“I just remember being really mesmerized by the whole thing…the sights, the smells, the sounds,” says Mark Sloan, director and senior curator at the College of Charleston's Halsey Gallery, about his first visit to the circus at the age of six. He recalled the sideshow barker who tantalized passersby with spectacles hidden behind the curtain. This childhood experience began Sloan’s amazement with the circus.
Sloan has not only researched the circus, but has always looked for circus-related photographs and other items of a unique or unusual nature. In 1990, he authored a book titled, "Hoaxes, Humbugs, and Spectacles: Astonishing Photographs of Smelt Wrestlers, Human Projectiles, Giant Hailstones, Contortionists, Elephant Impersonators, and Much, Much, More!" He followed that up with a book, published in 1993, "Dear Mr. Ripley: A Compendium of Curioddities from the Believe It or Not! Archives." He has a new title coming out next fall titled, "Rarest of the Rare: Stunning Specimens at the Harvard Museum of Natural History." It is obvious that Sloan does justice to his colorful subject matter with appropriately colorful book titles.
His most recent book, "Wild, Weird, and Wonderful: The American Circus 1901-1927 as Seen by F.W. Glasier," was published this year. Glasier was a photographer who worked closely with the circuses in the beginning of the 20th century. He focused on images of the circus performers, trainers and other staff to show real-life images behind the circus' glamour and mystery. In researching his first book, "Hoaxes, Humbugs and Spectacles," Sloan came across some of Glasier’s circus photography. He said that he made a mental note to come back to his images some day. He says there was a certain amount of controversy surrounding the photos, due to the fact that no one knew if Glasier or his family copyrighted the images. Sloan found that Glasier had passed away in 1954 and therefore the copyrights on his photos expired in 2004, when his book was published.
Sloan never found any real evidence that Glasier’s images had been reproduced. In fact, he said that none of the artist’s photographs were ever published when he was alive. Glasier scratched the emulsion of his negatives with some dates and names of the subjects. This helped Sloan identify the circus performers, but he had to find out more information about the subjects for the book.
The author visited state historical societies, the Ringling Museum, the Library of Congress, private collectors, and Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wis. to find images, facts and biographical information. He even visited family members and friends of the circus performers to gather information about the people in Glasier’s photographs. Sloan traveled to Gibsonton, Fla. to talk with retired circus performers, hoping they might recognize the people in the photo or have stories about their acts.
Sloan has several more
circus books in the works. The first is
about two center ring performers who worked with the Ringling Brothers
Circus in the 1920s. Their names are
Lillian Lietzel, an aerialist and Alfredo Codona, a trapeze artist, and
they apparently lived a tragic love story that Sloan will tell. The second book will be a survey of women in
the circus. The third will be a history of
circus side shows, to be titled "Alive Inside: The Art of the Side
Show."
He is also planning to co-write a book with his wife, Michelle
Van-Parys, a
Collge of Charleston studio art professor, tentatively called "The
Starving Artist Cookbook."
We were unable to verify his
claim that he is able to juggle with his feet!
For more information about
Mark Sloan can be found at: http://www.cofc.edu/artsmanagement/bios/sloan.html
Also, learn more about the Halsey Gallery at: http://www.cofc.edu/halseygallery/homepage.htm
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The American Circus 1901-1927 as Seen by F.W. Glasier" is the
latest book by Mark Sloan