Customer Reviews

Super Circus: Volume 1

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yes, it's slightly politically incorrect and corny, but that's why I love it! Political correctness is overrated. This 1950's kids show is awesome, and I wasn't even alive when it aired. Why didn't Nick revive this? Plus, there is the THRILL of 1950's Live TV; No chance for retakes! Picture quality varies but is mostly good for 1950's "kinescope recordings".
--Show Format--
A circus, with typical circus acts of the time. 3 clowns and Mary Hartline provide comic moments.
--Extras--
5 of the 6 episodes contain original commercials.
--Negatives--
Your pretentious film snob "friends" will laugh at you.
--Positives--
If you liked this 1950's show as a kid, it's still likely to charm you.
--Overall--
If you like 1950's TV, or like the circus, then these 6 episodes are a bargain! Also includes that rare ABC-TV ID.

Now, I can just hope Alpha Video releases "The Morey Amsterdam Show" or "I Remember (Mama)", then the fun will REALLY start!

But still, this is solid fifties fun for Baby Boomers and those interested in early TV.

The Super Circus dvd is a great time capsule to a much simpler time on television.

I have to admit I remember watching this when I was a kid. Fun to go back in time when they did live TV and all the mistakes were left in.Mary Hartline
what red-blooded boy did not remember her with her long blonde hair and drum majorette outfit.
The circus acts were very good,another neat thing lost somewhere.
Great for a trip back in time and neato stuff to watch with your kids or grandkids,
Enjoy!

The video quality on this DVD is very good considering the fact that these are sourced from kinescopes that are 50-60 years old.

Super Circus presented various circus acts on a sound stage with a backdrop simulating a circus-type atmosphere. Frankly, circus acts bore me. They always have, but remember, there wasn't much on for kids in the early Fifties. This show was presented on Saturday Morning, so we always watched it.

If you remember Mary Hartline, then you're Old like me. She was one of the first female stars actually created by TV. Mary had long blond hair and wore little short majorette skirts and boots a good ten or more years before the terms mini-skirt and go-go boots were coined. Ring master Claude Kirschner would introduce her and Mary would come out and dance around waving her arms as though she were actually conducting the band on stage. Of course, she wasn't really conducting, and if you kept an eye open, you could actually see the real conducter standing off to one side of the set. One of the episodes here actually profiles Mary as she graced the cover of TV guide. If you read between the lines, it's priceless. They should have called it "How to marry a millionaire".

There were two clowns who were regulars on the show. One was an older man with a very familiar voice but I can't figure out who the actor was.

The other little clown was supposed to be a child. After watching this DVD, I now realize that the little clown is actually a young woman.

The clowns would introduce the commercials. One sponsor is Mars candy bars (naturally). Wait until you see the old packaging!

The other sponsor is a breakfast cereal. I got my biggest laugh at one of the cereal commercials. The eye of the camera shows us a bowl of cereal and a pitcher of cream with a LARGE bowl of sugar alongside. As a voice-over extols the merits of the cereal, a hand reaches into the frame. Holding a TABLESPOON, the hand digs into the big bowl of sugar and sprinkles about a quarter pound of the stuff over the cereal. No wonder so many people were all messed up in the sixties!

Here's a story about an episode that you won't see on this DVD. I got it from someone who worked in early television but who will have to remain anonymous because there's no way for me to verify the story so, take it for what it's worth.

One week, the guest act was a small troupe of performing elephants. The elephants were supposed to hold onto each others tails and run around in a circle, trunk to tail, as you've seen them do many timeson TV.

During the act One elephant heard the call of nature and answered it right as she was performing on TV. This created a domino effect and consequently, all the elephants relieved themselves right on TV, never missing a beat as they kept running in a circle.

The show's director, in a panic screamed "Go to camera 2, go to camera 2!". Camera two had the clowns hawking peanut butter. The younger clown, smelling the pungent aroma from ring one became sick to his stomach and upchucked right on stage. The director screamed again: "Go to camera 3, go to camera 3".

Rarin' to go on Camera 3 was Mary Hartman and, as her band played "When the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole..." Mary danced out onto the stage, stepped right into the elephant mess, and gracelessly slid right onto her keister.

"Go to Black! Go to Black!"

You will notice one episode on this DVD where they mention an elephant act coming up next, but you never get to see it. I wonder if that's the notorious episode.

This DVD is priceless for those that remember Super Circus and for the Nostalgia Buffs among you. Inexpensive fun.