Circus Nomads

20/06/2025

📣 Ow Jipie! So happy to be part of this bunch. We wrote a book 📕 'FOORwonder', a collab between Huis van Alijn and Science at the Fair as part of the expo FOORWONDER in Huis van Alijn Ghent. Yesterday we celebrated the grand opening and the book presentation. Thank you Nele Wynants and her brilliant Science at the Fair team, Marie Vandecaveye, Evelien Jonckheere and everyone at Huis van Alijn, Kobe Van Herwegen, Nikolaas Martens and everyone who made this happen 🙏
☞ check out the expo! 🎠https://huisvanalijn.be/nl/agenda/foorwonder

11/07/2023

Thank you🙏 International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center for sharing this wonderful post of Paul 'Chesty' Mortier (1888-1952), one of my favorite performers in my research 'Belgian circus artists in America 1900-1940'. This personal memories of Jackie LeClaire, friend and colleague of Chesty bring his personality back alive, something I missed in official records or newspaper articles.
☞ https://www.circusnomads.com/chesty/

Remembering History -

From ICHOF Inductee Jackie LeClaires personal papers & correspondence in our archives -

“Paul “Chesty” Mortier, in his performing days was a hand balancer. I can remember him, even in his later years doing a one arm hand stand on a wooden circus stake.

He was Flemish Belgian and as my father Jack LeClaire’s father came from Belgium, and as Flemish (family name LeClerq) my dad had a command of Flemish Belgium and they used to speak the language together. They were very close friends. Chesty spoke English terribly and with a strong accent. This added to his character and made him even funnier.

One of the gags he did was to carry around a tall narrow bedroom type dresser with a large mirror on top. He would stop, set the dresser down, look in the mirror to comb his hair, see how funny he looked and then look at the audience and laught like only he could. It was infectious and the audience could do nothing more than laugh back with him.

The gag that made him famous both in the ring and in the show world was his Sonja Heinie walkaround. Sonja was a great skating champion and movie star at the time. He would wear flesh colored tights with long sleeves. In the legs he would place clumps of newspaper to make his muscles bulge way out. He wore over it a complete skating outfit, with a top bra like brazier. It was tacky sequined with fur trim. He wore a blond curly wig with a feathered headpiece and white gloves. He wore high skating boots upon which were attached sled type skates. He needed not to do more than simulate skating around the hippodrome track and everyone knew instantly who he was supposed to be. His make up was very outlandish, and his expression irresistible.

By the way, Chesty was not a clown name for him, it was a nickname as for his size, he had an enormous chest.

Needless to say, I loved him dearly, and he was great fun in and out of the ring.”

01/05/2023

This week I've received an e-mail from Maureen Brunsdale and Mark Schmitt from Milner Library Special Collections at Illinois State University. They've discovered a letter 📨 from an impresario to Al Ringling, April 1914. ✍ He promotes the Belgian troupe The Clemendos 'one of the acrobats in the world'.
This could be golden for my research, so I started digging for traces of The Clemendos in America. But so far ... nothing. 😕
Thanks to previous research of André Depoorter I know that The Clemendos were in fact François Vandeputte, his wife and children. They had a teeter board act.

17/04/2023

Meet Antoinette ‘Leris’ Loyal (1883 Amiens, France - 1962 Luik, Belgium) a very talented equestrienne who had big contracts in circuses and theaters all over Europe, in Russia and America.
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Thanks to Jan Inghelbrecht I can include this impressive lady in my research ‘Belgian circus artists in America 1900-1940’. Dasha Barraceta, Antoinette’s granddaughter, gave the impressive family archive to Jan to add to his private circus collection. Jan discovered the contracts 📃 of Leris Loyal her time in America in 1906 and 1911, so he told me her story.
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Her father was the famous French clown Arsène ‘Gougou’ Loyal. He moved to Luik, Belgium, the new residency of the family ever since. Antoinette ‘Leris’ Loyal married in 1912 to the Spanish clown Manuel Barraceta. As far as I know now, marriage and motherhood meant the end of her circus career. Their sons Mano and Isidoro also became circus artists. Mano’s daughter Dasha was a glamorous showgirl. 👠

16/09/2022

Art historian and curator Joanna De Vos asked Circus Nomads to tell something about life on the road of Belgian circus artists in America over hundred years ago for the expo 'The Circus We Are'. It was a privilege and an honour to collaborate with this unique exhibition about circus in the fine arts. Don’t miss it☝️- it’s on until the 25th of Sept in different locations in Namen.
☞ https://www.ledelta.be/evenements/the-circus-we-are-2/
Thank you 🙏 Tamara Beheydt for the interview and the video

12/06/2022

Happy Father's Day 🎊 Clown and acrobat Odilon Minnaert (Belgian Circus Minnaert) plays with his son Gaston Junior in the bath tub.
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As you probably already can guess, Gaston Junior starts performing as Clown Toto when he's maybe four years old together with his dad, Clown T**i and Clown Gastonske (his uncle, Gaston Minnaert). The Minnaert clowns were well known and loved in many regions of Flanders. They were excellent verbal comedians, adapting their speech to the local dialect of the towns and villages they were playing.

17/01/2022

Hooray 🎊 Circus Nomads was a guest speaker at this new podcast 'Creation in Crisis'. ☝️ First episode is about the necessity of cultural life during the 'Spanish' flu pandemic in 1918. We talked - of course - about circus and - ow yes sir - women.
☞ Follow this podcast on Spotify, Podbean, Google & Apple podcasts.

10/01/2022

Ringling Brothers clown Chesty makes fun with ice skating legend and Hollywood actrice Sonja Henie (ca 1950). At that time everyone knows Sonja, the star of the Hollywood Ice R***e touring all over America (1938-1950).
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☞ Paul 'Chesty' Mortier (1888-1952) came to America as an acrobat with the Saratos Troupe. He stayed eventually and was a prominent clown for Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1930 until his death in 1952.

07/11/2021

A lot of old circus photos go through my hands and I see them everywhere: Dogs From the Circus. They are loved, hold, goofy, always around. So why not create a special serie, as an ode to this long last companion of circus folk?
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In this first post of the new serie: the dog of The 4 Bento's.
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Henri Frans is visiting his son, René Frans and his former pupil, Polly Bentos, who are touring in the UK with the Great Carmo Circus as ‘The 4 Bentos’ (1929). Henri was once a very successful acrobat himself. He toured in Europe and America: Barnum & Bailey Circus (1910-11), Ringling Brothers (together with Polly) (1913-14).
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Togare (Georg Kulovits) is the lion 🦁 trainer of the show and a star. He has the looks, the courage, the showmanship. He’s on his way to become one of the most celebrated animal trainers of his era.
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☞ Info Togare - Courtesy of Circopedia, the Free Encyclopedia 📚 the International Circus

21/10/2021

Maybe she's shy or maybe she just hates the camera but Jenny Moreels seems to hide quite often when her husband Paul de Baets is taking a picture.
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They're on tour with Circus Van Bever, a famous Dutch circus. Paul is an excellent musical clown from Ghent - Polly Bentos.

06/10/2021

Musical clown Polly Bentos helps building up&down the big top on tour with Circus Van Bever (1930ties, 1940ties). When you're on the road with a family circus, everyone is pitching in and is doing his/her bit, no exceptions.