We have looked at pictures old and new, so we should have an idea of a cross section of the Circus around the world. I suggest the greatest harm done to the Circus has been done by itself, with a history of inconsistency, anything will do, and he/she's a trouper. The profession has ran from lumps of coal to the Hope Diamond. This act was arguably the greatest of it's kind ever seen. Pure magnificence, greatness, and talent with stunning animals, and with out an ounce of "cute and charming" and poor animals as seen in the next post. The demise of the act, is one of the saddest stories in the annuals of Circus history, and one of many not spoken about when we are publishing "glitter picture history books." Ursula herself when she retired, was almost penniless. How can that be? The pie was cut in a number of pieces and she got the smallest piece, for the greatest input. That's the way it works with no standard, no union, and no regulation. When creating a piece of art, a winning sports team, or a record breaking concert, what is the most valuable component? The sponsor/owner/producer? The artist/athlete/musician? Or the gallery/ball field/coliseum? "It's mine and I can do what I want" is an accurate self statement. You should be able to hurt/damage only yourself also. The problem is that kind of thinking damages a whole industry. If you produce a product, or provide a service with that arrogance, the public quits buying. A few will still purchase an inferior product, but most won't. They will find something better for their money.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
As long as Buckles has brought up "argumentative," I'm going to rattle the saber here a bit.
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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16 comments:
I agree Wade. I would discribe this act as truly spectactular.I remember working with Ursula, her's is the only act that I watched every show.It was breathtaking to watch from up close.
Margaret,
Originally there were 11 bears in the act. When did you work around her?
Wade
if ursula has had hard times financially since retiring, this is criminal. she had one of the most exciting, spectacular acts i have ever seen. the best polar bear act i've ever heard of, and i have never heard anything negative about her either. if anyone deserved a happy retirement, she does. however, unfortunately, i know that this is not the only instance of a great star discarded by the business at the end. sadly, it also happens in other fields of show business and also in the corporate world as well. somehow, we need to find a way to make sure our people can retire comfortably.
Well, one probable reason for Ursula retiring penniless was that in the communist countries, everything belonged to the government - animals, props, wardrobe, transport. When the acts were booked out of the country, the salary went to the government, which in turn paid the performers a small amount.
Frank Magyarosi told me that when he came over from Hungary, he worked a lion act, rode in a bareback act and pas de duex, in a teeterboard act plus all the spec/production stuff and got paid $150 a week. I don't know how much Ringling paid for the troupe that he came with, but I bet it was a considerable amount.
Ada Smeja had similar stories.
Ian
Henry,
Whether you heard anything negative or not isn't relevant as you didn't know her 24 hrs a day or as well as others. Charly wasn't noted for "cute and charming", but we can't deny his achievement. Manfred, rest his soul said she could be a real hard headed pistol at times. Greatness is not about congeniality, or greeting your public. It is about achieving and accomplishing.
I don't think it happens as much today in other show business as it used to in the 1920's, and there is AGVA now. In the higher echelons of the corporate world, you should be able to embezzle enough to make it square out. And that is what we are addressing here Henry, the higher echelons.
I hope someone will elaborate more, but I am not holding my breath, but as Ian stated the Government got the large piece of the pie, and Ringling got a one of a kind act reasonable.
The sponsor, the artist, the gallery owner, what is the most important cog in that masterpiece.
Isn't it ironic Henry that the people who profess to love it, who can tell you what shade of blue they used to paint a wagon in 1935, and the exact loading arrangement of the train in 1950, and the exact number of animals in a menagerie in 1965, have no idea what a ringmaster, a choreographer, a clown, a juggler, a horse trainer, etc. etc. are paid for their services. Carson and Barnes occasionally publishes a help needed, must do 3 or more. Do you remember what the base salary offered for those services was? That is as close as anybody wants to get to the subject. There have been expose done one every thing, but that forbidden subject.
Wade
Ian,
How well did you know Magyarosi? He had a sharp black horse act, with gorgeous harness on Ringling. Look in to it, I suggest the government act were very reasonable, given what you got.
