HOME Forums Forum Rules James Perkins – Wire Walker/Performer – known as Arthur Elton & Mons Daziane

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  • LynWeir
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    Post count: 4

    Hello,

    I have been researching my family history which includes a wire walker, performer, actor, photographer and agent/manager ‘James Perkins’ also known as ‘Mons Daziane’ ‘Daziane’ and ‘Arthur Elton’ and later ‘Arthur Elton’ or ‘Arthur Elton James Perkins’. His story is quite complicated and difficult to condense easily his personal life intercepts with his public/performance life so I will outline a little of both.

    I note that in your list of Routes it include an entry for ‘James Perkins – 16 Nov 1878 – Bathurst – Perkins, James, Tightwire Artist, at School of Arts’.

    I have corrected numerous newspaper articles in Trove from 1877 to 1921 when he died. His performances as a wire walker seemed to be reported on regularly, especially 1877-1881. Henri L’Estrange was said to have viewed one of his performances and was ‘demonstrative in his applause’ in June 1877 at Clontarf. There was a wire walk challenge between him & Carl Grand in 1878 which is widely reported and it was 1879 when he seemed wot work in circuses.

    I have seen little mention of James Perkins in any circus or performing news but he appears to have been a very talented wire walker. There is one reference in Aus Stage of ‘Mons Daziane’ performing with the Hayes and Benhamo’s English Circus in Jul-Oct 1879 – https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/86337 There are 3 advertisements for Daziane performing with the English Circus in October 1879 near the end of their season for the International Exhibition.

    What I do know is that at the end of 1878 and early 1879 when his wife Sarah stated that he was travelling in Victoria performing, he was working with St Leon’s Circus. An advertisement on 25 December, 1878 in the Wagga Wagga Advertiser lists ‘JAMES PERKINS, Agent’ this role continued into the end of March 1879 on advertisements for St Leon’s. In Sept 1879 he was performing as a wire walker with Ashton’s Circus.

    The period 1877 – 1882 James was performing widely across mainly NSW as a wire walker. He had been a builder who found he had exceptional balance then trained himself as a wire walker. This is outlined in a newspaper report: Goulburn Herald 18 July 1877 ‘Combination of Talent’. The walk across Mossman’s bay in a challenge with Carl Grand was reported with much fanfare in newspapers in NSW, VIC, QLD & SA as were other of the events he held around the state crossing rivers in places like Inverell. In 1880 he was performing at ‘Attwater’s Theatre Royal’ in Grafton where his mother was living and many of his family, again it was another challenge this time between him as a ‘funambulist’ wire walker and another ‘pedestrian’ walker.

    I have been trying to track if anyone has any more information on James, I have pretty much tracked a lot of his life/work through Trove newspapers etc.

    James Perkins performed with his sister Emily Clara Perkins and Frederick Hobbs (stage name ‘Lloyd’) as ‘Elton-Lloyd’. Fred Hobbs and Emily Perkins married in 1892. They formed the Lloyds circus and later the Lloyd Sisters Circus. Their daughter Alma Hobbs married Vincent Ashton in 1931.

    It appears James was also was a manager for the Payne Family Singers as ‘A J Perkins, Manager’ (Arthur James) in 1888.

    PERSONAL LIFE – complicated!

    In 1902 my great grandmother married Walter Arthur Perkins, he recorded his parents as James Perkins (Professional Actor) and Sarah Ann Bishop. They had one child before Walter Arthur deserted my grandmother by the end of 1903. Walter Arthur went on it seems to have another relationship and 2 more children and when this broke down, he then married a second time having another 4 children. There appears to be no divorce record so far but my great grandmother did file a missing persons report and many years later remarried. I am still researching this part of the story. I do know that in Court records in 1906 Sommerville Matthias Perkins brother to James and Emily Clara Perkins, stated Walter Arthur Perkins was his nephew which ties him back to the family. He also spent time with James Perkins brothers/family after he left my grandmother and was living near Grafton before he married where many of James family were living.

