old stuff, and even people that are not particularly circus orientated seem to find it fascinating.  So here are some links to some fine digital incarnations of the circus of yesteryear…

First stop would be to swing by Juggling TV where they have a very good Historical section.  A few of the other places where I used to get clips from are now kind of obsolete as you can find them all here and more.  Too much stuff to poke a stick at, but a top pick would be to check out Francis Brunn if you haven’t seen him before.

Archive.org is a pretty amazing source of culture from times gone by.  Some good old dance clips to be found here, and a search with ‘circus’ and ‘newsreel’ brought up this slightly disturbing gem filed under the categories of Motherhood and Surrealism.

The US Library of Congress has some very old archived moving pictures.  There are quite a few historical collections and subcollections there to check out.  The American Variety Stage is a bullseye for circus fans.
 The LoC site explains:

The American Variety Stage is a multimedia anthology selected from various Library of Congress holdings. This collection illustrates the vibrant and diverse forms of popular entertainment, especially vaudeville, that thrived from 1870-1920.

Deeper link to the  List of films from the collection. Most of these are over 100 years old. Enjoy!



Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. Gabe on February 14, 2008 8:02 pm

    Far out Kyle
    What an absolute treasure you are sharing such treasures with us!

    Love all your works!
    xxx
    Gabe

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