By Ray Hulm
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On the day that I retired from my final job as a lockkeeper I left the following on the wall. …… ” I started work at fifteen years of age. Worked on the river and at sea but I also worked in factories and fields, in the circus and in films. I never achieved much. But I never crossed a picket line. Never judged a fellow worker by their colour or creed Nor sucked up to the bosses for my own ends”….. Pretty much sums it all up.
Circus Life – A Tale of Two Rings
There is a long historical connection between professional wrestling and the circus, more especially in Eastern Europe. The “Strong Man” was an integral part of the circus and of course wrestling provided a second string to the bow of these performers. It’s more difficult to find a connection during the period covered by Wrestling Heritage although there was rumour at one time of Paul Lincoln doing a deal with Gerry Cottle and putting wrestling on in the big top. I don’t think that anything actually came of it.
I have had a lifelong fascination with both forms of entertainment and about the time that I was working out with wrestlers in Brighton and being scurfed around the mat by Tiger Joe Robinson, I also had the chance to get a taste of circus life. It was an opportunity not to be missed.
The Brighton Centre was playing host to a circus for a couple of months and they were hiring local labour as ring-hands. I could join the circus without running away! Perfect. In no time at all I was rigging safety nets for the trapeze artists, leading a camel into the ring (my camel was called Iran and it was love at first sight), quickly running in with a shovel to remove piles of horse, camel and elephant poo and performing a hundred and one other jobs all at break neck speed. Bobby Robert’s elephant act provided me with my personal high point. Along with another guy I would lug a heavy revolving mirror globe into the centre of the ring. On top of the globe was welded a steel plate and we would go down on one knee, place our hands under the plate to steady it as the elephant did a handstand. Bobby said that it was important not to put our thumbs on top of the plate to avoid having them trodden on. I could see his point. Once the elephant was in the handstand position we would back off and with a gentle shove from Bobby the beast would revolve a couple of times and dismount. That was our signal to run back into the ring and retrieve the prop. We had four seconds to do this before the rest of the elephants came charging into the ring. It’s surprising how fast you can run when surrounded by charging elephants.
Lauri Lupino Lane came from a famous theatrical family, had been the star of the musical hit “Me and My Girl” and had made “The Lambeth Walk” an all time hit. Here he was doing what I came to learn is known as a “slop act”, playing the fool with ladders and buckets of shaving foam. Looks easy but is actually a very highly skilled act. I was proud to carry his buckets. I marvelled at the skill and daring of the high flying Star Lords and that legendary trapeze artist Miss Mara.
I learnt the secret of sawing a lady in half from illusionists Ricky and Roddy and stared in awe as Jasmin Smart, legs seemingly reaching to her armpits, rode her beautiful Palomino horse. Chinese contortionists, crazy clowns, unrideable mules. Two shows a day, six days a week. The stress levels could have powered a small town but I loved every minute of it. Wrestling seemed to be going into a slow decline but the circus lived, and just for a while I was a small part of a very special world.
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Page added: 10/05/2026
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