    James Perkins and Sarah Bishop had married at Patrick’s Plains on 24 April 1872 and had 3 children registered, Walter Arthur was apparently the fourth chid but there is no birth record I have yet been able to find. The reason for this may be linked to what happened with their previous 3 children. In 1879 James was in Victoria with St Leon’s and according to Sarah sent no money to her. She was living in Sydney, behind in her rent and unable to work with 3 children so she placed the children into care at the Benevolent Society, they were moved to Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children and were eventually ‘Boarded Out’. The Superintendent stated that given the mother never visited nor contributed any money towards their care, and the father had according to Sarah left them, that it was a case of ‘deliberate desertion by both the mother and the father’. It is difficult to know the full circumstances with just snippets of information. In her later Divorce records Sarah states she did regularly visit the children but that is not reflected in the Asylum records.

    In 1881 there is a newspaper reference to a performance in Clarence Town of ‘Mr and Mrs Perkins (nee Bishop)’ indicating it was Sarah Bishop performing with her husband James Perkins. There are are references to other women’s names singing or performing with James including ‘Clara Bishop’ performing with him in Crookwell in 1882, and the ‘Mr Perkins Happy Family’ troupe performing in Stroud/Tumbarumba in 1884. A Mr and Mrs Perkins were living in Crookwell in 1883 performing at local concerts with singing and comedy routines very similar to later performances that James did. It seems likely after the 1881 account that it was Sarah performing with him with other stage names. As he got older James did less rope walking and more comedy singing and drama performances often enlisting locals to perform alongside his troupes.

    Meanwhile the marriage had broken down between James and Sarah some time before 1890 and they had split up. He married Catherine Byrne Rendalls in 1890. At this stage James Perkins had adopted a stage name and added to his birth name, becoming ‘Arthur Elton James Perkins’.

    Sarah Perkins nee Bishop finally filed for divorce (with James in absentia presumed dead) in 1896-1898.

    James and Catherine and sometimes her sisters, and later their son (born in 1891), performed with them under a variety of Troupe names – ‘Elton Stray Leaves Company’ ‘Arthur Elton Company’ but James became ‘Arthur Elton’ in much of the advertisements and newspaper reports after the second marriage. In the early 1900’s he was touring with a Biograph and Vitascope also listing his occupation as a photographer. He died in Dalby Qld in 1921 with his death certificate stating he was ‘Arthur Elton James Perkins’, his mother as ‘Jane Pinteaux’ (which is correct but different spelling) and father ‘Perkins Elton’ – his father was Samuel Perkins. His sister Emily Clara (father Samuel Perkins) contributed to his headstone so we know it is our James Perkins.

    I have documents from the NSW archives about his children and the Randwick Asylum where they were sent and of his divorce from Sarah 1896-1898 so have been piecing it all together. I have still at this point not been able to track a birth record for Walter Arthur Perkins but given they had 3 children placed into care it makes sense they did not officially record Walter Arthur’s birth.

    I wondered if you had any records or information about ‘James Perkins’, ‘Arthur Elton’ or ‘Mons Daziane’ as he was also known? I live in hope of finding a photograph.

    Given he did work with St Leon’s circus and you have written about the circus in Australia extensively and along with the routes note re James Perkins, I thought you may have some leads.

    kind regards

    Lyn Weir

    Mark St Leon
    Participant
    Post count: 17

    Hi Lyn

    Many thanks for your message which I have read with interest. The name of James Perkins was already known to me as he was associated with my family’s circus (St Leon’s) in 1878-79.

    I don’t know if I will be able to provide you with any information that have not already uncovered but here are some items of possible interest:

    Wagga Wagga Advertiser
    21 December 1878
    Advertisement

    30 Start Artists, 40 highly trained horses and diminutive ponies’, 12 new star artists from Europe – The company comprised ‘The Great Leopold’, Hadj Hamo, Charles Bliss, The Great Bungaroo, Joe Kitichie and Little Kitichie, Little Victoriel Matterlina, Mankitichie, Robert Taylor, Masters A. King and L. Pittman, the St Leon Brothers, Gus, Alfred, and Walter. The agent was James Perkins.

