Waiting for a train
is an activity everyone should appreciate.
Maybe not children, but at least most adults
know that it's a test of patience and often stoicism.
You can never trust a railway clock or timetable.
A train will leave only when it wants to.
It pays no attention to a passenger's watch or schedule.
is an activity everyone should appreciate.
Maybe not children, but at least most adults
know that it's a test of patience and often stoicism.
You can never trust a railway clock or timetable.
A train will leave only when it wants to.
It pays no attention to a passenger's watch or schedule.
This group of people appear to have given up on their train
as they are not even on the platform anymore
but literally sitting/standing on the tracks.
They don't look like a random throng
but seem more organized and orderly
as they've brought along a brass band for entertainment.
Perhaps their composure is because
they all operate on the most reliable of all timetables.
For when that band plays they know for sure—
It's Showtime at the Circus!
as they are not even on the platform anymore
but literally sitting/standing on the tracks.
They don't look like a random throng
but seem more organized and orderly
as they've brought along a brass band for entertainment.
Perhaps their composure is because
they all operate on the most reliable of all timetables.
For when that band plays they know for sure—
It's Showtime at the Circus!
The full photo postcard has a handwritten caption.
Circo Canaries - Season 1922-23
CUBA
Circo Canaries - Season 1922-23
CUBA
This odd mix of people are members of a traveling circus in Cuba. On the railway carriage behind them are stenciled letters "Ferrocarril de C" which is Spanish for "Railway of Cuba". And below the carriage windows, partly blocked by the people, is a poster that spells "Circo Canaries". This postcard was mailed from Habana–Havana, Cuba on 3 May 1925 to Maude Bernard of Limestone, Florida.
Havana May 1st
Dear Maude
We are off to
States Sunday
Tatsie (?)
Dear Maude
We are off to
States Sunday
Tatsie (?)
{The kindly old fellow pictured on the red stamp is Máximo Gómez (1836–1905), who, according to his Wikipedia entry, was "a Cuban-Dominican Generalissimo in Cuba's War of Independence (1895–1898). He was known for his controversial scorched-earth policy, which entailed dynamiting passenger trains and torching the Spanish loyalists' property and sugar plantations—including many owned by Americans."}
I was attracted to the picture for several reasons, obviously for the brass band on the left, and also the writer's endorsement that this was a circus troupe. But it's also from Cuba and I rarely come across musician/entertainer photos from that part of the world. Since Cuba in our time remains behind a political wall, I did not expect to find any Cuban online libraries or digital archives, but with internet research I've learned you'll never find anything unless you go looking for it. Amazingly I easily found not only a perfect reference to this circus, but a photograph that was in an American periodical, too.
 |
| Circus Report 25 February 1974 |
Fifty-one years after these people had their picture taken waiting for the train, Circus Report, "America's Favorite Circus Weekly", ran a picture supplement in the 25 February 1974 issue of its newsletter. It included a grainy photo of the "Gran Circo Canaires, a Cuban show, was snapped season of 1923-'24. Among acts appearing above are the Arley Duo, Original Three Bernards, Great Frederic and Company, Koch Tam Kia Trroupe; May and Cherry, bar act, and a Mr. Gordon, who presented a boxing kangaroo."
It's interesting that this photo is not identical to my postcard but still shows the same people rearranged in front of the passenger carriage. The camera has not moved but the women in white previously seated are now standing. Even the parasol is in the same position. What more could I find about the Circo Canaries? Well, for one thing, it could also be spelled Circo Canarias.
 |
| Gran Circo Canarias herald circa 1910-1929 Source: Milner Library Digital Collections, Illinois State University, |
One of the useful archives for circus related ephemera is the Milner Library of Illinois State University. They have a huge collection of circus route books, photos, ephemera and handbills. And as luck would have it, they have a handbill of the Gran Circo Canarias that fits with the performers in my postcard and named in the Circus Report. It's a single double-sided page (which I've combined here in one image) that has no date. The Milner Library archivists have given it a date range from 1910 to 1929, but looking closely at the faces, I think it dates from around 1923-24. Pictured on the front is a trio of Chinese acrobats, two men and a woman, from Hong Kong who were given top billing. In the center of the postcard's photo are three Chinese faces and the woman seated left is a very good match for the woman on the playbill.
