Marceline,His Auguste,and the ‘Hippodrome Idea’

Listed among the entertainers in the inaugural programme celebrating the opening of the New York Hippodrome on 12 April 1905, is ‘Marceline, the Droll, Assisted Throughout by the Hippodrome Clowns’. ¹ Marceline's billing was comparable to how he had been identified at the London Hippodrome a few months earlier. At this time the English definition of ‘droll’ referred to a ‘funny person’ or ‘buffoon’ who was ‘quaint’ and ‘strange’. ² The New York Hippodrome, as noted in the introduction to this special issue, was a massive auditorium with a seating capacity of 5,200 that occupied an entire city block in Manhattan from 1904 to 1939. ³ Envisioned as an affordable theatre for the masses, Hippodrome programmes combined circus acts, vaudeville turns, and narrative sketches with ballets and spectacular stage effects. According to one estimate, the New York Hippodrome needed to sell 60,000 tickets a week – the equivalent of one million tickets every four months – to make a profit in 1906. ⁴ Of those on the original bill, Marceline was the only human who continued to perform at the ‘people's playhouse’ once the inaugural programme had finished its run. ⁵ (Powers’ Elephants stayed on the bill as well.)

When the New York Hippodrome was claiming to be creating an unprecedented American entertainment, Marceline Orbes was already a veteran ‘Hippodrome star’ who had successfully adapted his mastery of nineteenth-century European acrobatics and clowning into years of successful work at the London Hippodrome. As a result of his triumphant portrayal of ‘Buttons’ in the 1900 Christmas pantomime, Cinderella, Marceline became the London Hippodrome's biggest star. He was still considered the ‘London Hippodrome's favourite’ while leaving England to appear in the New York Hippodrome's 1905 premiere programme.

Initially contracted for twenty-four weeks, Marceline would be the featured star of the New York Hippodrome's annually tailored seasons for a seven-year run between 1905 and 1912. Described as ‘the world's greatest clown’, ‘the people's fool’, and the ‘famous Hippodrome clown’, his popularity and fame became so intertwined with the identity of the New York Hippodrome that a 1927 newspaper obituary claimed ‘people went to see Marceline, they said, instead of saying they were going to the Hippodrome’. ⁶ After leaving the New York Hippodrome in 1912 to perform in his own 1913 roadshow, Marceline introduced the concept of the ‘Hippodrome Idea’ to describe the way his clowning unified ‘what would otherwise be a somewhat fragmentary and disjointed performance’:

The ‘Hippodrome Idea’, as it is spoken of on the programme, consists of a number of vaudeville acts, interwoven and bound together by the inimitable foolery of Marceline, the clown who for seven years was the chief funmaker at the New York Hippodrome. ⁷

It is questionable how well remembered the ‘famous Hippodrome clown’ would be today if Charles Chaplin's 1964 autobiography had not identified Marceline as one of his most notable influences. ⁸ As Chaplin biographer and music hall historian David Robinson observed in his 2006 essay, ‘The Mysterious Marceline’, ‘You will look in vain in most of the standard books on vaudeville and music hall for the name of the clown Marceline. Already by the time of his death in 1927, at the age of 54, he was virtually forgotten’. ⁹ Fortunately, information accessible since 2006 has enabled this study to examine how the life and unique talents of the ‘mysterious Marceline’ are linked with the identity of the New York Hippodrome, his ‘Hippodrome Idea’, and their associated entertainments. ¹⁰ The Hippodrome Idea was central to Marceline's perception of his association with the New York Hippodrome and key to the focus of this analysis.