Wade
wade. i know that being nice doesn't have anything to do with anything. i never even met ursula, but i do remember a friend who worked with her talking about her concerns for the bears, especially in the hot weather, and how bad the heat was for the bears, but management apparently didn't understand/care as long as the bears performed every day. i'm sure that the act may not have been paid what it was worth but more of what it was paid should have gone to ursula. without ursula, there would have been no act. no matter how difficult she might have been at times, she did her job in the ring and that's what she was hired to do. many people at the top of their profession are difficult, at best, but as long as they do their job, it's not important. i'm in complete agreement with you as far as the way employees are treated. i know enough about salaries to know that they rarely match value to the company. ringling should be embarassed in perpetuity when you think about the acts that never performed with ringling because they couldn't afford the salary cut from shrine and fair dates, as well as the acts that left because of money. i don't know what everyone was paid but i know that some of the star acts were paid less on the greatest show on earth than on some of the better mud shows. i remember when ringling performers voted to drop agva and i also remember the bitter dispute at the newspaper i was working at when the newspaper guild tried to make us a union paper. i agree that in many instances we have all put on blinders about many things, particularly salaries, living conditions, business ethics, eqipment upkeep, animal care, etc. my time in the trenches was very sheltered because i worked for a man who treated his employess well, paid as much as he could afford, provided better living quarters than many larger shows, and maintained cookhouse standards by eating in the cookhouse every day. the older i get, the more thankful i am that i didn't work for some of the men who were considered saints by the fans. being nice to fans means nothing if you screw over the people who work for you, as ome of the most revered managers did. the bottom line for many show owners seems to be cut corners everywhere to maintain a certain profit margin. it's very difficult for many of us to survive after retirement. i don't know what the answer is. i wsh i knew and i wish we all didn't know so many people who have been left with nothing when they left the center ring. some were able to invest and save money but many weren't. the days of finding a position to reward people for work in the past have gone.
Henry,
In regards to Ringling, I, and many others were paid more by them then any other producer. It makes some people very angry when I say that, so I will state as I have in the past, in 1989 my top salary was 850.00, what some make today. In 1991 Ringling paid me 1500.00. Today I make 1000.00, all for the same thing a tiger act numbering at least 14 animals. I don't want to make anybody angry but that's facts.
In regards to Ursula's worth, don't forget to add in the death of her longtime partner/assistant who was killed by a bear. A large number of those greats ended with disabilities which they just had to live with.
Wade
Wade, not the same Magyarosi. The guy I'm taliking about came over later. After defecting from Ringling he did a solo lion act and then a very fanciful space themed dog act (he gave me his props - cool little rockets circling mirrorball sattelites and stuff) that he worked in Vegas for a while. Then he put together a lion/tiger number that he didn't have much success booking. Last I knew his truck full of animals was kept parked in an orange grove and he was down to feeding them chicken necks. This was 1979, so who knows what happened to him.
Ian
I was directly involv3d as the Ent. Director at Circus World in regard to the transition of Ursala accnd the Polar bears from the traeling Blue Show to hoped for permanency at Circus Worls, with a brand new building to house the bears going out to a pretty large swimming pool. A very long chute had to be built from that area directly to the "Circus day theatre" going thru the original cage where ball the ten bears had been housed together in Europe and on Ringling. None of the steel Ringling individual cages built especially for the bears were ever used.
Now Ursuala was not a sociable person at all and Manfred as well. She had no showmanship of presentation, other than being small. She had no graceful bearing, walking, etc. Don Foote had made some beautiful costumes for her to wear [hyer East German costumes were awful], but she continued to wear the old stuff except for when Irvin or some big shot appeared. We assumed she had it packed to take back to Europe. Trolle Rhodin told me that he had her work a lion and tiger act for his circus prior to the polar bears. I always had the feeling that she did not train the bears. She never prcticed or deviated from the routine at all. Once in a while she would walk only three of the four big males for the hind leg walk finale. All the bears got infected feet and the Ringling vets could not come up with a suitable treatment. [they had them walking in and out of the cage thru a huge tray with an iodine slution in it]. Finally they called Albert Rix and he had met Ursuala and seen the act. He said the needed constant bedding of white sawdust. Manfred constantly hosed out the cage and it was always damp.
