STYLISH
circus maximus
ONCE UPON A TIME, RUNNING AWAY TO THE CIRCUS USED TO BE THE EQUIVALENT OF SHOOTING FOR FAME ON BIG BROTHER, OR POP IDOL - JUST MUCH HARDER WORK. GERRY COTTLE MADE THE CIRCUS HIS LIFE, AND HE BELIEVES IN ITS FUTURE.
Words by Martin Gurdon pictures by Simon Stuart-Miller
Gerry Cottle went to the same school as former Prime Minister John Major, the man famous for allegedly running away from the circus to become an accountant. Cottle, on the other hand, did a reverse. He ran away from a respectable, early 1960s family in suburban Carshalton, Surrey (where his dad was a stockbroker) to join the circus.
And although he came back after a week, longer term, the lure of the big top proved irresistible. So 45 years on, Cottle is still in the business (along with his grown-up children), runs the Wookey Hole caves complex in Somerset, is busy setting up a modern circus school, and expects its pupils to be performing live by April.
His career has provided entertainment to millions, and has taken Gerry through extreme highs and lows, but the title of his autobiography, 'Confessions of a Showman: My Life in the Circus', is a perfect pointer to his enduring enthusiasm.
Cottle's obsession started in 1953. 'I saw Jack Hilton's circus at Earls Court when I was eight years old', he says. 'And I really fancied the life, but I wanted to be the boss, not one of the featured acts'. Three years later he was helping on the circus side of Chessington Zoo in Surrey (precursor to the now animal-free Chessington World of Adventures). 'I groomed the ponies and learned about trick riding and stilt walking'. And he was clearly having a great time - but by his teens, he was finding school life anything but fun.
He was still a pupil when he went on his week-long circus sabbatical. On his return the head suggested Cottle's future probably lay outside academe, so he joined a middle-sized touring circus and found himself rigging and de-rigging the big top, following the elephants and 'being one end of a pantomime horse'. The head clown, however, told the him that he would learn more by joining a small troop, so he went to Joe Gandey's circus, and could soon be found inside its diminutive, 80-foot tent, plate-spinning and 'doing a bit of juggling'.
He also learned how to market the circus, knocking on local authority doors and overseeing the business as well as pursuing the entertainment side of his career.
In 1970, aged 25 and having co-founded Cottle & Austen's circus, he was hiring others to spin plates and juggle. 'The tent cost £60. We paid £20 down and £1 a week'. And while he now thinks the television-free period immediately after World War II had been the real golden era for travelling shows, his venture soon grew and prospered, tapping into big urban audiences often ignored by rivals. 'We did all the parks
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