While verifying Marceline's status as a ‘trademark star’ at the New York Hippodrome and a roadshow tailored to his talents, his Hippodrome Idea also represents a culmination in his interaction with other acts, performers, and circus-related entertainments throughout his career. Using his Hippodrome Idea as a reference, this essay examines how Marceline's performance art evolved to meet the special demands of the New York Hippodrome in 1905. Marceline's career prior to his New York arrival is broken into three chronological phases for purposes of identifying the origins of his ‘Hippodrome talents’: training as a child acrobat and tumbler in Spain, 1881–91; the philosophy behind the creation of his trademark ‘auguste’ when becoming a clown, 1892–1900; and his career as the London Hippodrome's major star, 1900–04. Particular attention is paid to how Marceline embraced and conquered unfamiliar forms of entertainment in each period and then, as a highly talented and charismatic circus artist, cleverly adapted his recently acquired expertise to address future performance art challenges. This background information is then used to explore why Marceline's initial appearance at the New York Hippodrome's inaugural performance made him an instant success. As Robinson pointed out, Marceline honed his talents to be ‘uniquely suited to the arena conditions’ of the London and New York Hippodromes, but ‘they became lost elsewhere, for the succeeding years saw his career go into sharp decline’. ¹¹ The following analysis concludes by showing how Marceline's continued pursuit of his Hippodrome Idea proved counterproductive to his success as a performance artist at the end of his career.

Marceline's Circus Apprenticeship (1881–91)

Marceline's relationship and interaction with circus and vaudeville acts, as ultimately reflected in his Hippodrome Idea, began when he was a child acrobat trained in harsh and questionable conditions. Isidro Marcelino Orbes Casanova was born in Jaca, Spain on 15 May 1873. ¹² Whether by running away from home and/or receiving permission from his family – both scenarios exist in the varying and contradictory apprenticeship narratives he shared – Marceline always insisted that it was his boyhood desire to join the circus and become a clown. To his great disappointment ‘Martini’, the circus performer to whom he was apprenticed, forbade this pursuit and taught him to be an acrobat. ¹³ ‘Traditionally', as clown historian John H. Towsen shared in his authoritative history on the subject, ‘a circus clown does not begin his career in the role of a clown. More often he will start as a tumbler or juggler, an equilibrist or equestrian. He may well be proficient in several areas of circus techniques’. ¹⁴ This was true for Marceline.

The Martini family recruited, and even placed advertisements to hire, children between the ages of five and seven when a child is particularly capable of developing the proprioceptive skills necessary to become an accomplished acrobat in a relatively short time. ¹⁵ Marceline's Hippodrome success was the product of a disturbing childhood apprenticeship. Newspaper stories from a few years before Marceline joined their troupe accuse the Martinis of endangering children in their risky gymnastic entertainments. ¹⁶

When reminiscing with New York journalist Rufus Gillmore in 1910, Marceline recalled:

I ran away to become a clown, but my master wouldn’t teach me how because he was afraid I would run away and leave him. He trained me for an acrobat instead. The first thing I remember doing was ‘the perch’. I had to climb a bamboo pole my master held upon his shoulder, do a head-balance on the top, and then play a tune on a fiddle. ¹⁷

After describing his acrobatic debut Marceline noted, ‘I soon got too heavy for “the perch” and had to join the tumblers. But I watched the clowns all the time and studied the tricks that made the people laugh.’ ²⁰ During his circus apprenticeship, Marceline perfected his craft as an acrobat and observed what it took to be a successful clown. In an American interview, spoken in his customary cockney accent on the day he first arrived from England, he claimed,

[In Spain] you must be an acrobat. You must do dangerous tumbles and skillful falls and be very active and very quick and gryceful [cockney accent], but they do not care for you to be funny. They do not even laugh when you fall funny. Fall skillfully – they require nothing more. ²¹

A particularly vivid example of one of Marceline's demanding and carefully studied falls is described in an undated newspaper clipping in the New York Public Library:

The most amusing of these feats at present is his weird somersault in the air, where he comes down on his shoulders and back without touching his hands to the ground, rises and keeps on somersaulting around the ring. At each flip-over the audience expects to see him break his skull, but he never even makes a sound as he falls, keeping up his rotations till the house is in a gale of laughter.

Marceline's clown career was based upon the discipline of an acrobat. Combining acrobatic and clowning skills allowed him to adapt to different performance contexts. The Martini family circus spectacle featured both ‘horizontal’ acrobatics produced on the ground and ‘vertical’ aerial acts high above. Marceline learned to skillfully execute their gymnastic repertoire within any spatial sector of a circus's large performance area. Using these talents, he would produce his unique form of acrobatic comedy in the epic space of the New York Hippodrome. Having achieved admirable results with his acrobatic training, Marceline could focus upon becoming a clown after leaving the Martini family's circus troupe.