    Deniliquin Chronicle
    2 January 1879
    Advertisement

    The Greatest Circus in Australia … 30 Star Artists. 40 Highly-trained Horses and Diminutive Ponies. 12 New Star Artists, from Europe. The Great Leopold, Champion Battoute Leaper of the World. Hadj Hamo, The Arab Wonder. Charles Bliss, The Great Clown. The Great Bungaroo, Joe Kitichie and Little Kitichie, The Japanese Wonders. The Victoriel Matterlina, The smallest Child Equestrienne ever seen in Australia. Mankitchie, The Wonderful Japanese Wire Walker. Robert Taylor, Late of Burton and Taylor’s Circus. Masters Albert King & L. Pittman, The Great Pony Riders. The St Leon Brothers, The Great Bareback Vaultigeur Equestrians. M. St Leon, Proprietor. James Perkins, Agent.

    Riverina Herald
    6 January 1879, p.3 c.6
    Advertisement

    The Great Leopold, Hadj Hamo, Charles Bliss, Joe Kitichie, Little Kitichie, Little Victoriel Matterlina, Mankitichie, Robert Taylor, Albert King, L. Pittman, The St Leon Bros and James Perkins, Agent.

    Daylesford Mercury & Express
    14 January 1879
    Report

    … there was only a moderate attendance. The company although not numerous are excellent … Mr James Perkins was very successful on the wire rope, in fact his exhibition was a welcome surprise to the audience …

    Ballarat Courier
    23 January 1879
    Report

    … the astounding and elegant performance of Mr Perkins on the wire rope … (all) the best entertainment of the kind advertised here …’

    Geelong Advertiser
    29 January 1879
    Report

    … A new feature presented yesterday evening was the invisible wire walking of Mr James Perkins. The artist, which must be possessed of wonderful balancing powers, performed a variety of startling feats on a slack wire which was so thin that it seemed impossible for it to bear a man’s weight. The wire is of the kind found in pianos and from the ground it was invisible, yet without any aid from a balancing pole Mr Perkins played a violin, drank water etc. with a deftness that excited the astonishment of the audience …

    You could consult my biography of the famous Aboriginal tight wire artist, Con Colleano “The Wizard of the Wire: The Story of Con Colleano” (Aboriginal Studies Press, 1993). A chapter of this book is devoted to the rope and wire walking tradition which I reproduce below (note mention of James Perkins):

