WIRTH’S CIRCUS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 52, 29 January 1938, Page 6

WIRTH’S CIRCUS

AN EXCELLENT SHOW. ANIMALS AND THRILLS. Run with a snap from beginning to end, tiie first performance at Palmerston North, last evening, of Wirth’s Circus gave a capacity attendance three hours of admiration for animals perfectly trained, wonderment at circus feats of skill and strength, laughs and thrills. In a most varied programme there was included something that would appeal to everybody—and everybody enjoys a good circus. Prolonged applause was accorded the presentation of an act which has Held the interest of young and old throughout the years, ponies and monkeys in a series of delightful tricks which ended with a liand-gallop race round the ring, the ponies taking the inside running, being beaten for position, coming up fast on the outside, their tiny riders all the while crouched forward in the surest and lightest of Tod Sloan attitudes. One monkey, frequently a little slow off the mark when the riders were required to jump from a platform*on to the ponies’ backs, gave a demonstration of mounting at full gallop—via the pony’s tail, hand over hand into the saddle. Sugar was in liberal supply during the act, and well the performers deserved it. Palmerston North found an old friend in Kobe (who has just come this time from Europe), one of four who provided a fine balancing exhibition. Instead of spinning with his feet a partly-coloured barrel, as he did at the Winter Show some time ago, Kobe this time demonstrates, to the distinct enhancement of his act, just how expert he is with a Japanese sunshade. A tight-rope walking cameo, with the sunshade as a balancing medium, and concluding with a backward slide down the steeply-inclined rope, gave a vivid finish to one of the most appreciated turns of the evening. Kobe and his three associates received applause which stamped the turn as being among the best. Bengal tigers snarled as they were guided through their tricks by Captain Eric Flyger and Wirths elephants showed that they are just as amenable to teaching as the performing dogs and the few-months-okl Berkshire pig which captivated the attention of the audience later in the evening. Miss Gladys with her golden horse Duke gave an exhibition of equine waltzing and six black ponies under the eye of Mr Philip Wirth presented a display of nimble feet and lightning thinking. Wheeling in and out iu perfect unison, going through a “maze,” sitting up, lying, standing on two legs, they gained the admiration of everyone present. Balancing in a perpendicular “arms stretch” pose on top of poles so high that the feet nearly touched the top of the tent (the poles being supported by another member of the troupe) was one of the highlights of the contribution of the Three Houstons, who gained generous applause. Acrobatics by the ' Seven Nelson Troupo were spectacular, and the performance of the youngest of the Ten Ziganies, a tiny girl with much confidence, was possibly the most captivating in that direction. One of the most appealing

sections of their act was provided by members of the group jumping on to one end of a see-saw to catapult a smaller member high in the air off the other end. Somersaults looked simple and the whole brilliant act was among the best seen. For those who intend to patronise the circus to-night or propose to go to the session in Feilding on Monday, the circus may be described as a family entertainment. It is a show' “approved for universal exhibition.” It has completely new' acts, but it retains and builds afresh on the high regard which Wirth’s Circus (Miss Doris Wirth, governing director, Mr Geo. Wirth, liousemanager, and Mr Philip Wirth, equestrian director) already holds in the estimation of the public. From the overture to the biggest thrill of all in the last act when the Four Onotos whirl in a really motor-cycle aerial act stunt it is Wirth’s Circus indeed.