Ursula did not like the new building nor the pool, understandably so when she said to me that having them run around and then in the pool made it too risk for her to then require discipline. Now the much publicized act did not work on Monday and even when Monday would be a holiday we had a difficult time to get her to change her day off. Also there were beefs on why the bears were not in the pool. She would put them in the pool when no public was around and then she and Manfred could reprimand them if they got too carried away, fighting, etc.
Now Ursula, Axel and myself were provided with three very nice large mobile homes to live in on the property. The idea being that the show could alterate the elephants, cats, ec. on a perpetual three year basis rather than two years of red anbd gold. Gunther and Seigrid even came up to have a look and Seigrid did not like Mobile home living in a tornado-storm area [she heard abut that corridor]. Now we all had automobiles and lived quite well. I have no idea what she was personally paid, nor Manfred. He was the sole groom and lived with her.
I got along OK with her, strictly business, but she would naturally ring her beefs to me [very few]. Each morning before the first show I would say, "How you today Ursula?" and she would always sullenly "feefty, Feefty" reply, even if I suggested Eighty, twenty. She and Donna would remain in contact and I heard about Manfred being mauled and killed by some other bear.
She was certainly a devoted product of those Eastern State circuses and had note that political structure not collapsed I can invision her i content retirement. Too bad. She was a perfect person for those times. But the act was awesome to be sure. It was what we would expect from the GSOE and Irvin Feld was the guy that brought it here.
Ian,
That was Frank Mogarosi. He had a pitiful cat act in the 70's. An other example of, buying an airplane doesn't make you a pilot. But alas, he was allowed to taint the industry for a couple of years, just as the AR movement was kicking in.
It would have been an injustice if you got to meet the horse training Mogarosi, and I didn't. LOL
Wade
John,
Good story. I hope people realize there are two sides to a person that they may not know, by an occasional hand shake or a date or two a year. Nobody is as perfect as the "stage persona" may portray. There is even a segment of our society that thinks Roy Rogers sucks, because he stuffed Trigger. I may think he is great, but I do have to wonder at the thinking behind that decision.
Incredibly with the statements of "she had no showmanship of presentation, other than being small. She had no graceful bearing, walking, etc, and the grooms lived with her", if you had added shake the head no, and wag the finger for every failed trick, and "cute and charming", you would have described the individual that Dr. Oosterhouse laughing said must be good, she is announced as "Great Britians Greatest Female Wild Animal Trainer."
Just curious how much more would a nice looking just as capable trainer have been worth to present the act back in those times beings costumes worn and grace are of of such importance to an act. Would you look out side the tent for that individual or would you just look internally?
Wade
Wade
Wade, I never saw Franks act, but here's a funny (or not so funny) story. When he was at the Hall of Fame, one of his kids got sick and he had to leave.
While he was at the hospital, a guy doing a comedy act - J.P. Theron - at the Hall did his act, without his permission. Frank was P.o.'d. JP had been working the cage doors, so knew the routine. Ever hear a story like that?
Ian
The great polar bear act was her thing for sure. Put her in the cage with Charly's act, Gunther, yourself , Trudy, Jackie, Sarah, Vencenta and etc. and there would be no comparison. It was ane of a kind thing and I still doubt if she trained it. She was alright by me and I have no axe to grind. Its only my impression. I am sure she was not an expert in regard to Polar Bears, but the were only a commodity of caged animals that she chose to present. Beats working at the laudry. That is my impression and hope I am proven wrong.
Johnny,
I have never said she trained it or think it is important. Most of the East German Government animals like Russia's we "equipment" to be used as need, how need, when needed, until it was time to get new "equipment." As a performer you were also told what you would present, and where. One of the sorry things that is/was wrong with the circus, and not far removed from "show owned animals".
Wade
Ian,
Just another thing wrong with our deal. Rather then not even using crap, let's make a double effort to use it. We sure don't want to leave it out. After all we did advertise lions, and this junk is what was available or cheap enough. Leave the crap out, better to have a open slot in the show then show them something bad.
Wade
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