    St Leon (Aboriginal Studies press, Canberra, 1993), pp.69-81
    The Rope & Wirewalking Tradition
    Rope walkers and rope dancers had been known since antiquity. Their history
    stretched at least as far back as the days of ancient Greece. They had frequented the
    outdoor fairs of medieval Europe. With the establishment of the circus in a modern
    form by Philip Astley and his contemporaries in London late in the 18th century,
    the rope walkers and rope dancers found a new outlet for their energies and their
    acts became popular within the confines of the circus arena. Although the wire had
    been used to perform upon as early as 1781, it did not gain custom for more than a
    century. Rope artists, or funambulists , the French term by which these performers
    were commonly known, patiently developed their craft during the course of the
    19th century, just as circus bareback riders and trapeze artists developed theirs.
    Gradually there was a shift from the graceful art of dancing upon the rope to the
    more sensational aspects of balancing upon it. Balancing upon a chair on the rope,
    walking blindfolded or riding a bicycle across it were popular presentations.
    Another popular act was for the performer to make several changes of costume
    during the course of his or her act. Some performers began to abandon balancing
    poles, at least for the’low wire’ acts. Female performers sometimes carried only an
    open parasol to assist their balance.
    Genuine, unassisted feet-to-feet backward ‘summersets’ (the old fashioned term for
    somersaults) appear to have been turned upon the tight rope as early as 1830,
    although performers were turning the simpler crutch-to-crutch or feet-to-crutch
    variety earlier than this. The first genuine backwards somersault on the wire, a
    much more difficult task than on the rope, was achieved by the Spaniard, Juan
    Caicedo, in Paris in 1885 although hand assisted ‘summersets’ had been performed
    in Sadler’s Wells as early as 1781.
    The English tightrope performer, Hugh Patrick Lloyd, toured Australia in 1907
    with Wirth’s Circus and again in 1913 for the Fuller-Brennan vaudeville circuit. It is
    more than likely that Lloyd’s astounding performances during his second
    Australian tour were witnessed by the curious young Con Sullivan. Lloyd had
    perfected his tightrope act in the 1880s, playing the violin while turning a back
    somersault without losing a note. In 1913, Lloyd claimed to be the only bounding
    tightrope performer in the world to perform without the aid of a balancing pole. He
    even performed back somersaults while blindfolded, while still playing his violin,
    or while jumping through a hoop or over a skipping rope.
    The American tightwire artiste, Bird Millman, became an established ‘center ring’
    attraction with Bailey’s Circus in 1914 and later with the combined Ringling Bros
    and Barnum & Bailey’s Combined Shows. Disdaining the use of the customary
    parasol, Millman presented a spectacular act of almost hypnotic charm. In a
    departure from established rope and wire walking traditions, Millman danced and
    ran back and forth along a wire that was an exceptional 36 ft long. Accompanied by
    a singing chorus of eight voices, Millman, too, sang at certain points in her beautiful
    act
    The slack rope and slack wire were referred to as the corde volante in early circus
    literature. They required their own discipline for, as its names applies, the cord was
    allowed to hang loose between its two ends. This prevented dancing or
    somersaulting but did facilitate balancing acts such as juggling, performing a
    headstand or comedy work upon it as it swung to and fro. There is a fundamental
    difference between the tightwire and the slackwire. While walking the tightwire the
    performer must keep his centre of gravity over the wire; on a slackwire the wire
    must be brought under the performer’s centre of gravity.
    By the early 1830s, there were references to the corde elastique which must have been
    akin to what today would be called the bounding tightrope or tightwire. The corde
    elastique was affixed in tension with springs at either end. By bouncing astride the
    rope or wire, the ‘spring’ gave the performer additional lift for performing tricks
    such as somersaults. Colleano’s own bounding tightwire, with a spring affixed to
    one end of the wire only, was but a variant of the corde elastique.
    Rope and wire acts could be presented within a circus, inside a theatre or in an
    outdoor exhibition such as a fair. Usually, the execution of a rope or wire act
    required the effort of the performer alone. On the other hand, a circus equestrian
    act required a heavy investment in trained horses, grooms, a specially constructed
    ring or stage. A circus acrobatic act also required a ring or stage and the
    employment of a troupe of men. It was probably these aspects of economy that lead
    to the tightrope being the first of the circus arts to be introduced to colonial
    Australia for the appearance of individual tightrope artists pre-date the
    establishment of the first colonial circuses by some years.
    As early as December 1833, George Croft gave tightrope dancing performances at
    Sydney’s Theatre Royal. His performances on the tightrope marked the
    commencement of the development of the circus arts in Australia. From where
    Croft obtained his expertise is unclear, for he was a ‘cook and confectioner’ when he
    was transported to New South Wales as convict in 1827 for stealing. Croft remained
    active as a tightrope performer until the goldrush period of the early 1850s. He was
    best known for his outdoor exhibitions but performed in Australia’s early theatres
    and circuses. He even established, albeit a short-lived enterprise, one of Australia’s
    first circus ‘amphitheates’, in Brisbane in 1847.
    In 1838, the young John Quinn, a pupil of Croft, was licensed to perform feats of
