Billboard advertising (Dec 1911)

4 The Billboard DECEMBER 2, 1911. THE STORY OF JULE S TURNOUR Some Observations and Heretofore Unpublished Facts of the Life Story of a Fa- mous Clown Whose Antics Have Beguiltd the Smiles of Millions in a Career Extended Over a Period of More Than Fifty Years, During Which Time He Has Appeared in Practically Every Civilized Country By J. MILTON TRABER. "A a mile reeures the wounding of • frown." Well has the Immortal hard Shakeapeare— portrayed In bis Inimitable language the fa- moos clown, whose usual life before the public casts rays of sunshine and happlnesa Into the hearts of mankind. Jules Tnrnonr has for over fifty-two yeara been making the world laugh, baring com- menced at the tender age of two yeara. and has been In active harness ever since. He has circled the globe with laughs, for he has traveled In bis mirth-provoking business In nearly every land under the sun. His life work hss become almost as famous as that of the lamented American clown, Dan Bice. The poets have sung their praise, and the writers have lauded this king of mirth in books now printed In many languages. The great demands of the reading public of this present generation-has- caused a specially written edition, styled The Autobiography of a Clown, by Mr. Isaac F. Harcoason. or New York City. This new book, which ought to be read In every American home. Is a true story, de- pleting the life of Mr. Jules Tumour, which when read, will cause many Joya to come to young and old Americana. Jules Tumour waa bom November 18, 1857, and la therefore almost fifty-four years old. Using bis own language, given the writer, who has been an acquaintance and admirer of this gentleman for some years, I can truthfully stite. without fear of good contradiction, that the reader will agree with the writer In saying that this life history, when known. Is truly wonderful. Mr, Tumour says: "I suppose It was destiny that I should be a clown, because I waa bora In a circus wagon. My mother had been a pre- mier dancer on the French and English stage aod had appeared In many of the Covent Garden and Drury Lane Christmas pantomimes, bnt she grew stout, which fact is always fatal to that kind of dancing. "She did not want to leave my father, who waa also R dancer and general acrobat, so they Invested their savings In a email traveling cir- cus. Up to that time the circuses did not all have menageries connected with them, as It waa not considered necessary as It Is In the ajiresent day. but It waa thought best In our Base to have at least one cage containing a jftlld beast. My mother's circus had a per- forming lion, who was a sort of patriarch. Be was so amiable that be would eat out of the hands of a child, and he was so gentle that he had to be prodded Into a roar. "The circus bill included several acrobatic acta, a juggler, a sllgbt-of-band worker, and the faithful lion, who waa both useful as well as ornamental. My mother, who was as clever In business matters as she had-jpeen with ber toes, managed the show, and my father was the principal performer, doing almost every act known at that time. "Daring the year so fateful to me, our little show had traveled through the South of France, and made its way Into Spain, the land of the dous. on a clear, hot July Sunday we reached Galtcla. and camped on the edge of a woods, it was there x was bom. My mother and father cooked, ate and slept In one of the wagons, which waa for yeara the traveling home of the family. My mother always told me that the first thing I saw when my little eyes gazed out of the wagon was old Albro. the French clown, who belonged to our outfit, and who sat In the •an, whitening bis. face for the afternoon per. formance." This man' wbq ha* been making the world laugh all these yeara is a very serious person himself. He seldom smiles unless told a very very funny'story, and that must be exceptionally funny. It Is only when Jules Tumour makes up. whitens his face and spots It with red, and polls the clown's skull cap down over his ears, that he is so funny. Made up In that way his every movement and grimace la Irresistibly comical. He must have begun to clown when very young, you say. dear reader. You are right; he did. He began when he waa two years old. sway .,rer in Spain, in the traveling show then owned by his ftaber and mother, and when he was a mere baby his father conceived the Idea of making blm up as a baby clown and using him <s a novelty with toe show. It was s greet Ides, sud would nowadaya be atyled a feature. He was the first baby clown known to his- tory, and he made such a hit that he has been clowning ever since. Bnt. like all thoroughbred trained circus men. he has done other things, too. For years be was the most supple, Umber- Jointed contortionist In the world. That came about because of the death of his father, who waa a great dancer. The mother had to keep on traveling, and aa she could not take her children with her, she apprenticed them to other show people. Jules went to the Courand Brothers, In London. He remembers well the trip from Lisbon across the Bay of Biscay to England. His masters made 'of the boy a great contor- tionist and tumbler, and he traveled with them In different circuses through the British Isles. France, Germany. Russia, Austria. Italy and North Africa. It Is pitiful even now to bear blm tell of the cruel treatment he received in those days. He waa beaten to force blm to do dangerous feats and to bend "closer" tban any other con- tortionist. One day. In London, while he was bending backwards, something snapped In his back, and for three years he was In the hospital. When he came out he could not contort his body any more, but be had hla gift as a pantomlmlat, and he went back to clowning. He likes to read good books, especially Charles Dickens' works. This Is not because the Immortal Box was the frlena and editor of Grimaldl. the king of clowns, but because it always seemed to blm that he knew how to : analyze the human heart. He knew the lowly. \ | Jules Tumour, like many of his successful circus mates, has saved bis money, snd be now owns a nice borne at 