Cirque Medrano
The Cirque Medrano (in
History
The Parisian circus was created by a Belgian circus entrepreneur, Ferdinand Beert (1835-1902), known as Fernando, and was built at the corner of the Boulevard de Rochechouart and the Rue des Martyrs, in what was then the edge of the
Cirque Fernando
An acrobat and equestrian, Fernando started his Cirque Fernando in Vierzon, France, in 1872. The following year, he came to Paris to perform at the Fête de Montmartre, but the traditional fairgrounds for this annual fair were on the very spot on which the Church of the Sacré-Cœur was being built. Fernando thus went on to search for a suitable empty lot nearby, and found it on the Boulevard de Rochechouart, between the rue des Martyrs and the present rue Viollet-le-Duc. He had considerable success there, which went far beyond the context of the fair. He therefore managed to obtain a thirty-year lease on his piece of land to build a permanent circus. Designed by the architect Gustave Gridaine, the new Cirque Fernando opened on June 25, 1875.
Because of its proximity to Montmartre, the circus attracted many artists (Renoir, Degas, Lautrec, among many others), who came to sketch the performers in action, which sometimes resulted in full paintings. They brought in their wake members of the Parisian "bohème", writers, journalists, actors, who generated publicity for the circus. Mrs. Fernando, who oversaw the box office, decided to let the painters work freely in the circus during rehearsals and watch the performances free of charge — a tradition that will remain under the subsequent management of Gerónimo Medrano.
Fernando Beert eventually gave the management of his circus to his stepson, Louis, known as Louis Fernando (1851-?). Although Louis's artistic direction proved quite successful, notably with popular revues written for his star clown, Gerónimo Medrano (1849-1912), known as "Boum-Boum," his financial management of the family's enterprise was often erratic. He eventually led the circus to bankruptcy in October 1897. In the following December, Gerónimo Medrano bought back Fernando's lease, and renamed the circus Cirque Medrano.
Cirque Medrano
.jpg)
Gerónimo Medrano successfully revived the circus of the Boulevard de Rochechouart. It remained a meeting point for artists: Picasso, Braque, Kees van Dongen were regulars. Medrano managed the circus until his death in 1912. Then, his wife, Berthe (née Perrin,1876-1920), took over the circus, and gave the artistic management to Rodolphe Bonten, a former acrobat. Gerónimo and Berthe had a son, Jérôme Medrano (1907-1998), who was five years old when his father died. To ensure her son's future, Berthe, whose health was deteriorating, remarried with Rodolphe Bonten. Jérôme was given a formal education in elite schools that had not much to do with the circus.
During
During World War II and the German Occupation of France, the lease of the Cirque Medrano, which, since Fernando's bankruptcy, included the land as well as the walls, was put for sale. Jérôme Medrano had joined the French Resistance, and was not in a position to buy his circus back; the wealthy Bouglione family, owners of Paris's Cirque d'Hiver, bought the land and the walls from their rightful owners, the Saint family, paying them in gold! At the end of the War, Jérôme Medrano found himself being the tenant of his main competitors.
From one lawsuit to another, Jérôme Medrano managed to stay at the helm of his circus until the end of 1962, when the Bougliones finally took possession of the building. During that time, he continued to give remarkable shows, with such guest stars as Buster Keaton, Grock, Achille Zavatta, Charlie Rivel, the famous French comedian Fernand Raynaud, and even the tap-dancer Harold Nicholas. The Cirque Medrano gave its last performance on January 7, 1963, in front of a house packed with the Tout-Paris and a crowd of disconsolate Parisians, habitués, circus fans, and friends from the neighborhood.
The Bougliones revived the circus for a couple of seasons under the name Cirque de Montmartre, but the magic was gone. Although their shows were commendable, they were mostly a replica of what could be seen at the Cirque d'Hiver. They rented the building for a short while to Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil, and then to a Fête de la Bière—a sort of Bavarian beer-hall. The building slowly went into a state of disrepair. The Bougliones demolished it in December 1974: in 1975, it would have been one-hundred years old and become a protected landmark... A nondescript apartment building called The Bouglione now occupies the site.
Cirque Medrano in the arts
Today
Circus entrepreneur Raoul Gibault leased the Medrano name rights from Jérôme and Violette Medrano and, to this day, his Cirque Medrano-Raoul Gibault has toured France with a big top. His organization has several units that travel under the Medrano title, including Medrano's Cirque sur l'eau (water circus) and Medrano's Cirque de Saint Petersbourg (St. Petersburg Circus).[2]
In popular culture
In Henry Miller's 1934 novel, Tropic of Cancer, Cirque Médrano is mentioned as one of the places that he would visit with his expat friend, Carl. Medrano has also appeared in several French popular novels, in songs, and in films (notably during the German Occupation period).
References
- ^ circopedia.org Circopedia
- ^ "Home". cirque-medrano.fr.
- Adrian, Histoire illustrée des Cirques parisiens d'hier et d'aujourd'hui (Bourg-la-reine, Adrian publisher, 1957)
- Tristan Rémy, Le Cirque Fernando (Supplement to the magazine Le Cirque dans l'Univers # 115, October 1979)
- Jérôme Medrano, Une vie de cirque (Paris, Editions Artaud, 1983) — ISBN 2-7003-0443-8
- Christian Dupavillon, Architectures du Cirque, des origines à nos jours (Paris, Editions du Moniteur, 2001) — ISBN 2-281-19136-2
- Dominique Denis, Medrano "Boum-Boum", 1897 à 1928 (Aulnay-sous-Bois, Editions Arts des 2 Mondes, 2012) — ISBN 978-2-915189-25-4
External links
| Authority control databases: National |
|---|
