Gerry Cottle's Circus (1974 - 2003)
Dates
- Existence: 1974 - 2003
Biography
The beginnings of Gerry Cottle's Circus trace back to 1970 when Gerry Cottle and partner Brian Austen established Embassy Circus, a small outfit, which opened its firts show in Sturminster Newton, Dorset with nine staff including Gerry, Brian and their wives. They soon changed the name of the circus to Cottle & Austen's Circus, name they used until their partnership disolved in 1974 and Gerry established Gerry Cottle's Circus.
By the mid-1970s Gerry Cottle's Circus was enjoying great success and was touring three different shows across Britain. Always lookin to innovate and reinvent itself, Gerry Cottle's Circus brought to England some of the most prestigious international circuses for the first time such as the Moscow State Circus and the Chinese State Circus. Cottle's circus also travelled to parts of the world no other European circus had travelled before such as Iran and Hong Kong in the late 1970s.
In 1995, he co-created The Circus of Horrors with Doktor Haze, inspired by the alternative French circus Archaos. The Circus of Horrors debuted at the Glastonbury Festival and travelled internationally. Today it is the longest running alternative circus in Britain.
Cottle's Circus ceased to trade in 2003, although it travelled briefly in 2012 as Magic Circus to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of Cottle's Circus.
Found in 82 Collections and/or Records:
Trade and Advertising Material, c1900 - 1999
A range of items of promotion and advertising from a range of circus companies and performers, including artistes' photographs with act descriptions used for seeking employment in circuses and pamphlets advertising independent performances and circus companies' literature and souvenirs for public distribution and promotion including Gerry Cottle's Circus, Belle Vue, Blackpool Tower, Bertram Mills Circus, Gandey's, Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey, Knie and many more.