Monday, October 15, 2018

GET A BEHIND THE SCENES LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF A UNIQUELY AMERICAN FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT WITH “AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: THE CIRCUS”

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.

Follow PBS Distribution on Facebook and Twitter.

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

No comments:

Post a Comment