However the real star is unfortunately not in my photo. He's probably relaxing inside a crate in the baggage carriage.
A boxing kangaroo or Kanguro Boxeador must have been a primo act for the Circo Canarias since in Cuba boxing has always been a popular sport. I wonder if the kangaroo ever lost a bout. With only a couple dozen performers the Circo Canairas was a small outfit, essentially a one-ring circus. It probably managed to tour the island using just a few rail cars. A troupe like this would have got to know each other better than in the gigantic American circuses which traveled on long special trains with several hundred workers and performers.
For any circus, large or small, a band was the most important component to the show. It announced the beginning and end of the performances, provided appropriate music and sound effects to accompany each act, and in general set a festive tone for the spectacle that is a circus.
Technically the band of the Circo Canaries was a bit of a hybrid ensemble with a clarinet and a violin. But there was one unusual instrument that caught my attention when I first saw the postcard listing on eBay. It's called an ophicleide. And in this context it's like seeing a kangaroo in a brass band.
The ophicleide is an odd brass instrument that I have featured several times on my blog. Check out: The Cadet Band of Augusta, Maine; The Happy Couple; or Monsieur le Curé and his Ophicleide. It is basically a long conical brass tube with a mouthpiece at one end for the player to buzz into and a large flared bell at the other for the sound to come out. But instead of using valves and extra bits of plumbing to lengthen the instrument like on a tuba or horn, the ophicleide has instead several large holes along its twisted-up length that are covered by keyed pads similar to those on a saxophone. Except that on a saxophone pressing a key closes the hole but on an ophicleide it opens them.
It was invented in the early 19th century as a louder brass instrument family designed to come in several sizes from soprano to contrabass like the saxophone. It's name means "serpent with keys" The one used in the Circo Canarias band looks like the more common bass ophicleide. It became obsolete when the tuba was invented and by the 1870s was rarely found in European or North American bands or orchestras. But in South America, especially in Brazilian choro bands, the ophicleide found enough enthusiasts to keep it an accepted part of their musical ensembles.
The handbill for the Circo Canarias had short descriptions for the different acts. Two paragraphs were devoted to the lead clown, Robertini and the Gran Orquesta or grand orchestra.
Robertini
Clown Excéntrico Musical; el idolo de los Niños; Robertini Cómico; con sus chistes mantendra en constante hilaridad al público; Robertini Excéntrico Musical: deleitara la concurrencia con l'rozos de Opera. Operetas y asuntos cubanos, para lo cual presentará una completa colección de instrumentos raros.
Gran Orquesta Villarena, compuesta de once Profesores, con un extenso repertorio, todo moderno, desde el danzón Cubiche hasta el Fox-Trot Americano, y los aplaudidos Potpourrits, que tanto dicen del sentir cubano.
>>>>>>>>>
Robertini
Musical Eccentric Clown; the idol of the Children; Robertini Comic; with his jokes he will keep the public in constant hilarity; Robertini Musical Eccentric: he will delight the audience with touches of Opera, Operettas and Cuban affairs, for which he will present a complete collection of rare instruments.
Great Villarena Orchestra, composed of eleven Professors, with an extensive repertoire, all modern, from the Cubiche danzón to the American Fox-Trot, and the applauded Potpourrits, which say so much about the Cuban feeling.
Robertini's clowning specialty sounds like he played multiple musical instruments in a humous way. I think he might be the man seated on the rail next to the tuba. If he used novelty instruments that might explain the presence of the ophicleide in the Villarena Orchestra. Certainly in the ophicleide photos and images that I've collected, the ophicleide was thought to be pretty funny. But that may be due to clumsy unmusical players. When it is played well, the ophicleide actually deserves full credit as a solo instrument every bit as capable and agile as a euphonium.