Marceline's ‘Auguste’: The Making of a Circus Clown (1892–1900)

Marceline prioritised bodily performance over language-based humour to universally connect with audiences. When first embarking upon clowning, he was concerned that he spoke only Spanish and a little French. Believing it would be impossible to leave Spain and perform in an act requiring dialogue, his solution was to ‘devise pantomimes’ that did ‘away with the necessity for speech’. ²⁴ During a 1900 London Hippodrome interview Marceline admitted, ‘When I first came to England in 1892[,] I could not speak a word of your language; that's – whispered the great clown – why I became a “dummy”’. ²⁵ These revelations reflect the importance of nonverbal communication to this performer's art and his devotion to being an effective communicator. Becoming an accomplished mime would be ideal for performing in the massive space of the New York Hippodrome where verbal communication was difficult.

It is believed that 1892 was when Marceline devised his trademark makeup and costume. ²⁶ Moulded by greasepaint, Marceline's makeup drew inspiration from the classic clown, Joseph Grimaldi (1778–1837), but had a more specific visual focus. As evidenced by photographs showing Marceline in a long shot, his makeup enabled audiences to immediately concentrate on his mouth from a distance. ²⁷ Unlike the whiteface clown, whose greasepaint was also concerned with attracting attention, Marceline's makeup was notable for a bizarre round white patch surrounded by a dark ring that started from his nose, extended around his face so that his lips were in the middle of this circle, and then terminated at the bottom of his chin. This white circle directed the observer to look at Marceline's facial expressions in its centre (see Figure 1).

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 1.

Marceline in his trademark makeup while appearing at the New York Hippodrome in 1910. Photo by White Studio © Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

His original costume, as described by Marceline, was ‘an old dress coat, a dirty white waistcoat, and a pair of trousers’. ²⁸ The blackness of his coat and trousers contrasted starkly with the whiteness of his face and vest. This emphasis on white surrounded by black called particular attention to Marceline's face in subdued light since the white circular shape framing his lips took on the appearance of a kind of ‘floating bull's eye’ ‘detached’ but still associated with the white-shaped area formed by his vest below. Combined with his articulate body language as a mime, Marceline's trademark makeup and costume immediately telegraphed to the audience who he was and what he was communicating at a distance. He created his cleverly effective means of visual communication for large tents and indoor circuses, but it would prove especially successful in the gargantuan space of the New York Hippodrome.

In his Gillmore interview, Marceline said he immediately envisioned this clothing fulfilling the modern costume requirement for a fashionable trend in late-nineteenth-century circus clowning. Marceline had heard a lot about ‘auguste clowns’ and wanted to use these old clothes to become one. ²⁹ The word ‘auguste’, then German slang for ‘fool’, first became associated with a type of clown around 1872 after an audience in Germany spontaneously shouted this term of derision in response to a flustered English circus rider named Tom Belling while he inadvertently fumbled his duties. Having been previously told that he was not a good enough rider for a German circus, Belling was given a part in a small burlesque where he wore outlandish clothes and a red wig. He also was to work as an attendant. One night Belling left his attendant job to experiment putting on his wig and makeup. Unexpectedly summoned to resume his duty as an attendant, Belling rushed into the circus ring in panic forgetting that he was wearing his fiery wig and red nose. Unprepared for the resulting audience reaction Belling's embarrassment caused additional floundering, prompting roars of laughter and cries of ‘auguste’. A new form of clowning was born. ³⁰ According to an auguste origin narrative written when Marceline was appearing at the New York Hippodrome, ‘Belling's great specialty, like Marceline's to-day, seems to have been to get in everybody's and his own way and to keep the crowds in a roar by his grotesque appearance and actions’. ³¹

Tom Belling is recognised for creating the auguste. Another Englishman, James Guyon, is credited for establishing the prevailing auguste costume, makeup, and routine in 1878 at the Hippodrome d’Alma in Paris. As described by John Towsen:

In one of Guyon's routines … the busybody auguste became entangled in the trapeze safety nets as they are being cleared away. He suddenly finds himself hoisted high above the arena floor, and just as abruptly comes cascading down the rigging in a series of dangerous tumbles that land him on the ground. … Rushing into the ring as the circus hands went about the work of setting up the next act, the auguste would nod his head, shout advice, discuss procedural matters with no one in particular, and offer his help at the most inappropriate moments. As the auguste tripped over everything and generally got in the way, what should have been a very simple task became utterly complicated. ³²

