The Stage

Chris Christian

Published Friday 27 August 2010 at 16:35 by Don Stacey.

Chris Christian, who died on August 11, 2010 at the age of 87, was a circus performer whose 64-year career spanned the period 1936 to 2000. One of the highlights of his career was appearing as the ringmaster in the film “Circus of Horrors”, made at Billy Smart’s Circus in London in 1959, starring Anton Diffring, Erika Remberg, Yvonne Monlaur, Donald Pleasence, Conrad Phillips and Kenneth Griffith. He also introduced big stars such as Dorothy Squires (who sung in a big cage with a group of bloodthirsty tigers) and Jayne Mansfield at the Variety Club gala performances at the Smart Show.

Christian was featured with the Smart circus as Ringmaster from 1958 to 1961 and again in 1972/73 (at Fairfield Hall, Croydon) for its final appearance.

From early childhood he was obsessed with the circus after seeing the Carmo’s Circus at Catford when he was only six. He was born in Greenwich in 1922 in Circus Street, surely an auspicious name. He ran away from home at the age of ten with Chapman’s Circus which played at theatres around his area but returned. His family finally relented when he left school at 14 in December 1936, and went off with a small troupe, suffering the hardships of the small scale of circuses of the time before joining up with the prestigious Bertram Mills Circus in the lowly role of a horse and pony groom.

During the war he served in the Army with the 6th Airborne Division, and helped organise troop entertainment for Santos Casani, the well known dancer and teacher. After the war he joined John Scott’s Circus on the fairgrounds, then went on to Bob Gandey’s and other smaller shows, as a clown, rider, acrobat, aerialist and animal trainer. He claimed to have worked for some 37 British circuses between 1936 and 2000, his last major appearance being at Hamley’s toy store in Regent Street in 2000 to celebrate the first British National Circus Day.

He was at the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome in Norfolk in 1957 working for Billy Russell’s summer circus when he was spotted by Billy Smart and offered the job for the next year as Smart’s zoo manager and assistant ringmaster. Quickly elevated to ringmaster, his career in the ‘big time’ took off. While with Smart he distinguished himself by rescuing, with David Smart, the wild animal trainer Charles Illeneb from being devoured by his polar bears.

He went on to work for various shows, including Fossett, Reco, Joe Gandey, Circus Hoffman and many more, but it was his stint with Billy Smart which registered him as a leading ringmaster in Britain’s big tops.

He Married his first wife Marjorie Trevethan in Plymouth in May 1960, a hairdresser he met there when the Smart show played in Plymouth. His second wife Wendy, who survives him, was a dancer and aerialist with the famous Digger Pugh Troupe at the Billy Smart Circus. Their four children Beverley, Nicci, Carlos and Todd also survive. Nicci has appeared in Circus of Horrors, the touring circus dreamt up by Gerry Cottle, rock singer John Haze and France’s anarchic circus producer Pierrot Bidon, with her creepy snakes and spiders, but now has a dog act with an unusual breed - pugs. Carlos settled into a career on the fairgrounds with his amusements, while Todd started his own small touring circus, the Circus Tyann (named after his daughter) in 2009. Proud father Chris Christian was present at the launch of this show, knowing that Todd was following in his own footsteps as he and Wendy had presented their own small show to great satisfaction some years earlier.