Web Page No 2716

 

19^th September 2020

 

1st Picture. Bertram Mills Circus in King Georges Field 1950’s

2nd Picture. Bertram Mills Circus in King Georges Field 1950’s

3rd Picture. Horse performance

4th Picture. Travelling Ticket Office

5^th Picture. Circus Van

Bertram Mills and his Circus

 

The death of Bertram W. Mills (1873-1938) from pneumonia on April 16^th , 1938 was a real event in the British circus. The hoardings for the London evening papers read "Bertram Mills Dead”. This was the Death of Britain’s Nº 1 Showman.

The show he had created in 1920 had become known as "The Quality Show. Bertram Mills, always known as "The Guv’nor" to his staff, was "a short, stocky man with a bald head, a ruddy face, a grey moustache, and blue eyes.

Bertram Wagstaff Mills was born in London on August 11, 1873. He was the son of Halford Lewis Mills of Smarden, Kent, and Mary Fenn Wagstaff. Halford Mills was the proprietor of a coach building firm in Paddington and he owned small farms in the country, one at Harefield, the other at Chalfont St. Giles—the latter being where he stabled his horses for rest periods.

Bertram spent most of his childhood at Chalfont St. Giles, learning to ride there and developing a love of horses. He left school at fifteen and started at the bottom of his father’s business, washing down the coaches but within a year, he was driving four-in-hand from London to Oxford.

When Bertram entered his father’s business, they began importing American carriages, and the coach building side of the business was carried simultaneously with that of the undertaker’s business which had been inherited from Bertram’s grandfather. One of the company biggest assignments would be in 1930, when the R.101 airship  crashed in France and Bertram Mills’ firm was asked by the Air Ministry to undertake the funeral arrangements in France and to bring back the bodies in England. The coaching and funeral businesses were wound up after the death of Bertram Mills in 1938,

In 1901, Bertram W. Mills married Ethel Notley, the daughter of a farmer, William Notley, who came from Thorndon, Suffolk. They had two sons, Cyril Bertram and Bernard Notley, born on May 10, 1905. During the First World War, Bertram Mills served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, gaining the rank of Captain.

But when he returned to civilian life, he found that the coach building industry was declining, thanks to the motorcar. This was where the circus came into being.

Bertram’s’interests outside his coaching and funeral company and then the circus were quite varied. He was a London County Councillor until his death.

He was a Freeman of the City of London, and a Liveryman of the Loriners’ and Farriers’ Company, and had been adopted as a prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate. Furthermore, he ran coach services between London and Brighton and London and Oxford, bred horses, and judged at top international horse shows.

He had many influential friends and, on one occasion, he was invited to attend a performance of Fred A. Wilkin’s Great Victory Circus and Allied Fair at the Olympia exhibition hall in London. However, the quality of the performance "bored Bertram almost to tears." He stated that if I could not give the people a better circus than that for their money, I’d eat my hat.

This resulted in a wager of £100 and on a February evening of 1920, Bertram sat down to dinner with his wife and sons and announced "I have just signed an agreement to run a circus at Olympia next winter." It came as a bombshell to the family.

In order to win his wager he quickly arranged for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to come to England for the 1920/1921 winter season: This was the biggest circus in the world. John Ringling was unable to arrange shipping space for such a huge undertaking so soon after the Great War. He had to ask for cancellation of the contract, adding, "Let me know what I owe you." Bertram Mills, in typically decisive style, replied, "You owe me nothing; I will produce my own show." Producing his first show, The Great International Circus, from December 17, 1920 to January 24, 1921. This first production was a huge success and even made a small profit. Eventually the show that became known as Bertram Mills Circus became the toast of London until it finally closed in 1967.

Mills brought the circus industry out of the doldrums. He introduced grand opening day luncheons attended by hundreds of leading figures , people who, up to that time, had maybe thought the circus beneath their dignity. One year, the total number of guests who sat down to the lunch preceding the opening performance was 1,493. The leaders of industry, the arts and the press joined the peerage, bishops, baronets and knights in wanting invitations.

Bertram Mills raised the status of the circus to heights hitherto undreamed of. Booking the cream of talent available from Europe and America, and cutting acts ruthlessly to show just their best routines, he gained a reputation equal to none in Europe.

Bertram was fortunate to have two Cyril and Bernard, who were willing to join him in his circus enterprise, and who carried it on after his death—until rising costs forced it to end in 1967.

After the Olympia success in 1930, he launched a tented circus, which was run by his sons to a high standard and in a business  like fashion.