Marceline had found steady employment working as an auguste for Circus Oscar Carré by 1894. ³³ In November 1895, Circus Oscar Carré constructed a large wooden structure that enabled Marceline and his fellow performers to work in Manchester throughout the winter, and then return after appearing in Birmingham, London, Belfast, and Bristol during the summer. ³⁴ Following his final performance on 22 October 1896, the Bristol Mercury reported that ‘August the Dummy’ had become so extremely popular that his mere appearance on the stage was greeted with a standing ovation. ³⁵ Circus Oscar Carré provided Marceline with job security and growing popularity in the provinces, but he was not well known in London. This changed after Marceline joined Hengler's Circus in 1897.

Becoming a featured star in the United Kingdom's largest circus enabled Marceline to advance his artistry at a time when Hengler's Circus was struggling. ³⁶ Looking for ways to bring back his public in 1897, owner Albert Hengler applied for a patent involving a large tank and related hydraulics to facilitate stage dramas featuring a substantial body of water. ³⁷ A visionary, Hengler's concept of flooding theatres for spectacular water shows would be emulated by the London Hippodrome and New York Hippodrome in the early years of the twentieth century. ³⁸ Hengler's patent reflected his interest in producing dramatic productions at Hengler's Circus Glasgow, a venue with a seating capacity of 3,000. ³⁹

Performing with Hengler's Circus allowed Marceline's experience and fame to grow. One example was his being listed in the cast of the 1898 Glasgow pantomime and water sketch, Harum Scarum, described as the ‘most extremely absurd play imaginable’. ⁴⁰ A highlight was the rescue of a train car after it fell from a large thirty-foot waterfall into 23,000 gallons of water. ⁴¹ Anticipating his Hippodrome Idea, the popular Marceline was now making multiple appearances throughout a given circus programme beyond his featured performance. Hengler's Circus troupes were entertaining thousands in Glasgow and elsewhere, but audiences were becoming too small to ensure the future of this business. The size and style of urban variety entertainment venues were changing during the late 1800s, blurring the perceived lines between circus and music hall. ⁴² In an 1894 interview, Hengler blamed the English music hall for taking his audiences away. He accused this entertainment industry of stealing the acrobats, clowns, and associated performances that traditional circuses showcased. What's more, Hengler felt the circus was being falsely accused of ‘copying’ the music hall by putting ‘their’ acts in its shows. For Hengler, modern music hall was ‘nothing more than a circus devoid of horses’. ⁴³ The rise of English music hall syndication at the end of the nineteenth century was instrumental to the decline of Hengler's Circus. Modern music hall would better serve Marceline's unique talents as a performer in the twentieth. His career transition would occur at the London Hippodrome in 1900.

Marceline at the London Hippodrome (1900–04)

The savvy music hall impresario Edward Moss opened his London Hippodrome in 1900 as a large venue that mixed several variety performances including clowning. The turn-of-the-century convergence of the circus, stage spectacle, theatre, English pantomime, and music hall in one London venue was the result of economic factors that enabled a form of vaudeville to co-opt its rivals. When 1878 building codes forced music hall owners to shut down because they could not afford to meet the requirements the more successful managers, mostly in the provinces, bought these establishments and formed profitable music hall syndicates. ⁴⁴ At the same time Albert Hengler was selling his circus buildings, entrepreneurs were buying music halls to create chains. The circuit of Edward Moss, originally the manager of a successful music hall in Edinburgh, proved so profitable that he commissioned the celebrated theatre architect Frank Matcham to build the London Hippodrome in 1899. ⁴⁵

Moss's ‘hippodrome idea’ was a synthesis of theatre, music hall, and circus that he wanted to both define and eventually oversee as a single entertainment industry. He intended his vision to be seen first at his London Hippodrome, located in a prestigious part of London, at the beginning of a new century. The London Hippodrome would showcase quality circus acts, variety turns, and sensational stage experiences in a single programme. Moss shared Hengler's belief that the circus water sketch was the modern spectacle best suited to achieve the desired climax in his groundbreaking shows. Consequently, the London Hippodrome was built to accommodate the latest design in water technology needed to flood the performance area – impressive engineering constituting another state-of-the-art marvel that defined this facility. Moss spared no expense in accomplishing his objectives and ‘making the cut’ was an exceptional indicator of the quality of the talented performers and innovative performances associated with the London Hippodrome in 1900.

