By Brendan Browne
The Big Top is pitched in Forest Park again this week.
The Clyde Beatty Cole Bros. Circus, the world’s biggest circus under a tent, arrived at the park early Wednesday morning for the 14th summer in a row, and performers will put on daily shows through Sunday.
Forest Park “was the very first park we played in the city. We liked the park and they liked us,” said Chuck Werner, a spokesman for the Clyde Beatty Cole Bros. Circus. “We look forward to it.”
The 118-year-old circus has about 200 performers, 40 animals, and travels to 110 cities on the East Coast by train and truck, Werner said. Performances start in the northeast part of the country in March and travel south to the circus’ Florida base by Thanksgiving, he added.
Performances at Forest Park are Thursday at 10:30 a.m. and 8 p.m., Friday at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 p.m., 5 p.m., and 8 p.m. Bleacher seats cost $9 for children and $14 for adults. Tickets in the reserved seat section are $2 extra and ringside seats cost $22 for everyone.
The performances, which will also travel to Staten Island and Brooklyn, take place in the park off Woodhaven Boulevard south of Myrtle Avenue.
This year the circus’ theme is “Surprise,” since the performers will try to blow the audience away with their daredevil stunts and acrobatics, Werner said.
The two-hour shows features Nubian lions, Bengal tigers, horses, ponies, elephants, and even household dogs and cats. Valery Tsoraev, a Russian-educated performer, directs a cat to plunge off a 40-foot high platform into his arms.
There is also a trapeze act, and a group of daredevils rides bicycles over a high wire at the top of the circus tent. The audience is treated to an aerial ballet and for the show’s finale a woman is shot from the world’s largest cannon at 55 miles per hour.
The circus was founded in 1884 by W.W. Cole, a stockholder in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and he called it W.W. Cole’s new Colossal Shows, Werner said. The circus was later dubbed Cole Bros. Circus and in 1950 it merged with the Clyde Beatty Circus, Werner said.
Clyde Beatty was a popular actor and an expert animal trainer. He starred in such movies as “The Lost Jungle” and “Perils of the Jungle.
Reach reporter Brendan Browne by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or by phone at 229-0300, Ext. 155.
