By Russell Working
Who are the most famous showmen of all times? The Ringling brothers and P.T. Barnum certainly remain legends long after their deaths.
But there’s another figure that you may well know, but don’t know that you know. A household name in the nineteenth century, Pablo Fanque was an acrobat, tightrope walker, equestrian and circus owner. He rose to fame and entrepreneurial success as a black man in Victorian England.
Fanque was memorialized in the Beatles song “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.”
For the benefit of Mr. Kite
There will be a show tonight on trampoline.
The Hendersons will all be there
Late of Pablo Fanque’s Fair—what a scene.
Over men and horses, hoops and garters
Lastly through a hogshead of real fire!
In this way Mr. K. will challenge the world!
Beatlemaniacs tend to know that John Lennon’s song was inspired by a circus poster. Fewer, perhaps, are aware that Mr. Kite and company performed in a real troupe owned by Pablo Fanque, Smithsonian magazine notes. Fanque “was more than simply an exceptional showman and perhaps the finest horsemen of his day. He was also a black man making his way in an almost uniformly white society, and doing it so successfully that he played to mostly capacity houses for the best part of 30 years,” the article states.
The circus, like the societies from which it emerged, has a troubled history when it comes to race. This is especially so in the United States, where blacks often were relegated to “the most subservient positions within the lowest division of labor,” Smithsonian says in a story about a museum exhibition featuring black and female performers.
But Fanque’s race did not prevent the public from appreciating his talents. One historian said that of the hundreds of historical references to Fanque that she had seen, the color of his skin was mentioned only three times, suggesting that this was not of central importance to Victorian audiences.
Inspiration in an antique store
John Lennon discovered Fanque in 1967 while shooting a promotional video at Sevenoaks in Kent. The Beatle wandered into an antique shop and found an old handbill for Pablo Fanque’s Circus Royal in the northern factory town of Rochdale in February 1843.
In the sesquipedalian prose of the circus, the poster touted “Mr. Henderson, the celebrated somerset thrower, wire dancer, vaulter, rider &c.” and Zanthus, “well known to be one of the best Broke Horses in the world!!!” Mr. Kite is the man portrayed standing on his head atop a pole while playing a trumpet.
Lennon bought the poster and wrote the song. In the studio, he told producer George Martin he wanted a carnival atmosphere for the number, Reverb.com recounts.
“John said he wanted to ‘smell the sawdust on the floor,’ wanted to taste the atmosphere of the circus,” Martin said, as quoted in “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” by Mark Lewisohn. “So I got a hold of old calliope tapes, chopped the tapes into small pieces, and had Geoff Emerick throw them up in the air, reassembling them at random.” It took two “takes” to get the tape pieces scrambled just enough to get the effect Martin wanted and that Lennon sought.
As for Fanque, his fame spread worldwide through tours that took him as far as Australia. The Melbourne newspaper The Age noted that, among other feats, “M. PABLO FANQUE, The World’s Wonder, will have the honor of making his appearance on THE TIGHT ROPE.”
He died in May 1871 and was buried in Woodhouse Cemetery in Leeds, beside his first wife, who had died during a fall in the ring in 1848. The funeral procession numbered a thousand people, among them circus fans, performers, Fanque’s second wife and family, and his favorite pony, Wallett.
It would take the American circus many decades to reach the point where black performers could achieve such levels of stardom.
For more about my novel manuscript, The Elephant Box, click here. Why a circus blog? Learn more here.
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