The venue's premiere on 15 January 1900 featured circus and music hall turns while a water sketch spectacle entitled Giddy Ostend was the designated highlight of this programme. To keep the excitement and entertainment fresh, the circus and variety acts were regularly replaced. On 10 April 1900, the London Evening Standard reported that Marceline, a circus clown described as a ‘continental auguste’, was performing some clever acrobatics interspersed with a good helping of funny nonsense at the London Hippodrome. Unlike the other acts, Marceline stayed the year. ⁴⁶ The Magnet noted that ‘Marceline is a wonderful little fellow – such humour; such somersaulting abilities, over tables, over chairs, over the very backs of the arena attendants … . If you have not seen Marceline somersault you have missed one of the best sights in London’. ⁴⁷ Despite having little sketch experience, Marceline was given the prime role of ‘Buttons’ in the London Hippodrome's elaborate 1900 Christmas pantomime – a testament to his talent and popularity.

To promote Cinderella, Moss launched an exceptionally expensive publicity campaign that included the heroine's silver slipper, bejewelled with a thousand actual Abyssinian diamonds, on display in the London Hippodrome lobby. ⁴⁸ Given this expense and Marceline's limited experience as a pantomime artist, the fact that Moss chose him to be a Cinderella star is indicative of the immense popularity this charismatic performer had achieved as a comic circus tumbler at the London Hippodrome during the previous eight months. While lacking in English pantomime experience, Marceline's circus background was invaluable as a London Hippodrome artist. He had performed in large spaces since childhood and excelled at mime. Also, his eccentric and totally unpredictable auguste had artistic license to hilariously interact/interfere in every situation. He was a seriously disciplined athlete, but his auguste freely broke the rules. This would be no ordinary pantomime.

Aside from an intriguing firsthand memory shared sixty-four years later, what is known about Cinderella has been gleaned from fragmentary information found in less than detailed contemporary reviews. Photographs reveal Marceline wearing his trademark auguste makeup in the pageboy uniform associated with Buttons. Traditionally, Buttons does not wear exaggerated makeup. Rather than a separate character created by Marceline, was his popular auguste ‘playing’ Buttons and ‘breaking the rules’? There is no question that he made this Buttons his own. Charles Chaplin played a comic cat in this production at the age of eleven and the experience initiated his lifelong admiration for Marceline and his art. Chaplin remembered that ‘Marceline's comedy was droll and charming, and London went wild over him. … Cinderella was a great success, and although Marceline had little to do with plot or story, he was the star attraction’. ⁴⁹

The 1900 London Hippodrome pantomime Cinderella was divided into five scenes. When sharing his memories Chaplin described the comic business that presumably occurred in Scene 5, The Aqua Show. ⁵⁰ If so, this scene was more ‘tacked on spectacle’ than a continuation of the Cinderella narrative:

In those days it [the London Hippodrome] was a new theatre, a combination of vaudeville and circus, elaborately decorated and quite sensational. The floor of the ring sank and flooded with water, and elaborate ballets were contrived. Row after row of pretty girls in shining armor would march in and disappear completely under water. As the last line submerged, Marceline, the great French [sic] clown, dressed in sloppy evening dress and opera hat, would enter with a fishing rod, sit on a camp stool, open a large jewel case, bait his hook with a diamond necklace, then cast it into the water. After a while he would ‘chum’ with smaller jewelry, throwing in a few bracelets, eventually emptying the whole jewel case. Suddenly he would get a bite and throw himself into paroxysms of comic gyrations, struggling with the rod and eventually pulling out of the water a small trained poodle, who copied everything Marceline did: if he sat down, the dog sat down; if he stood on his head, the dog did likewise. ⁵¹