    tightrope walking in New South Wales. The origins of Quinn are obscure but
    certainly he won well-deserved popularity during the course of his colonial career.
    In May 1848, Quinn performed in Robert Radford’s circus in Hobart, the first
    succesful colonial circus enterprise. Later in the same year, and again with
    Radford, he performed a ‘basket dance’ on the tightrope, dancing on his tightrope
    with his feet tied in baskets. Quinn may have been taught these acts by the
    renowned British tightrope performer, James Hunter, who had been transported for
    a term of imprisonment to the island colony of Tasmania in 1839 for the theft of a
    coat. A few weeks later, Quinn performed the remarkable feat of walking along the
    forestay to the main topmast of an American sailing ship lying at anchor in the
    Hobart Town harbour, perhaps the first display in the colonies of a high, as distinct
    from a low, rope or wire act. In Melbourne the following year, 1850, five thousand
    people watched spellbound as Quinn walked a tightrope across the Yarra River.
    The Royal Australian Equestrian Circus, Sydney’s first successful circus
    ‘amphitheatre’, opened in York Street in October 1850 under the proprietorship of
    Edward La Rosiere and John Jones. La Rosiere, the pseudonym of Edward Hughes,
    had given slack rope performances in Sydney as early as December 1841, shortly
    after arriving from England. Like most performers of that age, La Rosiere was
    ‘multi-skilled’, being adept as a contortionist, bareback rider, acrobat, clown and
    stiltwalker as well. The circus was conducted in a makeshift building erected
    adjacent to the Adelphi Hotel. The ropewalkers that appeared in the Royal
    Australian Equestrian Circus were of both the tightrope and slackrope varieties. A
    Mr Clark walked the slackrope and turned ‘somerseats’ (somersaults) on the rope.
    These somersaults were most likely the crutch-to-crutch variety rather than the
    more difficult feet-to-feet type. Some of Clark’s displays on the slackrope were to
    the accompaniment of the humour of clowns in the ring, while in one act he posed
    on the rope as fireworks were set off and rained about him. The other ropewalker
    to be found in Sydney’s first circus was a London-born performer of all-round
    ability, John Jones. In contrast to Clark, Jones danced on the tightrope but, again, to
    the accompaniment of gestures and humour from the circus clowns. The brief
    descriptions that survive of these performances indicate that the rope performing
    styles then prevalent in England had been effectively transplanted to colonial
    Australia.
    The discovery of gold, the movement of the population on to the goldfields and,
    subsequent to the goldrushes, the growth of the interior townships and the cities,
    lead the early Australian circuses to travel beyond the coastal cities and appear in
    the new settlements under calico tents. These early troupes rarely covered more
    than 20 or 30 miles in a days travelling, such were the limitations of horsedrawn
    covered wagon transport. In this fashion, the pattern of Australian circus life
    became set for years to come, an almost idyllic life in spite of the hardships
    entailed. Roadside camps in the bush, campfires at night, band concerts after the
    evening meal, encounters with tribes of Aborigines, with bushrangers and
    goldminers, enthusiastic and appreciative audiences in isolated towns and infant
    cities alike are amongst the facets of colonial circus life that were recalled. At
    camps between towns, young and budding performers practised their acrobatic
    and other routines. Circus skills were not only developed but shared and passed
    from generation to generation. A ropewalker might sling his rope between two
    eucalypt trees and practise upon it as the evening meal was prepared, melodies
    from cornets and euphoniums filling the air as if in accompaniment, as the circus
    bandsmen also practised upon their instruments.
    In the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s, colonial audiences saw several fine slackrope and
    tightrope performers. Sometimes these ropewalkers performed as members of
    circus companies and sometimes as sole itinerant entertainers. If a ropewalker was
    attached to a circus company in those early days it was customary to entertain
    singlehandedly, an expectant crowd in the afternoon before the evening’s
    performance. This often involved walking with the aid only of a balancing pole,
    along a very long rope stretched at a sharp angle from the ground to the top of the
    protruding centre pole of the circus tent.
    The famous British Negro tightrope dancer, Pablo Fanque, whose real name was
    William Darby, came to the colonies late in 1854 to pursue a career that was marked
    at times by notoriety and occasional scuffles with the law. His inaugural
    appearance with a new circus establishment in Melbourne called Astley’s
    Amphitheatre (named after the famous London venue), was announced in The Age
    of 1 January 1855. Pablo Fanque, the advertisement said, was ‘the First Rope Dancer
    in the World’ (the word ‘first’ meaning ‘leading’ or ‘premiere’) and that he would
    ‘…throw back and forward somersets [sic], feet to feet, on the tightrope, a feat
    which astonishes those in the profession much more than those who pay to visit the
    arena…’ An advertisement in The Age of 23 January 1855 might just as well have
    been referring to Con Colleano himself when it spoke of Pablo Fanque as:
    ‘…The incomparable tightrope dancer…The style, spirit and gracefulness of this performer
    have been both the theme of universal admiration, combining the finest effects of the poetry
    of motion, with the most daring feats of aerial somersaulting…’
    In 1859, Pablo travelled the colonies with the National Circus of John Jones, a circus
