Ricketts' Circus in the Capital City, Part One

(© Podcast text copyright - Peter Schmitz. All rights reserved.)

[SFX]   Philadelphia, 1793: On a warm Spring afternoon, President George Washington goes to the circus.  [SFX out]

His household accounts for Wednesday, April 24th, 1793 show that he paid eight dollars for tickets for himself, his wife Martha, and his four step-grandchildren: Betsey, Patsy, Nelly, and Custis, who ranged in age from seventeen to eleven. Also invited along in the party were family friends Samuel Powel (the former mayor of Philadelphia) and Mrs. Powel.  However, at the last moment it seems that Martha decided not to go on the excursion, after all. A note exists in Washington’s hand, making excuses to the Powels for her absence. He informed them that:

“Mrs Washington is so much indisposed with a cold as to make her fear encreasing it by going to the circus this afternoon . . .  but the President and the rest of the family propose to be Spectators at the exhibition of Mr. Rickets.” 

Though it was early in his second administration, Washington needed a break. He was already exhausted by disputes among members of his Cabinet, and was in frequent poor health. Most of Philadelphia knew of the President's reputation for being excessively stiff and formal whenever he was resident in the city, and he was apparently much burdened by his official duties. Washington only a few days earlier had issued the “Neutrality Proclamation” declaring that the government of the United States of America would refuse to take sides in the war between his old enemy, Great Britain and the Revolutionary government now running the affairs of his old ally, France. (So, for all of you musical theater fans, this was immediately AFTER the “Rap Battle Number Two” debate portrayed in the musical Hamilton.) 

Nevertheless, Washington, who was also famously a great fancier of plays and entertainments, would not be deterred from seeing the exhibition at the equestrian arena with an exciting new name: Ricketts’ Circus.

_________________________

[TRANSITION MUSIC]

Just a few weeks before, a notice had appeared in a newspaper, the Federal Gazette and Philadelphia Daily Advertiser: (If you know circus posters and publicity at all, you know that it is replete with emphatic typefaces and bold fonts, and underlining. Since you can’t see it, I’ll do my best to give it a vocal interpretation that does it justice.)

Mr. Ricket’s respectfully acquaints the PUBLIC - That his unparalleled Equestrian Performance, Will commence on Wednesday the 3d of April Weather permitting - For the first time in America . . . He has erected at a very considerable Expense, a CIRCUS, for that Purpose, situated in Market, the Corner of Twelfth Street.

It was perhaps this very notice that had caught the attention of Washington and his family. Or it may have been so widely discussed in his household that he could hardly have missed knowing about it. In fact, by that Spring of 1793 many of the citizens of Philadelphia were already familiar with the handsome and elegant Englishman Mr. Ricketts, who had been a resident in the city since the autumn of the previous year. Industrious and ambitious, he had been busy cultivating future audience members and patrons. Back in November of 1792, the editor of the Advertiser informed his readers that “Among the variety of amusements inviting the fashionable class of citizens to every quarter of Philadelphia Mr. Rickets Circus in Market Street, near the Center Square, bids fair to come in for a considerable portion of public favor. Already we find it resorted to by a number of ladies and gentlemen every morning, who are desirous to perfect themselves in the elegant accomplishments of horsemanship.” The text of this puffery (most likely provided to the editor of the paper by its subject) served its purpose well, for soon Ricketts was attracting numerous private students for lessons in riding, and was stoking public curiosity about his promised exhibitions.

Of necessity, Ricketts had to begin his campaign to capture the attention of the public on the edge of the capital city, where there was some room to ride. At this point in its growth and development the “Green Country town” planned by William Penn back in the 17th century had developed quite differently than its founder had envisioned. The docks and warehouses along the Delaware River dominated commerce. No one wanted to live far from their livelihoods. Even the State House (now Independence Hall) and the President’s House one block to the north were rather at the edge of the built-up urban center. Beyond Eighth Street, Philadelphia’s tight cluster of commercial buildings and residences gave way to mostly open squares of undeveloped blocks. Just a few scattered houses stood in this area of town, stretching all the way West to the Schuylkill River. 

On the lot Ricketts had selected at Market and Twelfth, he had constructed an amphitheater, an open riding ring surrounded by bleachers and benches. Raised seats, sheltered by a roof for the more refined members of the audience, stood beyond the main arena. “Doors to be open at a quarter past 3 o’Clock and the performance to begin at 4 o’Clock. Boxes to be taken of Mr. Moul, door keeper, at the Circus,” the notice in The Advertiser had advised. Unfortunately no drawing or other graphic depiction of this structure survives. Nor do any first hand accounts of the equestrian exhibition that took place on the corner of 12th and Market on April 24th 1793. But judging from later accounts of Ricketts’ shows, we can say with some confidence that it included many elements sure to have delighted all the members of the audience gathered there that afternoon. Once the Washington family arrived in the large formal carriage that the President used for traveling around the city, the circus began

Now these days, our mental image of a ‘circus’ is very heavily shaped by the enormous  American-style traveling circuses of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: big top tents, railroad cars full of trained lions, elephants, brass bands, trapeze artists, clown cars. Or perhaps one imagines the more recent European-style circus that tends to feature artistic acrobats, university-trained clowns and special effects. But the first circus shows, as Ricketts and others developed them in the late 18 Century, were more what you might see at a modern day rodeo or horse exhibition.