Immensely successful, Cinderella solidified Marceline's fame as a star comedian in the United Kingdom. His exceptional popularity resulted in Marceline appearing more than once in each of the London Hippodrome programmes during the next four years. Besides being featured in the circus segments as ‘Marceline, the Droll’, he usually played a character in the climactic sketch. Still immensely popular, his appearance in the December 1904 programme was compromised. Rather than offer a Christmas pantomime that year, the London Hippodrome concentrated upon a ‘Christmas novelty’. Produced at the substantial cost of £10,000, Butterflies in Fairyland was a spectacle featuring an ingenious visual interplay of lights, lighting effects, and water. ⁵² The Hippodrome had moved from attempting to create the most lavish Christmas pantomime of all time to producing no pantomime at all. Butterflies in Fairyland was still playing in March of 1905 when Marceline left London to participate in the New York Hippodrome's inauguration. ⁵³

Marceline and the New York Hippodrome (1905–12)

Moss's goal was to synthesise and eventually monopolise English performance traditions and entertainment when creating his London Hippodrome. Show business entrepreneurs Frederic Thompson and Elmer ‘Skip’ Dundy built the New York Hippodrome in 1904–05 with the intent of introducing a comparable ‘American entertainment’ not previously experienced in the United States. ⁵⁴ Their 12 April 1905 premiere programme resembled what Moss had been producing at his smaller but very modern and efficient London Hippodrome since 1900, and even featured its star attraction – ‘Marceline, the Droll’.

Marceline's varied appearances in the annual London Hippodrome programmes provided a blueprint for what he later did at the New York Hippodrome but not initially. Rufus Gillmore claimed that while raiding London for talent, Thompson and Dundy became aware of Marceline's success in performing a variation of Tom Belling's act in England and they wanted him to repeat it in the United States. ⁵⁵ They may, however, have had concerns about how successful Marceline would be as principal clown. According to John Townsen, a clown needed to use his entire body to be funny in the spatial American three-ring circus of this time and the number of successful solo performers capable of doing so were few. Marceline and the American whiteface clown Frank ‘Slivers’ Oakley (1871–1916) were two of the best. ⁵⁶ The legendary film comedian Buster Keaton ranked Marceline as the greatest clown he had ever seen, and Slivers was his other favourite. ⁵⁷ Thompson and Dundy hired both Slivers and Marceline for their inaugural programme, but there were questions as to how they would be used.

Newspaper accounts claim that Oakley was under the impression that he would be the only starring clown at the New York Hippodrome until just prior to meeting Marceline on the very day of the latter's arrival from London. ⁵⁸ In keeping with Thompson and Dundy's emphasis on recognising ‘American entertainment’, the two clowns were told that they would be simultaneously performing in two circus rings so the audience could determine whether the European or American was the funnier. The New York Times described Slivers as the talented hometown favourite who knew what an American audience wanted while Marceline did not. ⁵⁹ But the two-ring clown faceoff was not to be. Thompson and Dundy had obtained permission to engage Slivers and other performers from Ringling Brothers for their inaugural programme, but this circus was becoming concerned that the New York Hippodrome could be a major competitor. Citing commitments with Ringling Brothers, Slivers withdrew and ‘Marceline, the Droll’ was to be the only major clown featured in the inaugural programme that would occur ten days after the New York Times 2 April article was published. ⁶⁰

The headline and subheadings of the newspaper's 13 April coverage of the premiere are telling: ‘HIPPODOME'S OPENING SEEN BY THOUSANDS, Novel Programme That Includes Circus, War, and Ballet, PASSES OFF WITHOUT HITCH, Crowds Applaud Performers and the Promptness with Which Every Detail is Carried Out’. While extolling the venue as an entertainment facility this review emphasises its efficiency in execution, expertise, and alacrity in putting on the programme with only broad references to what was performed. The audience is described as if they were excitedly experiencing something akin to an impressive machine in operation, but what they were watching is unclear. The performers are working parts of the mechanism creating this splendid experience, but who they are and what they are doing are not mentioned. The exception was ‘the wonderful bareback riding act’ of the Clarkonians and ‘Marceline, the English clown, who was the hit of the performance’. ⁶¹ Also sparse in detail, other reviews agreed that Marceline was the ‘hit’ of the evening. Five years later journalist Rufus Gillmore observed, ‘There were five hundred people on the Hippodrome stage that night, yet Marceline was the one the audience talked about as it left. … Marceline is the only individual who has ever made his personality felt in this tremendous auditorium’. ⁶² What did he do and how?