    that, in spite of the hindrance of flooded creeks and rivers, managed to visit Wagga
    Wagga in that winter. Outside Jones’ tent each afternoon, ‘Master Pablo’, probably
    Pablo Fanque’s son, ascended a rope, reportedly three hundred feet long, to the top
    of the circus tent and then descended it backwards. By the end of 1859, Pablo
    Fanque had formed his own circus with some of the members of Jones’ company.
    Called Pablo Fanque’s Celebrated National Circus, it appeared in Brisbane in
    December 1859.
    In the early 1860s, Pablo Fanque travelled the colonies with his own troupe,
    ostentatiously entitled at one stage the ‘Alhambra Waggish Marquee’, Pablo giving
    exhibitions of the tightrope dancing and walking for which he was celebrated. The
    Alhambra Waggish Marquee, appeared in Tamworth in September 1860. Under the
    heading ‘Pablo Fanque in Difficulties’ the Tamworth Examiner of 15 September
    1860 reported:
    ….This somewhat celebrated individual paid a visit to Tamworth in the early part of
    this week, but had scarcely been an hour in town when the blues were down upon
    him, and under a charge of larceny confined him in the lock-up. The ‘Waggish
    Marquee’ and ‘gigantic’ troupe of which this gentleman is the sole proprietor and
    manager was advertised to have appeared in Tamworth shortly, so that his
    appearance was looked upon by some – ourselves in particular – with interest. It
    appears from what we can learn that a charge of stealing some wearing apparel at
    Muswellbrook appeared against him … and this is the offence for which he now
    stands charged…..
    Pablo Fanque’s appearance at Sydney’s Cremorne Gardens in April 1868, is the last
    known mention of the name in Australia. He returned to England in about 1870
    and was apparently conducting a circus at the time of his death at Stockport in
    1871.
    In the 1860s and 1870s also, the tightrope walker Vertelli gave many open-air
    exhibitions of perilous ropewalking throughout the colonies. Like many
    ropewalkers of the day, Vertelli billed himself as ‘The Australian Blondin’, in
    deference to the famous French performer of that name. In August 1865, he
    astounded the people of South Australia by walking a wire over the waterfall at
    Mount Lofty. The wire, some one hundred feet in length and stretched between
    two trees on opposite sides of the falls, was about forty feet above the waters and
    jagged rocks of the creek below. To the applause of spectators, he crossed the wire
    twice. At Rockhampton the following year, Vertelli executed the dangerous feat of
    ascending a long rope one evening, even wheeling a barrow up its taut and wellsecured
    length, the only light provided for him coming from a wood fire lit below.
    A brass band played fine music to accompany Vertelli on his hazardous ascent. In
    the years that followed, Vertelli repeated similar performances throughout the
    Australian colonies. The real identity of the gentleman remains a mystery
    however, but presumably the name ‘Vertelli’ was a pseudonym adopted for show
    business purposes.
    Although ropewalkers were evident in the earliest English circuses from Astley’s
    time onwards, it was a Frenchman who did most to reawaken universal interest in
    the art. His name was Jean Francois Gravelet. He was better known as Blondin.
    Born in 1824, Gravelet adopted the surname of the artiste to whom he had been
    apprenticed as a child. In 1859 Blondin made his famous crossing above Niagara
    Falls, inching his way precariously across a rope 1100 ft long and stretched 160 ft
    above the raging waters. The spectacular feat was performed in the presence of
    some 50 000 spectators and established Blondin’s fame and reputation for years to
    come. In 1860, Blondin made six more crossings over the Niagara Falls. Sometimes
    he accomplished the feat blindfolded, sometimes he did so while trundling a
    wheelbarrow. He balanced on chairs, turned a somersault above the waters and
    even carried a man across on his back. From a radius of 100 miles, the railroad
    companies brought people to Niagara to witness Blondin’s exploits. Blondin
    provided a climax to his feats over the Falls by walking across his tightrope while
    perched on stilts. In the years that followed, Blondin gave exhibitions of his
    unfailing nerve and skill in most of the European capitals, as well as in Java, China
    and The Philippine Islands before visiting Australia.
    Blondin made his first Australian appearance in Brisbane on 25 July 1874 and a
    month later gave a series of performances in Sydney. At each place, Blondin and his
    twelve assistants had to labour for three days to unravel the five and half tons of
    equipment they had brought with them. A pavilion was erected on Sydney’s
    Domain, not a marquee of the circus type but a huge enclosure of canvas sidewalls.
    From the recorded dimensions of Blondin’s main tightrope – 800 ft in length, six and
    a quarter inches in circumference, and strung up at a height of 90 ft above the
    ground – it is little wonder that his astounding performances could only be given in
    the open air and not under canvas. Special excursion trains were run to Sydney
    from the outlying suburbs and towns during Blondin’s appearances.
    So successful was his Australian tour that Blondin returned to Sydney from
    London to inaugurate a second tour late the following year, 1875. The Frenchman
    cleared 18 000 pounds from his two Australian visits, an enormous sum for the
    time. During his career, many tried to emulate Blondin including a number in the
    Australian colonies. Besides Vertelli, one of the more successful attempts was that
    of Harry L’Estrange who, inevitably billing himself as ‘The Australian Blondin’
    crossed Sydney’s Middle Harbour on a tightrope on 18 April 1877.
    Blondin and the host of imitators that he spawned, some good and others not, soon