Here is a terrific group from Brazil
which features Everson Moraes on Ophicleide,
which features Everson Moraes on Ophicleide,
Thiago Osório - Bombardino
Paula Borghi - Violão
Lucas Oliveira - Cavaquinho
Gabriel Leite - Pandeiro
performing a tune entitled
Looking at the people gathered on the train tracks in my postcard, you would not immediately think they were circus performers since they are not in costume. Without their uniforms of sequins, spangles, and bright colors they look, well, just like normal folk. I don't think this was a photo intended to be sold as a souvenir of the Circo Canarias. It looks like a private photo one would share with a friend. The message on the card is also too simple to be from an American tourist. "We are off to States Sunday." Who would send that to an auntie, a neighbor, or a sweetheart? This was a brief note to a friend. Someone who would understand the group and location. Probably a member of the Canarias troupe who was finishing out its winter season. But who exactly was Maude Bernard of Limestone, Florida? Was she a member of the "Original Three Bernards" who, according to the 1974 report in Circus Report, played with the Circo Canairas in 1923-24?
The answer is yes, she was.
 |
| The Billboard 1 December 1923 |
The Original Bernards left today for Tampa, Fla., from where they sail December 8 for Cuba, opening their second season there with the Circo Canarias. The Bernards have only the highest praise for the Cuban circus and look forward to another pleasant season.
In the 1920 census for Limestone, Florida, a tiny rural community about 50 miles east of Sarasota, I found Maude Bernard, age 30, living with her husband Floyd Bernard, 35, a Merchint (sic), Drugstore Retail, with their son, Howard, age 12. That didn't seem like a place that a circus performer would live. However it was odd was that their respective birth places, Floyd - Iowa; Maude - Indiana; and Howard - Illinoise (sic) made them the only Yankee family from Northern states that their neighbors in this very Southern state would know.
Then in 1912 the "Original Bernards" took out a large advert in The Billboard, the trade newspaper for entertainers, and it included both addresses in St. Louis, Missouri and Limestone, Desoto County, Florida.
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| The Billboard 14 December 1912 |
The pictures showed that these equilibrists balanced on each other as well as on wires and ropes. The advert stated, "This act is strictly arranged for out-door amusement and Strictly Independent. No agent is authorized to book this act. We will not contract through an agency." The warnings and use of "Original" suggest that the Bernards had competitors that either mis-booked them or used their name in some shady show business fraud.
 |
| Cooksville IL Enterprise 12 September 1913 |
The next year another notice in a smalltown newspaper printed a full portrait of the "Original Bernards" and gave their forenames, Floyd and Maude. That settled it. Ten years later, in the winters of 1922-23 and 1923-24, Maude and Floyd would be booked for a gig in Cuba with the Circo Canaries. A year later, one of their friends, Tatsie, sent a picture of the troupe along with a note about the end of that circus's season. I think Maude Bernard is the woman seated right and Floyd Bernard is behind her right shoulder wearing the straw boater hat.
The Original Berards' act involved balancing on high tension wire ropes and walking along slack or "swinging" lines. They jumped or tumbled off barrels and each other. Their risky and daring stunts gave audiences a thrill in an age before television and film would make such feats commonplace.
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| Darlington WS Democrat 15 August 1915 |
In this 1915 notice for the Big White Fair in Darlington, Wisconsin, Floyd and Maude are pictured in two of their stunts. Floyd on the left is balanced on a wooden barrel and on the right Maude is stepping along a tight rope. Both are holding a large parasol umbrella for balance. A parasol very like the one in front of Maude in the photo.
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| Herman MO Advertiser-Courier 26 July 1916 |
Some of their notices included more illustrations of their act. In this one from a carnival in Herman, Missouri, Floyd and Maude are positioned standing on each other up in a way one might if you didn't have a ladder to reach a ceiling light fixture. There is also a detailed sketch of figures tumbling off barrels that weirdly resembles an early computer arcade game.
Floyd and Maude originally planned their wedding for July 13, but in 1906 the 13th was one a Friday, and besides they were touring with the Ringling Circus then and there was a show to do. So they waited a day and good fortune blessed them. Their son Howard had continued as a circus artist and like his parents had married a circus performer, too. Now his two daughters were part of the show as well. The were called the "Bernadinos.