Rather than think about his performance in terms of existing as an isolated and self-contained act, which is how the other entertainments could justifiably be investigated and described, the Hippodrome Idea is useful for considering Marceline as someone primarily engaged with what is happening in this environment and how this relationship may have affected the programme overall. One intriguing review of Marceline's premiere performance observed, ‘It seems remarkable that no one else has a special role in this show, but you have to admit that Marceline the English clown is massively spot on. Wherever he finds a niche, he ‘performs hilarious stunts that make the immense audience forget everything’. ⁶³ The idea of Marceline finding his ‘niche’ suggests that he was looking for them. Where the other performers focused on their acts, Marceline's auguste sought to be interactive.

In 1910, Gillmore argued that ‘during these five years [in America] Marceline has successfully presented this fool in many guises, but this old act, upon which Tom Belling stumbled into fame, has always brought the greatest laughter’. ⁶⁴ In Gillmore's description of Marceline's routine:

The circus is over and the stage to be cleared for the spectacle to follow. Half a hundred uniformed stagehands rush on to dissect the ring rim, to remove it together with the mats and carpets. Trailing behind comes Marceline, running as fast as short legs can bear him. … Wherever he hastens, he is just too late or in the way. He is a conceited simpleton who thinks he can help, but only succeeds in getting in the way of trained workmen. And then that final touch to the character of the simpleton he is portraying: Marceline leaps on top of the truckful of stage fittings and is pulled off the stage exulting as if he had done all the work. ⁶⁵

Marceline expanded the concept behind the interactive disruption central to his auguste act between scenes to form a collaborative association with the Hippodromes of London and New York that differed from other performers’ relationships with these venues. As Gillmore described them, ‘The other artists were so many units in a remarkable show and spectacle’. ⁶⁷ Marceline's auguste was a counterpoint to the graceful expertise and efficient execution of the finely polished spectacle of the New York Hippodrome's ‘entertainment machine’, a mechanism that harmoniously integrated performers as working parts. An act performing in this capacity risked its individuality becoming lost. Not so Marceline. His auguste, in contrast, was a bumbling representative of humanity. When it was decided that the New York Hippodrome audience needed a break from a programme's clockwork progression, Marceline was brought in to ‘mess things up’ in his own individualistic way. In addition to his all too human bumbling, this supposed total incompetent could suddenly display completely unexpected and seemingly impossible athleticism that suggested anyone might possess an exceptional hidden talent. After its inaugural programme, the New York Hippodrome would strategically determine where Marceline's appearances and human interaction would best facilitate the organisation, pacing, and impact of every given show.

Marceline saw his involvement and interaction at the New York Hippodrome as working towards the goals he would express in his 1913 Hippodrome Idea relative to the type of circus he wanted to take on the road. A key difference between his appearances in his 1913 roadshow and those in either the Hippodrome in London or New York was the nature and degree of his involvement. In the roadshow, Marceline functioned as a segue between each act and he probably had more confrontations with the ringmaster. In this context, he had a greater association with the structure and execution of the overall programme than at the two Hippodromes where his appearances, outside his yearly repeated trademark circus routines, were less frequent and served as welcomed irregular cameos. As was true at the London Hippodrome, the nature and regularity of Marceline's appearances in the New York programmes varied from year to year.

The fame and degree of involvement that Marceline enjoyed at the London Hippodrome was quickly duplicated at its New York counterpart. His familiar crowd-pleasing routines, like his Bellington/Guy auguste variation, never changed while his new business was presented in sketches and ballets. After the inaugural offering ended, Marceline's picture appeared on succeeding covers of the souvenir programme, emphasising the importance of his association with the New York Hippodrome's latest entertainment overall regardless of the number of his appearances. In November 1905, Slivers joined the New York Hippodrome, and both he and Marceline played characters who provided comic relief in that programme's climactic show, A Society Circus. ⁶⁸ Evidence of Marceline's success was confirmed in reports of his signing a lifelong contract with the New York Hippodrome in April 1906. ⁶⁹ Later determined to be an exaggeration, the actual four-year contract was still amazing given this venue's short-lived programming. ⁷⁰