The tented show operated from 1930 to 1964, barring the Second World War. After the death of Bertram in 1938, Cyril and Bernard continued to run the company to the template he had established, retaining the tenets of "The Quality Show." Bertram Mills told his sons, " The Mills Circus will perform like professionals and live like gentlemen."

Their first big top, seating 3,000, came from the Germany as did the seating. Starting in 1933 Bertram Mills Circus moved by rail, the only British circus to do so.

"House trainers" were engaged to present Mills’ own elephants, wild animals and other acts. Insisting on a top level of presentation and cleanliness the Mills family presented the cream of world circus talent, including wild animal acts.

Cyril and Bernard, were stunned by the death of their father in 1938, but as he would have wished, the circus had its premiere that day in Luton. Many circus folks attended Bertram Mills’ funeral while 200 members of the Mills Circus staff attended a memorial service the same afternoon, held under the big top  with the circus band accompanying the hymns. No performances were given on the day of the funeral, but they were resumed the following day.

Bertram W. Mills bequeathed all his property to his widow. He left £146,528 (£100,528 net), a considerable sum for that time, with death duties of £20,957. His sons continued to operate the touring circus and the circus at Olympia until the advent of the Second World War. They closed for the duration, reopening in 1946.

During its lifetime the clowns were also very well represented with, notably, Pimpo, the star clown of Sanger’s Circus and of course Coco (Nikolai Polakovs).

Nearly a century following the conception of Bertram Mills’ original circus, his five major principles, which he applied ruthlessly, remained in operation.

The first was to strive for quality in whatever he did, to seek out the most polished and perfect acts in every category, and to present only the best aspects of those acts—this being his second principle. Then, at all costs, he sought to attract, host and convert the most influential people to the cause of the circus, having starting his show at a time when circus was at a particularly low ebb. Fourthly, he didn’t hesitate to promote individual acts or performers as stars of the show, and fifthly, he used and developed the emerging energy of public relations and targeted advertising.

With these principles Bertram Mills raised the social status of the circus in general. Undoubtedly, the most significant development in his success was the patronage of Royalty to Bertram Mills Circus. This began in 1926, when the Prince of Wales (the future Duke of Windsor) quietly attended a performance at Olympia, unannounced. The Prince’s interest in the circus was developed by visiting the winter quarters at Ascot to observe the animal training sessions. A private box was installed for this purpose, the Prince’s companion for these visits Mrs. Wallis Simpson.

This led to an association with the Royal. There would be a further fifty-nine visits by members of the Royal Family in subsequent years. The Queen went as a child and later graced Olympia with a series of well-publicised Royal Performances for her favourite charities.

Bertram Mills was buried in the St. Giles churchyard at Chalfont St. Giles; his grave is a simple one, and doesn't mention anything of his extraordinary life—beside the fact that he was "beloved." Perhaps Bertram Mills' true epitaph was written by the Duchess of Kent, who with the Duke brought their young son, Prince George, to the last Olympia season in 1967. She said to Cyril Mills: "He really is too young, but this is your last circus and I didn’t want him to grow up without having seen it."

 

 

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Peter

 

gsseditor@gmail.com

 

You Write:

Maureen writes:

I too learnt to drive in a Triumph Herald and strangely enough I was out on Friday with my youngest and we followed one. It looked so tiny then I realised it was only a two seater with a soft top, it was a lovely pastel blue and quite the Bees knees in its time.

 

I was taught by a lady in North End who had her own driving school near the Christian Science Reading Room.  She was an advanced driver and I have tried many times to practice the type of test that she had to do. She told me that as she was driving, she had to talk about everything that her brain was registering from traffic lights to pedestrians and what was happening behind her.  Your brain takes in far more than the words to describe it tumbles out.  I was in awe of her.  My heroine, along side of Joan of Arc.

 

 

News and Views:

 

On this day 19^th September 1960 - 1965

 

On 19/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 19/09/1961 the number one single was Reach for the Stars / Climb Ev'ry Mountain - Shirley Bassey and the number one album was Ipswich Town. The top rated TV show was "Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £Argentinian swims English Channel both ways non-stop and 13.25 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Take Your Pick (AR)".

 

On 19/09/1962 the number one single was She's Not You - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

On 19/09/1963 the number one single was She Loves You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

On 19/09/1964 the number one single was You Really Got Me - Kinks and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

On 19/09/1965 the number one single was Make It Easy On Yourself - Walker Brothers and the number one album was Help - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.