    faded from the scene, in Australia at least. Exhibitions of tightrope walking once
    again became incorporated within the circus performance and no record has been
    found of any public exhibitions of the calibre of Blondin or L’Estrange until the
    appearances here of the Frenchman, Phillip Petit, in the early 1970s. There is no
    clear reason for such a long hiatus because high tightrope walkers have continued
    to entertain audiences in American and Europe in that time. Nevertheless, a
    tradition of rope and wire walkers continued to develop within the circus in
    Australia.
    Shortly after Blondin’s visit the wire, as distinct from the rope, appears to have won
    a wider acceptance amongst the colonial performers. Exactly when ropewalkers, be
    they slack or tight, high or low, gave their ropes away for good in favour of coiled
    wire is not known but the trend seems to have been well underway by the latter
    decades of the 19th century. The Mr Brame who gave an ‘open air wire ascent’ to
    the flagpole of Burton’s Circus in Sydney in 1879 seems to have been one of the
    earliest references to the use of the wire in Australia although, as we have seen,
    Vertelli walked a ‘wire’ as early as 1865 at Mt Lofty. Certainly, from the early 1880s
    onwards the mention of wirewalkers performing in circuses steadily replaces that
    of ropewalkers.
    The ‘invisible wirewalking’ of James Perkins, who performed with the St Leon
    company for a brief period early in 1879, involved a variety of startling feats on a
    slackwire that was so thin that it seemed impossible that it could bear a man’s
    weight. The wire was of the kind found in pianos and from the top of the tiered
    seats of the circus tent it was barely visible. Without the aid of a balancing pole,
    Perkins deftly played a violin and drank a glass of water while balancing upon the
    ‘invisible’ wire without the aid of any balancing pole or other device.1 A Japanese
    performer, Ewar Decenoski, and an English youth, Llewellyn Banvard, also
    performed on the ‘invisble’ wire in Australian circuses during the 1880s.
    Because the family circuses of the Australian bush increasingly ‘amalgamated’ after
    about 1900, a greater degree of cross-fertilisation of performing skills between the
    various families was brought about. These amalgamations, casual partnerships
    1 Geelong Advertiser, 29 January 1879.
    that required no attention to formal arrangements or legalities, sometimes lasted for
    only a brief ‘run’ through a prosperous rural district, sometimes for periods as long
    as a year. When the Sole family united with the Gus St Leon family for a three year
    stint in 1909, there was ample opportunity for one family to learn from the other,
    and Mary Sole recalled how her best act became a wirewalking act taught to her by
    one of the St Leon boys.
    The Ashton family, whose circus still tours Australia, has a circus history in this
    country as far back as 1848 when James Henry Ashton presented feats of intrepid
    horsemanship to audiences at Robert Radford’s amphitheatre in Hobart. The
    Ashton family produced at least two outstanding rope and wirewalkers in its early
    generations. By 1875, James Henry’s twelve year old daughter, Annie, was
    entertaining audiences with her performances on the tightrope in outback New
    South Wales and Queensland. These consisted of feats such as skipping across the
    rope, wheeling a barrow, or elegantly dancing across to the accompaniment of a
    lively tune from the brass band of the circus. Sometimes Annie performed on the
    wire with her older brother James and, starting from opposite ends of the wire they
    would motion towards each other without the aid of balancing poles, meet in the
    centre and then perform the extraordinary task of passing around each other on the
    rope, although precisely how this was done has not been recorded.
    A granddaughter of James Henry Ashton, Ethel, entertained the next generation of
    outback circus audiences with her captivating performances on the tightwire. By
    the late nineteenth century, female circus artistes had made the transition from long
    flowing skirts to leotards. This apparently afforded greater ease and surety of
    movement, not to mention a more striking performance. To the accompaniment of
    the band, dressed in leotards and carrying a parasol for balance, Ethel Ashton
    danced and ran along her tightwire with perfect ease.
    Bernard Dooley performed sensational feats on the swinging trapeze, such as
    balancing on his head, and on the bounding tightwire, such as somersaulting
    backwards crutch to crutch, crutch to feet, side-seat to feet and feet to feet
    backwards. With a repertoire like that, it could only be assumed that a young Con
    Colleano must have sat in the Gus St Leon Great United Circus audience some
    evenings to watch Dooley in admiration and gather inspiration. Dooley came to
    Australia under special engagement to the St Leons early in 1913.
    In the Gus St Leon circus around 1917, young Golda Honey, Gus’s granddaughter,
    worked on the wire. Most wirewalkers will walk with their feet down the wire but
    Golda walked with her feet along the wire ‘pigeon’ fashion. She performed ‘the
    usual’ tricks such as rolling a hoop on the wire. Occasionally, she did a somersault.
    Reflecting the vogue made fashionable by the American tightwire artiste, Bird
    Millman, Golda used to sing a song as part of her act. Her favourite was a song
    called Cuba that came out about that time that. Golda, with her family of acrobatic
    brothers and sisters, like Con and his siblings, eventually gravitated to the United
    States of America and the infinitely greater show business possibilities it offered.
    Golda’s wirewalking career was to be cut short however when she suffered a
    serious fall from her wire while performing in vaudeville in the US in the 1930s.