Marceline's key year at the New York Hippodrome was probably 1910, based on how his importance was emphasised in the souvenir programme. Identifying him as the funniest clown and mime in the world, this brochure claimed that Marceline added greatly to the circus numbers and dramatic shows in which he appeared. His fantastic humour contributed to every occasion in a manner that won the sympathy of young and old. He was ‘the ace in the deck of the funny’, ‘buffoon par excellence in the Palace of Laughter’, and a circus clown ‘without equal’. ⁷¹ These descriptions parallel the emphasis on Marceline's interactivity as outlined in the Hippodrome Idea of his future 1913 roadshow. As had been true in 1904 when he left the London Hippodrome, Marceline decided to leave the New York Hippodrome in 1912 when he was still considered the top star. This time it would lead to failure.

Marceline and His ‘Hippodrome Idea’ (1913–27)

Marceline's Hippodrome Idea reflected the control and interaction he wished to exercise in his performance art outside the New York Hippodrome. Since his 1913 roadshow was specifically tailored to his requirements when he was still recognised as the New York Hippodrome star, it can be assumed that it reflected what he wanted to do when he had the freedom to decide. While not an immediate plunge, Marceline's career would take a downward path from this time forward. Contractual disputes forced Marceline's 1913 roadshow to close after a few performances. The New York Hippodrome welcomed him back in 1914, but a change in management shortened the season. Deciding to retire from show business, two attempts at being a restauranter apparently wiped out his life savings. Barnum & Bailey hired Marceline as a clown in 1918, and Chaplin visited this circus when it came to Los Angeles. Rather than the featured star, Chaplin was shocked to see that Marceline was ‘just one of many clowns that ran around the enormous ring – a great artist lost in the vulgar extravagance of a three-ring circus’. Sullen and melancholy during their dressing room visit, Chaplin remembered that Marceline committed suicide a year later. It would actually be nine. ⁷²

After 1918 Marceline was employed in other road shows formulated around his Hippodrome Idea, but this entertainment concept proved unworkable as the 1920s progressed. The New York Hippodrome was also experiencing a downward spiral. There were questions as to whether its finances would enable it to remain in operation during Marceline's final return in 1922–23. As had happened when Hengler's Circus was compromised by music hall, a competing industry was dominating the popular entertainment market. The movies were taking customers away from the New York Hippodrome, vaudeville and, to a large degree, the American circus. In the past Marceline had been remarkably capable of adapting his talents to emerging forms of performance entertainment when previously successful formats suddenly were on the wane. Not so now. Physically compromised from performing his exceptional stunts given his age, unable to find regular work in a shrinking market, and already largely forgotten, Marceline committed suicide on 5 November 1927. Besides sharing childhood memories of working with the famous clown at the London Hippodrome and their 1918 meeting, Chaplin revealed in his 1964 autobiography that Marceline was one of the inspirations for his classic 1952 motion picture Limelight, which focused on a tragic former music hall star's struggle with not being remembered and the vagaries of fame.

Conclusion

While Marceline did not sign a lifelong contract with the New York Hippodrome, newspaper reports to the contrary, his Hippodrome Idea reinforced what would be his lifetime association with that theatre. He became an internationally recognised tumbler by developing the acrobatic skills he learned from his childhood in the circus. Using body language and mime, combined with his cleverly devised circus costume and makeup, he was particularly brilliant, as a comedian and acrobat, at enabling his auguste to interact with the immense space, audience, individual acts, and overall experience associated with New York Hippodrome entertainment. Having fine-tuned his talents to fit the demands of this unique venue Marceline could not, for the first time in his career, move on or find satisfaction working in any other form of popular art after 1910. His self-identity entwined with the circumstance of the New York Hippodrome, the arc of Marceline's fame and success paralleled the rise and fall of this ‘people's playhouse’. He died penniless at the age of 54 in 1927. The New York Hippodrome was razed and replaced by a more commercially viable structure in 1939, thirty-four years after it had been built.

Marceline was largely forgotten by the time of his death, and it was through Chaplin's memory that he would be remembered as an inspiration for the fictional character of the once famous music hall comedian, defined by being forgotten, central to the classic motion picture, Limelight. It is appropriate that this special edition of Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film, dedicated to identifying the origin and identity of the New York Hippodrome, has provided an opportunity to recall and appreciate the life, art, and artistry of Marceline, the famous Hippodrome clown.