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| Desoto County News 21 June 1923 |
In the summer of 1923 the Original Bernards were now the Three Original Bernards, I think because their son Howard, now age 15, was now a regular member of the act. In a carnival notice published in their Florida county newsweekly, various figures are doing handstands and splits on slack wire, balancing on a pole, or climbing stairs on their hands. In the center is a vignette photo of the Bernard trio. It's an unsophisticated illustration that has the look of a child's drawing. Perhaps Howard was the artist.
The last newspaper reference that I found for the Original Bernards was in the summer of 1931. They seemed to have played fairs, carnivals, and circuses all over the United States and evidently Cuba and maybe other places south of the border in the wintertime when American circuses retired to rest and restore.
On 14 July 1956, Floyd and Maude Bernard celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. The Tampa Tribune ran a nice report for the occasion.
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| Tampa FL Tribune 15 July 1956 |
Floyd and Maude originally planned their wedding for July 13, but in 1906 the 13th was one a Friday, and besides they were touring with the Ringling Circus then and there was a show to do. So they waited a day and good fortune blessed them. Their son Howard had continued as a circus artist and like his parents had married a circus performer, too. Now his two daughters were part of the show as well. The were called the "Bernadinos.
"Mrs. Bernard admits jokingly that she has made her husband 'walk a tight rope' for a half-century, but both say they never have lost the sense of balance that has kept the act together."
The report included two closeup portraits which is how I tried to find a match in my 1923 photo. Maude's thin face and gentle smile seems the best shared feature to me, but I could be completely wrong. Though the men on the far right in the photo have similar square jaw and eyes as Floyd in 1956 does, I think he would likely stand near his partner and wife. The only question remaining is who is the third Bernard? Is it the young man in dark coat and white hat standing just behind Maude? Maybe. I think I will leave these mystery to Bernard descendants to answer.
In May 1966 the Tampa Tribune ran another story on the Bernards. Floyd had just been inducted a few weeks before into the Circus Hall of Fame in honor of his contributions to the art of equilibrists. Recognizing Floyd's long circus career since first walking a tight wire at age 14, the reporter asked him, "Will the circus survive and come back?"
"Yes," thinks the old circus veteran. "But never in its big gaudy three-ring version. There will always be small tent shows, one ring shows like 70 years ago. One act at a time and with real clown acts." In spite of TV, the circus won't die, Bernard said, as he rubbed that aching knee.
The Original Bernards led a full life that surely had more thrills and spills than ten married couples could ever count. Floyd Merril Bernard died in December 1976 at the age of 91. Maude Quayle Bernard passed away in March 1989 at the age of 100.
It's rare to find so many newspaper references from so few details on a postcard. What startles me is that this postcard must have come from the estate of Maude Bernard. It was a small memento from a friend of a shared adventure in beautiful Cuba. The bonds of friendship in the circus world must have been close. Who wouldn't want to listen to the stories of the Circo Canarias they could tell? We can only imagine. Time machines don't pick up that kind of detail.
The Original Bernards and their fellow circus performers of the Circo Canarias were some of the hardest working people in show business. They developed special talents and skills that were strange and wonderous at the same time. But unlike other ordinary jobs, an acrobat or equilibrist must maintain supreme concentration to be successful in their field. You got to keep your balance on the tight rope of life. Otherwise it's one step too far and that's the end of the show. Permanently.
And for an extra bonus,
I can't resist including another video
of the same ophicleide soloist, Everson Neves de Moraes,
performing a catchy tune called Polca Coisa
in his own brass quintet where he plays all the parts himself!
It has all the best qualities of circus music
that I'm sure the musicians of the Gran Circo Canarias
would have been eager to add it to their repertoire
just for the Original Bernards's act.
I can't resist including another video
of the same ophicleide soloist, Everson Neves de Moraes,
performing a catchy tune called Polca Coisa
in his own brass quintet where he plays all the parts himself!
It has all the best qualities of circus music
that I'm sure the musicians of the Gran Circo Canarias
would have been eager to add it to their repertoire
just for the Original Bernards's act.
This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where climbing a mountain
can be as easy as taking a train.
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