    ++++++++++

    Here are some other references I have:

    James Perkins at School of Arts, Bathurst, 16 November 1878
    Elton Lloyd’s Merry Moments with James Perkins, Gundagai, 21 December 1887

    Theatrical licenses were issued to Perkins by the NSW Colonial Secretary. There may be other references and you should be able to consult relevant correspondence at the State Records Authority, NSW:

    Perkins James NSW 1877 No. 284 Merriwa
    Perkins James NSW 1878 No. 6850 Singleton
    Perkins James NSW 1878 No. 8351 ?
    Perkins James NSW 1881 No. 1232 ?

    +++++

    I see that you have already established the connection between Perkins’ sister and the Ashton family. My notes indicate that members of the Perkins family married into the Holden Circus family which was mostly active around Victoria in the 1910s, 20s and 30s.

    I am afraid that I don’t have any photograph of James Perkins but you may well find something as CDV’s were in vogue by the late 1870s.

    Hope this helps, a bit. Let me know how you get on. Of course, I would be interest if find anything about the St Leons.

    If you have any other queries, just send them along.

    Kind regards

    Mark St Leon
    Long Jetty NSW

    LynWeir
    Participant
    Post count: 4

    Hi Mark,

    Thank you. That’s terrific.

    I am waiting on your books to arrive which I have reserved from my local library, should be great reading!

    I have gathered some of the information you have added here which has confirmed what I have gathered. Great to have a bit of the wire walking/tight rope history as well.

    I am in the process of ordering all the information I have gathered and then I will write up the full story of James Perkins, Sarah Bishop, Catherine Byrne Rendalls and their families. I can let you know when it is all done.

    Thank you for the offer of help with any additional queries.

    kind regards

    Lyn Weir

    Mark St Leon
    Participant
    Post count: 17

    Hi Lyn

    I see that I responded to your original message here. I am transferring/reproducing my response to your query in the Australia section of the forum.

    Just getting use to operating my new website.

    Mark St Leon

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