WITHOUT GLAMOUR

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 920, 13 March 1930, Page 12

WITHOUT GLAMOUR

MORNING IN CIRCUS TENT FULL OF INTEREST WATCHING THE PRATICE rubik anCinsr C ‘°" ns - In stark daylight the circus loses its glamour and stripped of iu romance. us the U wTt’erf'-oni U is T'loth ,eat ®" atmosphen inure real, niore intSJjJf amv " "enlns -trb of aniaell Hete ate the real people of .. evening show; they are themselves fc! a drab world of ropes and canvas, grass and empty benches. 7 The air is hot from the sun which streams on to the canvas tent. q u J; - ropes, idly vat- hing vevforumi practising then acts. V. acre they CO ”rUJ \\' om no . on ' so, ' n . lS lo know. i lit \ are ai v. a> s \\ it a us. ’ remarks a, trapeze artist. it- the same in every town. Perhaps it is the fascia.™ t:on of the circus. Every day they drift in and out. apparently for the want of something better to do In Germany. Frailer. England, R Us . s:a. Italy or South America we get the same sort of idle person \\lu> spends his day round the circus tent. Queer lot. aren't they . . always the same except that the language is different"’ Morning in the circus tent. Everybody is practising. One of the circus hands is hammering away at some seats. His arms and body are a mass of tattooed signs. Two of the white ponies are having their morning bath. They live it and frisk in the sunligh;. Attendants are cleaning out the cages in the menagerie, much to the disgust of the lions and Tigers which growl their disapproval. MUST KEEP FIT On a carpet spread in the middle ot the ring the tumblers are tossing each other backward and forward. "We must keep tit** is their motto. Year in. year out. they must keep their muscles supple for those delicatelytimed and amazingly -accurate movements. Their practise garments are a> varied as the loiterers wlu> watch them. Long trousers and short, singlets and sweaters. Nearby the strong woman is practising a new act for Sydney. With Herculean strength she hoists a horse off the floor with her teeth. Instructions to her partner are given in German. Three clowns, tall, tiny and intermediate. watch the proceedings without the slightest interest. Life seems very dull to them in the morning. They look more sad than lively—tho reaction, probably, from amusing the children. Mr. Arthur Lais, head of his troupe of six, takes a rest frpm arduously manoeuvring his companions in swift somersaults. ‘ I’ve got to be at the dentist’s at 12,” he says as he brushes a wandering spider from a muscular arm. And then he tells something of a life which has always been lived in the atmosphere of the circus. It is typical of the average circus performer except that his life has been more varied and interesting than most. **A SON OF THE CIRCUS' 110 was born outside Berlin, the son of a. circus proprietor. At the age of five he was in the sawdust ring. Since then (ho is 35 now) he has toured the world appearing in circuses and on the variety stage. He has appeared in Paris with Groek, the famous clown and was interned in Russia during the war. He has played in almost every country in Europe. England and Ireland, Morocco and South AmericaJust recently Mr. Lais and his troupe did a long tour through Russia from Petrograd to Odessa, on th* Black Sea. “It is not exactly what people here.” he said. “There is poverty but that has always been there. It is no worse. I have seen just as bad in Dublin. “We were paid in American dollars Tho Russians paid us only a certair amount—the rest was sent to the bank in Berlin.” Mr. Lais says that the circus is < very popular form of entertainment ii Germany. Spain, too, accepts it wifi enthusiasm. No talkies or any othe* form of entertainment can ever effec‘ the sawdust ring, lie says. Air. La.is is an enthusiastic yachtsman ard owns a yacht which is kep at his home, near Berlin. When hi and his troupe take a. holiday they spend about three months sailing dowi to the sea from their home, then acres* to Copenhagen and the coastal town: of the Baltic-.