OABA Review

Star Edition
*****

*****
The best circus book since "I Love You Honey, but The Season's Over"

--David P. Orr
CFA and OABA Circus Representative

"Compelling..! I could not put it down!"

--Fred D. Phening. Jr.
Editor of Bandwagon: The Journal of the Circus Historical Society.

OABA Review

Spangles, Elephants, Violets & Me: The Circus Inside Out Review: Outdoor Amusement Business Association (OABA) Premier Magazine, ShowTime (October 2008)

Note: Rodney Huey, best known in the circus industry for promoting the magnificent "Unicorn" campaign for Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus in the 1980's, has a doctoral degree from George Mason University, which boasts national distinction in a range of academic fields. Mr. Huey teaches at his Alma Mater and has written some thoughtful analyses of the art of clowning and other topics.

Circus Book Author is a True Animal Lover

by Rodney Huey

If you missed your chance to run away and join the circus as a kid, then your next best bet is a read of Victoria Cristiani Rossi’s “Spangles, Elephants, Violets and Me.” Page by page you will become more magically transported back to the grand old circus of yesteryear. But don’t be surprised if you start visualizing circus wagons, hearing the staccato toots of a calliope, or smelling popcorn, cotton candy and the sweetly pungent aromas wafting from the menagerie tent.

Victoria Cristiani Rossi was literally born into the circus, the daughter of Oscar and Marion Cristiani. Her father came to the United States from Italy in 1934 with the 14-member Cristiani Family troupe and five of their best horses to make their American debut with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. Later he met and married “townie” Marion Bendixen, and Victoria was born soon thereafter.

In 1946 the Cristianis left the Ringling show and joined the Cole Bros Circus, where they spent three seasons before founding their own circus – the King Bros. and Cristiani Bros. Combined Shows that later evolved into the Cristiani Circus. The family-owned circus entertained countless throngs of circus-goers from coast-to-coast through the late 1950s when, like so many other circuses, it was forced to close, supplanted by suburban sprawl and the advent of television. Unfortunately, it also marked the breakup of the Cristiani family that left bitter feelings among siblings that lasted throughout most of the original troupe members’ lives.

Victoria’s prose is as flawless as it is beautiful as she paints a vividly poignant portrait of her life as a member of the famed Cristiani circus family. But her everyday life was not spent on the circus lot, because her father insisted that she receive a good formal education. At age six her parents enrolled her in the Cardome Academy, a Catholic boarding school for girls in Kentucky, and later she attended the Mount De Sales Academy and boarding school in Georgia.

For several years she would attend school in the Fall, Winter and Spring, returning to the traveling circus only in the Summer. Yet it was those precious summer memories so eloquently recalled that capture the fascination of the reader: “The native voice of the circus was almost poetic. The entertaining mix of roaring lions, shrieking baboons, snorting horses, and lovable belching seals was music to my ears.”

Growing up with one foot in the circus and the other in the “real world” gave Victoria particularly keen insight into the visceral life dramas that only a circus can produce. It is this ying-yang worldview that makes “Spangles” such an enthralling read.

A recurring theme throughout the memoir is her family’s dedication and love for their animals. “I was not yet born and therefore not peeve to the reasoning behind my grandfather’s bareback riding act, but I have the distinct feeling that forming a circus act without incorporating horses in the routine was never an option,” she said in a recent interview. “You see, Papa adored animals, especially horses. They were his passion since boyhood.”

When the Cristianis came to the United States they brought with them Fachini, the family’s respected stable master whose love of horses almost surpassed that of Papa’s. “The affection mutually expressed between Fachini and the horses was nothing less than inspiring,” she wrote. “I was of the impression that Fachini could read their minds.”

Under Fachini’s watchful eye, Victoria learned early in life how to care for the Cristiani animal entourage that started with horses but grew to include elephants, baboons, big cats, birds and myriad other performing animals. As a young girl she was allowed to assist in grooming the animals, and she fell in love with Baby, which she described as “a glorious masterpiece of a horse – a real prize.”

“There’s nothing more beautiful, no scent as fragrant at night, and no sounds more stirring than the complex whisperings of circus animals set to perform,” said the lifetime animal welfarist. “Animals are natural ‘hams’ that love to perform in front of audiences. They start getting excited when they hear their musical cues, and they know when they’ve done a good job.”

Victoria recently dined with OABA president Bob Johnson to learn more about the efforts that OABA has been putting forth to promote circus culture, support the legitimate exhibition of animals in entertainment, and monitor and oppose restrictive legislation introduced at city council meetings across the county by what she calls “those well-funded alien lunatics [that] might’ve beamed down (unnoticed) from some weird planet beyond the solar system.” Because according to Victoria, it should be patently obvious to all that the circus and performing animals are inseparable.

“Animals are so much a part of the circus that I can’t imagine a decent one without animals. They are part of the larger circus family, and I would find it hard to believe that circus people would be content to spend their lives without the constant presence of animals,” she said.

“Since ‘Spangles’ has everything to do with my resolute love for animals, I will always, without question or pause, be an advocate of the OABA,” she continued. “In fact, within the 240 pages of my memoir, I believe I’ve laid out the best case for preserving the right of traditional circuses to include animals in their performance, as succinctly and as honestly as any circus book author to date.”

“Bob and the OABA are doing a great job monitoring and fighting the animal rights extremists,” she concluded. “Yet as the OABA forges on in its tough battle to save the circus industry from cruel demise, the final judgment will more or less be based on the concept of “risk assessment” unfortunately determined by apathetic, high-minded individuals not remotely interested in the penalties suffered by the circus community at large or its audiences.”

Ironically for this animal lover, it was her partnering with Mary, an Asian elephant that ended any hopes of a long performing career. She was thrown from her perch in the crook of Mary’s trunk as the huge animal was performing a pirouette during a circus performance in 1959 that resulted in multiple bruises, a badly broken leg and crushed ankle. As serious as her injuries were, they could have been worse because by “fluke or providence” she was thrown clear of the path of four oncoming elephants striding briskly around the ring.

Victoria holds no ill will toward Mary. She knows that the first rule of the circus is to respect the animals. And that respect means allowing them to be themselves and follow their own natural instincts – a fact of circus life that at times may take a human toil.

Victoria Cristiani Rossi is an authentic circus trooper, an accomplished writer and a celebrity circus author in her own right. If you ever have a chance to hear her speak or meet her at a book signing, don’t dare pass up the opportunity to get a wonderfully personal peek behind the scenes of an American national treasure – the circus!

[For more information about Victoria Cristiani Rossi and “Spangles, Elephants, Violets and Me,” visit www.Spanglesvb.com.]