"A Few Stickers on a Few Sticks"
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Chapter One
In The Beginning: Bar Acts and the Circus in the Nineteenth Century
An Appreciation. This project – “A Few Stickers on a Few Sticks” [1] – was created with the assistance of John A. Picard who carried out research on the circus in Eastern Michigan and presented a set of lectures on the subject in the 1980s and 1990s. Other material here is from the papers of Judge Frank A. Picard and materials from Alex and Vincent Picard. Alex Picard, his brothers, Fred, Phil and Joe and his son Vincent performed on the horizontal bars from the mid-1890s through to 1928. This e-book is dedicated to them.
Preview: 1949 Film on the Cole Brothers Circus.
:https://archive.org/details/50844EBFilmsCircusDayInOurTown
We start with a question. Why were aerialists, flyers or gymnasts, attracted to Eastern Michigan. This story starts with the original aerials, the bar people. Aerialist were not just the flyers, nor the trapeze artists. The barrists were the original aerialists. Their horizontal bars were suspended from the air; they had no trapeze or high wires to support them. There were five bars: two high and three low. They had to swing from one bar to the other, from the top down and from the lower bar upward. They had great acrobatic skills and great upper body strength.
The originals came in the 1800s. Many were Frenchmen, they were lumber jacks and worked in the lumber mills; they were great climbers, had great agility and they were very strong. But the circus people came to Michigan for two other reasons, the railroads and sawdust. Eastern Michigan had something very natural for young kids to learn how to perform in the air, great piles of sawdust. The sawdust was free the kids had nothing else to do. They could do all of their flips and jump into these great piles of sawdust and not be hurt.
The railway s were important to traveling showmen. Circus people were also vaudeville people and in both summer and winter, since vaudeville and the circus were two halves of the same coin, they were always catching a train. Because of the railroads, vaudeville had great access to the Midwest and Saginaw Michigan was one of the great centers of both the railway and vaudeville. It is also the case that when vaudeville died and the passenger train lost its importance the circus began to die.
His Daughter Pat Marr sent me a long biographical note about her father after he died. Here it is:R
ROBERT KERR WAS HEADMASTER OF THE AGA KHAN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL (AND AFTER 1969 THE AGA KHAN MASAKA SECONDARY SCHOOL) BETWEEN 1964 AND 1972. HE WAS BORN IN NORTHERN IRELAND IN 1922 AND DIED IN WIRRAL, ENGLAND ON JANUARY 11, 2011. HE AND HIS WIFE, ROSEMARY HAD TWO CHILDREN, PAT AND ELIZABETH. HIS DAUGHTER, PAT KERR MARR WROTE TO ME ABOUT HIM SHORTLY AFTER HIS DEATH.
“DAD WAS IN THE R.A.F DURING THE WAR; WHEN HE CAME OUT, HE STARTED WORK AS A HEADMASTER OF A SMALL SCHOOL IN NEWCASTLE COUNTY DOWN, NORTHERN IRELAND. IN 1948 HE MARRIED MY MOTHER AND THEY LIVED THERE TILL THE END OF 1951 WHEN DAD JOINED THE BRITISH ARMY. HE WAS IN THE EDUCATION CORP. THEY WERE THEN POSTED TO DEVIZES IN WILTSHIRE; THEN, IN 1954 DAD WAS POSTED TO NANYUKI, KENYA. FROM THERE HE WAS POSTED TO NAIROBI WHERE WE LIVED TILL THE END OF 1958 WHEN HE WAS POSTED BACK TO THE UK. IN 1959 HE FINISHED HIS TIME IN THE ARMY AND JOINED THE R.A.F AS A CIVILIAN AND WAS POSTED BACK TO NAIROBI TO TAKE OVER AS HEADMASTER OF THE R.A.F SCHOOL WHICH PROVIDED EDUCATION FOR THE CHILDREN OF SERVING MEN AND WOMEN.
WE WERE THERE IN NAIROBI UNTIL 1963; THEN BACK TO THE UK FOR A SHORT WHILE THEN DAD WAS POSTED TO KILEMBE, UGANDA, TO TAKE OVER AS HEADMASTER OF THE SCHOOL THERE. HE WASN’T THERE VERY LONG, I THINK ABOUT 12 MONTHS, WHEN HE WAS ‘HEADHUNTED’ TO RUN THE AGA KHAN SCHOOL IN MASAKA. HE WAS THERE FROM 1964 TO 1972, DURING WHICH TIME THE SCHOOL EXPANDED AND MODERNIZED UNDER HIS HEADSHIP, MERGING WITH MASAKA SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL IN 1969.
WHEN HE CAME BACK TO THE UK IN 1972 HE DID A BIT OF SUPPLY TEACHING, THEN WAS OFFERED A JOB AS HEADMASTER OF THE FEDERAL COLLEGE, PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA SO OFF HE AND MUM WENT TO NIGERIA. AGAIN IT WAS LIKE THE AGA KHAN SCHOOL WHERE HE EXPANDED AND MODERNIZED IT. HE CAME BACK TO THE UK IN 1976. THEN HE WENT OUT TO DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA FOR A YEAR TEACHING ADULTS AT THE AIR FORCE BASE THERE.
WHEN HE FINALLY CAME HOME TO THE U.K. HE CHANGED HIS CAREER PATH COMPLETELY. HE BECAME A GOLF CLUB SECRETARY, (AS YOU KNOW ONE OF HIS GREAT LOVES!) FIRST GOING TO WORCESTER GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB (3YRS) FROM THERE HE MOVED TO BROOME PARK, KENT WHERE HE WAS THE GENERAL MANAGER. BROOME PARK WAS LORD KITCHENER’S OLD FAMILY ESTATE AND IT WAS TURNED INTO A GOLFING TIME SHARE, WITH LUXURY VILLAS, ETC. HE RAN THAT FOR 3 YEARS. THEN HE DECIDED IT WAS TIME TO MOVE BACK TO THIS PART OF ENGLAND AND LIVE IN HIS OWN HOUSE. HE GOT THE JOB AS SECRETARY OF LEASOWE GOLF CLUB HERE ON THE WIRRAL, WHERE HE STAYED FOR 16 YEARS TILL HE FINALLY RETIRED AT THE AGE OF 72.
MY DAD HAD A VERY FULL AND EVENTFUL LIFE. HE HAD MANY HOBBIES, AND INTERESTS, AMATEUR DRAMATICS, SAILING, AND WAS A VERY KEEN SPORTS MAN, PLAYING RUGBY, FOOTBALL AND CRICKET, AND WHEN HE FELT TOO OLD TO PLAY HE BECAME A REFEREE. HE ALSO WAS VERY HANDY AND MADE WOODEN CARS, ROCKING HORSES AND DOLLS’ HOUSES, AS WELL AS MANY, MANY TAPESTRIES. HE IS VERY GREATLY MISSED BY ALL OF US.”
[1] Quote of Vincent Picard about the Picard Brothers and other barists; in an Email from Dr. Louis A. Picard to Marian Matyn, November 14, 2009. Saginaw, Michigan.