Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-02-02
INDOOR CIRCUS IS
WINNER AS START
PLAYS TO CAPACITY AT BOTH
PERFORMANCE
oldaFashioned one-Ring Show Full OF
Interesting Aots-Program Is
Filled with Features of
Merit

The Indoor Circus" which Hiram
Birdspeed has so diligently advertised
up and down Broadway and Spring
street opened yesterday afternoon at
the old Monarch rink on Hill \Street,
near Fourth street. The opening was
satisfactory to Dick Ferris, who has
faith in the future and whose money
provided it; a revelation to the young
who had never seen q one ring circus
and a reminiscence to the old who had
often longed for the return OF the
good old-fashioned one-ring show.
The bewildering abundance of the
modern three-ring show is absent at the
indoor circus. But it is the only circus
feature absent-no, there Is another,
the Concert Immediately after the per-
formance."
The old rink has been made comfort
able and tentlike by a good distriou-
ton of circus seats and decorations. All
the circus attributes are present, from
peanuts for the elephant to real pink
pop, and the performances althougn
presenting q. program in which the
actors were not rehearsed, went WIN
true Jack Robinson spirit.
The performances were to the capac-
itv of the house and were a fattering
yindication of Ferris judgment, Tor
there is every element of merit in the
show that justifies the expectation OF
success. Those who attended, partlcu,
larly the hundreds of little ones seemed
as confident of success as Ferris
dare be.
The performance begins with the old
time grand entry OF the company,
which ends with Johnny Carroll IN
command of the ring. From that
minute to the end his whip cracks
puncture the acts. Phil Darling is not
bothered in his interesting feat Oh pal
Ripll-
lar ladder while Carroll puts his ponies
through stunts that display high type
of animal intelligence and skllltul
training. Then the ring yields TO Mile:
T,owande in premiere equestrianism
and "arenic innovations" but these are
misnomers, for her act is the old-fasn-
toned. always entertaining arepacK
riding.
Montana Jack and Mariana perform
a dangerous act when the little woman
permits herself to be pinioned by MUIR
derous looking blades thrown by the
man, There is a creepy riskiness ABOUT
his act. especially when he performs
blindfolded with her hidden by paper
screen, that suggests Intervention, al
though the act has never met Win ac-
cident. il is said. The relief When IL
ends Yields readily to levity when the
clowns try to ride Jasper, the mule
who won't be ridden. =,
The haute ecole is represented by
three white horses who perform the
usual evolutions of the high school ana
brings the curriculum a little further
bv adding a two-step and the coochie-
coochie. The performance of the horses
is one of the best on the program.
Other acts include Rags" the negro
impromptu singer whose ready verses
about spectators were hit; Mile. t1os-
sic La Blanche, viii initiates Hercules,
Sandow and Louis Cyr, and like the
last named lifts twelve men on plat
form-175O pounds las night-the box
ing clowns and the trapeze perform,
ers the grotesdue bareback act of Phil
Darling on his mule Jasper ana the
equihbristic act of the Aherns..
The climax of the show is the herd
of six performing elephants. The agil-
! ity, discipline and intelligence olsplayeu
| by these giant pachyderms makes the
act undoubtedly the best in the pro-
| gram.