That was Ricketts Circus: Powerful and elegantly trained horses surged around the 42-foot diameter riding ring, with Ricketts alternately sitting and standing on their backs or leaping back and forth between mounts. He would hold a sharp fork in his hand as he rode standing Roman style with a leg on each of two horses riding side by side, deftly spearing oranges that were thrown into the air, then leap over ropes and ribbons that were strung in his path, landing lightly once again on the horses’ backs. Fiery hoops and barrels were similarly employed, and perhaps even fireworks were set off, which would startle the audience members but never seemed to faze the horses or their masterful rider. A child or young assistant climbed up on Rickett’s shoulders as he rode standing, and then himself stood on one leg and saluted the President and his family as Ricketts rode by. A band of local musicians provided a rolicking tune, and the audience was no doubt highly entertained when a drunken and slovenly clown seemed as first unable to ride the majestic trained horses, but then suddenly threw off his shabby clothes and revealed himself to be Ricketts, the master equestrian himself! As the Washington party made their way back to the President’s house that evening, they would have much to tell the absent Martha, whose cold one hopes was doing much better, and that the delighted smiles of her grandchildren made up for her own missed opportunity.

[Transition music]

Ricketts’ shows in Philadelphia were both financially lucrative and socially successful for him - everything he could have hoped for as he had made his way across the ocean to America. The fact that George Washington and his family (minus Martha) made the trip to see his show at the new arena was exactly the sort of social validation that he would have sought. Washington even evidently viewed the circus with enough favor to eventually make several repeat visits.

However, a caveat: It does seem that the multitude of subsequent accounts, which one can read in many histories of the American Circus, of Washington ‘befriending’ Ricketts might be somewhat overstated by writers eagerly repeating stories that might only have their origins in Ricketts’ own efforts at self-promotion. Indeed we have more stories about Washington from Ricketts’ point of view than the other way around. For instance, there is an anecdote from the published memoirs of Martha Washington’s grandson, George Custis, who accompanied his step-grandfather to the circus. Young Custis would have been almost 12 years old that particular day, but he later claimed to have a clear memory of Ricketts appraising George Washington’s horsemanship:

Rickets, celebrated equestrian, used to say, “I delight to see the general ride, and make it a point to fall in with him when I hear he is abroad on horseback - his seat is so firm, his management so easy and graceful, that I, who am a professor of horsemanship would go to him and learn to ride.

Although Custis seems to have missed the point, though Ricketts praised Washington, we have no record of similar words of friendship or commendation from the President about Ricketts. The inference we perhaps can draw from Ricketts’ flattery is that the English equestrian knew that securing the President’s seeming imprimatur in America was something he could market to the general public, just as he would tout the favor of a monarch in any European country. Ricketts even subsequently purchased a horse that Washington had once owned, and would display the animal in his stable, and publicly claimed that it had, in fact, been personally bestowed upon him by the great man. Of course it is entirely possible that the two men actually had some kind of an acquaintance, but stretching the truth, even about the approval of a national hero and historical figure like George Washington, was rather par for the course in the circus business, both then and now. 

For our purposes, in terms of Theater History, what we must pay attention to is that Ricketts’ new circus is often hailed and remembered as an innovation in American popular entertainment. Though several other performers (as we shall see) had already toured through the country billing themselves with the genteel-sounding title of “equestrians”, John Bill Ricketts was certainly the first one in America to describe the showplace for his horses as a “circus”. This fact has earned Ricketts a lasting reputation, both in the history of the circus and also in the history of Philadelphia theater.

But the question arises: Was this the first American circus, when considered in terms of form? Many and various popular entertainers, rope dancers, animal exhibits, acrobats, conjurers, and trick riders had already been plying their trade in North America for decades, they just didn’t call themselves a Circus. In 1785, for instance, an announcement had appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper, The Pennsylvania Packet, that a certain Mr. Thomas Pool, “the first American that ever exhibited the following feats of horsemanship on the Continent, has erected a Menage, at very considerable expense, near the Centre House.” As Ricketts would later do, Pool also took advantage of the empty space to the west of the city. The Centre House was a structure in the Center Square - intended by founder William Penn to be a park in the middle of the urban grid, but it would not in fact be surrounded by buildings until much later. (Center Square, of course, is now occupied by the imposing Beaux Arts structure that is Philadelphia’s City Hall, with its famous tower topped by the Alexander Calder statue of William Penn.) 

The announcement of Thomas Pool’s show listed in great detail the many tricks and feats to be performed upon the backs of multiple horses by Mr. Pool, “with seats convenient for the Ladies and Gentlemen who may please to honor him with their company.” Pool was advertised as being able to stand on the back of a horse, holding a fork, and catching oranges thrown to him from the crowd. He would mount and dismount and hang from the horse while it galloped at full speed. He would ride on two horses at once, with a foot upon each back, and vault over ropes and barriers stretched across their path. Then he would ride three horses running side by side, and do the same. Finally, at the end of the show Pool would present a comic routine, “the Taylor riding to New York”. 

Well, now, this seems familiar. Had Pool, long before Ricketts, actually created the first American circus, even if he did not use the word itself? Indeed, many parts of Pool’s act seem to directly parallel the feats for which Ricketts would later achieve fame. (There is even the tell-tale repetition of the phrase “considerable expense” in the texts of both performers’ publicity copy.) Were in fact both men adhering to some standard existing paradigm for equestrian entertainments? Well, as any person who had resided in or visited the cities of London or Paris during the 1770s or 1780s might answer, of course they were. Both Pool and Ricketts were following the example of the great Philip Astley.

But for the story of Philip Astley, and further adventures of John Bill Ricketts in the City of Philadelphia, we’ll have to wait for the next podcast. Join us then for Part Two of Rickett’s Circus in the Capital City, here on “Adventures in Theater History”