Philip Astley, Father of the Modern Circus

The history of what we commonly think of as the modern American circus really starts out with two key figures, Philip Astley, a sergeant major in the British light dragoons who parleyed his natural talents as a rider and horse trainer into a touring equestrian show, and Hachaliah Bailey, a farmer in upstate New York who purchased and exhibited the second elephant to come to the United States. Bailey's successors, Nathan Howe and Aaron Turner would eventually turn his menagerie exhibitions into a union of animal exhibitors that monopolized the industry in the U.S. We'll get to Bailey, Turner, and Howe in the coming weeks. Today is all about Astley. 

The son of a cabinet maker from Newcastle-under-Lyme born in 1742, Astley, a natural born rider, discovered that by riding in a tight circle and maintaining a constant speed, he could more easily stand on the back of a horse due to the centrifugal force created. This practice lead Astley to design the first ring and setting the standard for the circus performance space even today. Astley's performance space, an open air amphitheater was known as Astley's Riding School, and later, after being enclosed as the Astley Royral Amphitheater of Arts. 

As his show grew, Astley began adding other, non-equestrian acts, introducing a strong man, rope walker, acrobats (though the trapeze and other aerial acts were still quite a way off), and a clown act, "The Tailor's Ride to Brentford" which would later be copied or adapted by numerous other circus performers, most notably John Bill Ricketts who would first bring an Astley style show to America. 

In addition to his London amphitheater shows, Astley also toured through France and eastern Europe, building nineteen permanent performance structures. While touring in Paris, Astley was confronted by another showman who used an antiquated French law prohibiting two permanent stage shows from performing at the same time in Paris. In response, Astley had a flat platform built and mounted on several of his horses, atop which his acrobats could perform. As it was now a mobile performance space instead of a permanent one, the show was allowed to go on. 

Astley inspired numerous equestrian shows during the years that followed and several riding schools opened in his stead, leading to the first equestrian showmen of the Astley model to make their way to the rest of Europe and eventually to the United States with the arrival of John Ricketts who we'll be coming back to in a later entry. 

Next week, Hachaliah Bailey, the father of the menagerie!