GET A BEHIND THE SCENES LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF A
UNIQUELY AMERICAN FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT
WITH
“AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: THE CIRCUS”
Available on Digital Beginning
October 9
Available on DVD November
6
Click Here
for a Preview of the Program
Arlington,
Va. – October 15, 2018 – PBS
Distribution announces the release of “AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: THE CIRCUS,” a four-hour,
two-part documentary exploring the colorful history of this popular, influential
and distinctly American form of entertainment. A transformative place for
reinvention, where young women could become lion tamers and young men traveled
the world as roustabouts, the circus allowed people to be liberated from the
roles assigned by society and find an accepting community that had eluded them
elsewhere.
Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive, and featuring a host of
performers, historians and aficionados, “THE CIRCUS” brings to life an era
when Circus Day would shut down a town, its stars were among the most famous
people in the country, and multitudes gathered to see the improbable and the
impossible, the exotic and the spectacular.
Episodes of the program will be available for digital download on iTunes beginning
October 9. The entire series will be
available on DVD ($29.99 SRP) November
6, 2018. The series has a total run time of approximately 240 minutes.
“AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: THE CIRCUS” begins with the history (Part
One) of the first one-ring show at the end of the 18th century in Philadelphia
when the circus met the disapproval of the religious. In a society that valued
sobriety and hard work, a wide-eyed
day peering at half-naked aerialists amid shifty circus workers was frowned
upon. Soon, circuses began to add elaborate menageries of exotic animals
including lions, hippos and elephants, and “human oddities” from across the
globe — rebranding themselves as “educational” experiences to concerned
communities. Once the infamous
showman and huckster P. T. Barnum transformed the trade in 1871, he and his
partners created the largest touring show in existence.
The program continues (Part Two) as James Bailey takes his circus to
Europe on a five-year tour. When the show paraded through British streets for
the first time, throngs of people turned up to watch – and the scene was
repeated in towns across Europe. Upon returning the circus tour to the U.S. the
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey merged, creating a moving town of
more than 1100 people, 735 horses, nearly 1000 other animals and 28 tents.
Featured
were some of the most storied circus performers in history, including the famed
aerialist Lillian Leitzel; May Worth, who stunned audiences by somersaulting on
horseback; and big cat trainer Mabel Stark. In an era when women were still
fighting for the right to vote, women circus performers stepped to the
forefront of the suffrage movement.
For more
than a century, the circus had brought daily life to a standstill. Shows took
over rail yards. Parades clogged Main Street. Acres of billowing canvas
appeared mirage-like on the outskirts of town. And then, when day broke, the
miracle had vanished. Equestrians, sideshow performers, clowns, roustabouts, an
enormous collection of curious beasts — all became just figments of a glorious
dream.
Major funding for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE provided by
Liberty Mutual Insurance, Consumer Cellular and by the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation. Major funding for “THE
CIRCUS” provided
by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
Additional funding for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE provided by
the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, The Documentary Investment Group:
Gretchen Stone Cook Charitable Foundation, Burton D. and Gloria Rose, the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting and public television viewers.
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE is produced for PBS by WGBH Boston.
About
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
For 30
years, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE has been
television’s most-watched history series. Hailed as “peerless” (The Wall
Street Journal), “the most consistently enriching program on television” (Chicago
Tribune) and “a beacon of intelligence and purpose” (Houston Chronicle),
the series brings to life the incredible characters and epic stories that have
shaped America’s past and present. AMERICAN
EXPERIENCE documentaries have been honored with every major broadcast
award, including 30 Emmy Awards, four duPont-Columbia Awards and 18 George
Foster Peabody Awards; the series received an Academy Award®
nomination for Best Documentary Feature in 2015 for Last Days in Vietnam.
AMERICAN
EXPERIENCE also creates original digital content that uses new forms
of storytelling to connect our collective past with the present. Visit pbs.org/americanexperience
and follow us on Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram
and YouTube
to learn more.
About PBS Distribution
PBS Distribution is a leading distributor of public
media content around the world, reaching audiences through multiple platforms
including digital distribution of OTT branded channels, TVOD, SVOD and VOD, as
well as through theatrical licensing, DVD and Blu-ray sales, inflight entertainment
and international licensing.
PBS
Distribution offers consumers and educators over 4,000 programming hours of the
highest quality factual, scripted and children’s programming, including films
from producer Ken Burns, hit dramas from MASTERPIECE, entertaining and
educational children’s series and award-winning documentaries from NOVA,
FRONTLINE, AMERICAN MASTERS, NATURE, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE and many independent
producers. For over 20 years, the company has extended the reach of programming
beyond broadcast while generating revenue for the public television system,
stations and producers.
AMERICAN
EXPERIENCE: THE CIRCUS
Street
Date: November 6, 2018
Genre:
Documentary
Run
Time: Approximately 240 minutes on 2 discs
SRP:
DVD, $29.99
Format:
DVD and Digital
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