1422 Short street, Inde- pendence. Mo., and he also has a farm In North Dakota, where be likes to see everything green grow. In 1879 Jules Tumour was doing a elownlg and juggling act with a circus In Africa, and from there he went to London, to sign a con- tract with Shnrman's Circus in Havana, Cuba. That brought blm to America, and be has been here ever since.. For over twenty-two years he hss been s clown with the world-famous Singling Brothers' Circus. But he Is prouder of the tact that he la also postmaster of the big circus. One of his duties is to go to the post-afflce each morn- ing and get the mall addressed to the show people and deliver It. He la especially fitted for tbla line of work, because be speaks nine different languages, and there are a great many foreign performers with this mammoth circus company. Mr, Tnrnonr Is the proud father of three chil- dren, all bright and healthy, a son and two daughters. When he was asked If he was go- ing show people of them?" "Not on your life," he answered quickly. "WhyJ" "Well, you seldom see a man wbo wishes bis children nowadaya to follow always the same business lines as be did." "I don't want mine to be In the ahow busi- ness, especially if tbey hare to undergo any of the great hardships that I hsd to endure, al- though my brother and slater, my father and mother, my grandfather and grandmothers, and I don't know bow many more of my ancestors we're show people, as I came through a long family line of circus owners. But we've bad ! enongb of it, and I'm going to try and start the neat generation In business that will pay better. The show business la a hard life, es- pecially If one wishes to succeed and become a star performer. Think of what I've done In the way of traveling only season before last. Start- ing in March. I traveled to the Atlantic coast, back again across the continent to British Co- lombia, down the Pacific coast to Los Angeles, and east of the Mississippi, closing there la November. I traveled 15,523 miles, was hi twenty-eight states and territories, and hat my grease paint on and made the folka laugh at four hundred performances. Also look how Isst season wss almost a duplicate of the former ones, but plenty of rain and mud. But still the people came to see the greatest circus on earth with the greatest collection of clowns." "That's going some." was suggested by the writer. "Yes. and I've been doing it for nfty-twe years, barring the time I was In the London hospital.. It's better to be In one place.and to make a lot of friends there snd stick. I own my own home here, and a farm In the North- west, and one of these days I'll quit the show business and settle down—then the showman's dream may become reality, and that Is, 'to have a good home and a perfect rest.* "Yes, I suppose so; the fever will seise by the time the little red wagons are ready to start nut in the spring, and the smell of sawdust Is In the air." Yon can hardly estimate the resistance sn old trooper baa to overcome to keep from joining the old crowd when he baa retired and the white tope appear In his own town. It seems like loalng a dear relative when one allowa the dear old circus company to leave town without yon. Mr. Tumour's mother died In this country five yeara ago. His sister. Mile. Tumour, wss the greatest balancing trapes* performer ever seen in America. Her mother taught ber. "There was never another trapetlst like my sister," ssys Mr. Tnrnonr, proudly. "My moth- er spent two hours ■ day for years teaching her simply to be graceful. And It was worth the price of admission to see her graceful move- ments. She wss a finished artist. When she was twelve years old she appeared In London and performed on a trapese seventy-five feet above the heada of the audience without a net. At that sge she drew 1350 a night for ten weeks. 8he wss a wonder. She came to Amer- ica with mother, and married a Mr. Bnlse. and now she and ber husband and children do an act. Tbey are known aa the Seneatloual Bolses. "My oldest brother, Thomaa Tumour, was one of the greateat acrobats and clowns la the busi- ness. He waa for twenty-five yeara a pantomlm- lat with the famous Hanloh Brother*. He 1* retired now and lives in Sew York City." Mr. Jules Tumour has known all the great clrcua performers of the laat half century In this country and abroad. The greateat acrobat of them all. In bis estimation, was George Dale- vanty. an English bareback rider of long ago. "He wss the only man I ever knew who.eonld stand erect with a man holding a small hoop around his knees, and leap atralght up into the air. turn over and come down feet erst Into the hoop again." He also ssys that the two beat bareback rid- ers he ever knew were James Robinson and Charles W. Fish, both Americans, although Rob- ert Stlckney. Sr.. waa very graceful upon a horse. Fish la now dead, and he thinks that Robinson lives in Mexico, Mo., although the writer thought that James Robinson was sleo deed. In 1888 James Robinson got twenty gold aov- erelgns a night tor riding In a circus In Madrid, Spain. "Now as to acrobats, tbey are lust like other people; sny boy csn become sn scrobst if he baa someone to teacb him how to spring up and turn over. Some would be better than oth- era, of course. It's all practice, and nothing else. I can take almost any boy and make a contortionist or acrobat of him. The secret of It Is to take a boy when he Is young and bla Joints limber, snd keep blm evcrlaatlngly at It. bending a little farther and farther all the time. That's'all there la to .lt." A benefit performance waa given at the Grand Theatre. Mattoon, 111., Friday, Novem- ber 17, for the striking Illinois Central em- ployes. They enjoyed two packed houses, snd a neat sum waa realised. Nathan Stelu Is proprietor of the bouse. PATRICIA COLLINGE. Miss Colllnge is endowed with remarkable charm, physical pulchritude, and an excellent stage presence. At present she Is playing Youth in Walter Browne's morality play, Everywoman, Other successes in which she has appeared, are: Queen of the Moulin Rouge. The Girl and the Wizard, and the Thunderbolt. This la her second season with Ererywoman.