Cirque Medrano
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The Cirque Medrano (in English: Circus Medrano) is a French circus that was located at 63 Boulevard de Rochechouart, at the corner of rue des Martyrs, in the 18th arrondissement at the edge of Montmartre in Paris. It was initially called Cirque Fernando. The title "Cirque Medrano" remains active today, as it is now a successful French traveling circus.
History
The Parisian circus was created by a Belgian circus entrepreneur, Ferdinand Beert (1835-1902), known as Fernando. It was built at the corner of the Boulevard de Rochechouart and the Rue des Martyrs, in what was then the edge of the City of Paris, under the name "Cirque Fernando." The area was a working-class neighborhood at the foot of the hill of Montmartre, famous for its many places of popular entertainment, among which the Moulin de la Galette and the famous Bal du Moulin Rouge, and in the vicinity of the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre, where many young painters lived.
Cirque Fernando
An acrobat and equestrian, Fernando started his Cirque Fernando in Vierzon, France, in 1872. The following year, he arrived in Paris to perform at the Fête de Montmartre; however, the traditional fairgrounds for this annual celebration were on the very spot where the Church of the Sacré-Cœur was being constructed. Consequently, Fernando sought a suitable empty lot nearby, which he found on the Boulevard de Rochechouart, situated between the rue des Martyrs and the present rue Viollet-le-Duc. He achieved significant success there, which extended far beyond the context of the fair. As a result, he secured a thirty-year lease on the land to build a permanent circus. Designed by architect Gustave Gridaine, the new Cirque Fernando officially opened on June 25, 1875.
Due to its proximity to Montmartre, the circus attracted many artists (Renoir, Degas, Lautrec, and others) who came to sketch the performers in action, sometimes resulting in complete paintings. They also brought along members of the Parisian "bohème": writers, journalists, and actors, who generated publicity for the circus. Mrs. Fernando, who managed the box office, allowed the painters to work freely in the circus during rehearsals and watch performances at no cost—a tradition that would continue under the subsequent management of Gerónimo Medrano.
Fernando Beert eventually transferred the management of his circus to his stepson, Louis, known as Louis Fernando (1851-?). While Louis's artistic direction was quite successful, especially with popular revues crafted for his star clown, Gerónimo Medrano (1849-1912), known as "Boum-Boum," his financial management of the family's enterprise was frequently erratic. Ultimately, he led the circus into bankruptcy in October 1897. In December of the following year, Gerónimo Medrano reacquired Fernando's lease and renamed the circus Cirque Medrano.
Cirque Medrano
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Gerónimo Medrano successfully revived the circus on the Boulevard de Rochechouart. It became a gathering place for artists: Picasso, Braque, and Kees van Dongen were regulars. Medrano managed the circus until his death in 1912. Then, his wife, Berthe (née Perrin, 1876-1920), took over the circus and entrusted artistic management to Rodolphe Bonten, a former acrobat. Gerónimo and Berthe had a son, Jérôme Medrano (1907-1998), who was five years old when his father died. To ensure her son's future, Berthe, whose health was declining, remarried Rodolphe Bonten. Jérôme received a formal education at elite schools that had little to do with the circus.
During World War I, Bonten hired a trio of clowns, the Fratellinis, who quickly became the Idols of Paris and ensured Medrano's financial success. When Berthe Medrano passed away from cancer in 1920, Rodolphe Bonten assumed full management of the circus, although the lease actually reverted to Jérôme Medrano, who was only thirteen. Bonten's management was sound, if not particularly imaginative (he allowed the Fratellinis to join his main competition, Paris's Cirque d'Hiver, in 1924), and Cirque Medrano continued to thrive. It remained a favorite gathering spot for the Parisian artistic elite and consistently attracted many artists, who were always welcome around the ring.
During World War II and the German Occupation of France, the lease of Cirque Medrano, which—since Fernando's bankruptcy—included the land as well as the walls, was put up for sale. Jérôme Medrano had joined the French Resistance and was not in a position to buy his circus back; the wealthy Bouglione family, owners of Paris's Cirque d'Hiver, purchased the land and walls from their rightful owners, the Saint family, paying them in gold! After the War, Jérôme Medrano found himself as the tenant of his main competitors.
From one lawsuit to another, Jérôme Medrano managed to stay at the helm of his circus until the end of 1962, when the Bougliones finally took possession of the building. During that time, he continued to give remarkable shows, with such guest stars as Buster Keaton, Grock, Achille Zavatta, Charlie Rivel, the famous French comedian Fernand Raynaud, and even the tap-dancer Harold Nicholas. The Cirque Medrano gave its last performance on January 7, 1963, in front of a house packed with the Tout-Paris and a crowd of disconsolate Parisians, habitués, circus fans, and friends from the neighborhood.
The Bougliones revived the circus for a couple of seasons under the name Cirque de Montmartre, but the magic was gone. Although their shows were commendable, they were mostly a replica of what could be seen at the Cirque d'Hiver. They rented the building for a short while to Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil, and then to a Fête de la Bière—a sort of Bavarian beer-hall. The building slowly went into a state of disrepair. The Bougliones demolished it in December 1974: in 1975, it would have been one-hundred years old and become a protected landmark... A nondescript apartment building called The Bouglione now occupies the site.
Cirque Medrano in the arts
Edgar Degas, the French Impressionist artist, painted Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando in 1879, which is now held in the National Gallery in London. Auguste Renoir, another Impressionist artist, also painted Jugglers at the Cirque Fernando, which is housed at the Art Institute of Chicago. Georges Seurat's pointillist painting, The Circus (1891), likewise depicts the Cirque Fernando. In the late 19th century, the Parisian Post-Impressionist artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec attended the Cirque Medrano and created numerous drawings and pastels capturing its performances. Later, Pablo Picasso produced several study sketches at the Cirque Medrano for his Pink Period series of acrobats. Fernand Léger painted Le Cirque Medrano (1918), which is part of the collections at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris, and published a complete album of drawings and paintings titled Cirque (1950), in which he sketched his subjects at the Cirque Medrano. Many other painters also rendered the Cirques Fernando and Medrano, along with their performers, as their subjects.
Today
Circus entrepreneur Raoul Gibault leased the Medrano name rights from Jérôme and Violette Medrano and, to this day, his Cirque Medrano-Raoul Gibault has toured France with a big top. His organization has several units that travel under the Medrano title, including Medrano's Cirque sur l'eau (water circus) and Medrano's Cirque de Saint Petersbourg (St. Petersburg Circus).
In popular culture
In Henry Miller's 1934 novel, Tropic of Cancer, Cirque Médrano is mentioned as one of the places that he would visit with his expat friend, Carl. Medrano has also appeared in several French popular novels, in songs, and in films (notably during the German Occupation period).
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