Constable: Celebrating 80th year, traveling circus goes animal-free
When the Kelly Miller Circus announced it wasn't folding its tent and would instead do a full circuit this summer without elephants, zebras, camels, monkeys or other animal performers, the internet cheered and conveyed social media thank-you messages.
"It clogged up the Facebook," says James Kendrick Judkins, a former fire-breather and Texas businessman who stepped in to buy the circus this year. Now, Judkins says he'd like those grateful animal-rights commenters to buy some tickets to support the circus traditions.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey closed down in 2017 after 50 years, in part because of pressure from animal-rights groups about the treatment of elephants, lions and other performing animals. Even Nabisco's famous Barnum's Animal crackers changed its iconic box design last month by freeing the animals that had been shown in cages on its boxes since 1902.
The Kelly Miller Circus, under owner John Ringling North II (the last of the Ringlings in the circus family), announced it was closing just before Judkins stepped in to keep it open for its 80th anniversary tour and beyond.
"We're planning the route now for next year," says Judkins, whose circus performed in Addison during the holiday weekend, moves to Lombard today through Thursday, runs Friday and Saturday in Vernon Hills, does a one-day performance Sunday in Round Lake Beach, and then appears in Alsip and Robbins before performances Thursday, Sept. 14, in Downers Grove, and Friday and Saturday, Sept. 15 and 16, in Itasca. For details, visit kellymillercircus.com.
The grueling schedule takes the circus to more than 150 towns across 10,000 miles from April through October. Sixteen performers from six nations are part of the 34-person crew that drives together, eats together and sleeps in RVs.
"I couldn't imagine all of them being out of work, so I bought the show," says Judkins, who makes his living as president of a company that helps get work visas for people in the circus and carnival world. "Not only do I know them, but I know their parents, and in some cases, their grandparents. They're good people. The joy of being a very intimate circus is just a good environment for families."
The costumes don't show too much skin, and the shows feature acrobats, a juggler from Egypt, clowns, a Peruvian stuntman, a fire-breather, wire-walkers, a skipping rope show, aerial acts, an ensemble from Mongolia, and a contortionist couple who end their performance with the woman holding a bow with her feet and shooting an arrow.
"It's hard to explain," Judkins says, "but when you see it, it's really amazing."
As a student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania in 1976, Judkins accompanied his juggling friend to a circus and got hired as a cook. Before long he was ringmaster and fire-breather. When that circus closed in 1977, Judkins rented a truck to take Baby Lisa, the performing elephant, to a circus in Oklahoma.
"When you show up with an elephant, they put you in the elephant department," says Judkins, who later became general manager and vice president of that circus before starting his own traveling circus, Circus Chimera.
He made his circus animal-free "because I wanted to do something different" and he found the animal acts "tedious," he says.
"I prefer the acts that people do. You see the way the artist is smiling and interacting with the audiences," Judkins says. The circus also interacts with local officials by finding sponsors, usually community charities, who take a percentage of the proceeds. "We leave money there for the community," Judkins says.
Everybody chips in to put on a show, Judkins says, noting the efforts of Miss Deya. "She'll sell you your tickets, and then halfway through the show, she'll look completely different, do the wonderful hula act, and then run back to the office," Judkins says.
"That's what we do," says Judkins, who says their new "animal-free" status is mostly about entertainment judgment. "Most of the people don't even notice. If you're not bored, you don't notice."