Web Page 3089 29th December 2023 Have you noticed the we have just passed the half a million hits on the page Billy Smart First Picture: The Governor

Second Picture; The Smart family

Third Picture: The Circus in its heyday

Fourth Picture: Billy Smarts Circus poster

William 'Billy' Smart was one of twenty-three children born into a fairground family from London. Born in 1894, he worked with his family on the fairgrounds of London and the South East from an early age up until his marriage to Dolly in 1925, after which he branched out with his brothers to set up his own fair. By the 1930s he was an established member of the fairground community in the South East and London area and travelled with up to ten rides, with some of his rides featuring alongside Bertram Mills' Circus at Olympia in 1939. More success followed in the war years when he operated some of London's largest morale-boosting Holiday at Home Fairs, supplying entertainment to a war-weary public. Although always interested in horses, and interested in circuses for some time, it was not until 1946 that he came across Cody's Circus and bought the big top. By the time he opened his New World Circus in 1946 he was fifty-two years old, following P.T. Barnum's example in taking on a second career as a circus proprietor. Billy Smart's New World Circus made its debut at Southall Park, Middlesex, on 5 April 1946, for the first full season after the end of the war. The circus which he had purchased from Cody was run in conjunction with a travelling fun fair and at first he was seen as an interloper by other more established circus showmen. By 1952, the fun fair, which had been increasingly overshadowed by the circus, disappeared to leave room for a bona fide menagerie. Three years later, the two-poler tent was replaced by a giant 6,000 seat, four-pole round big top with a hippodrome track around the ring, and a vast entrance tent, thus enabling the staging of spectacular parades, which became a Billy Smart's Circus trademark. His greatest innovation was his relationship with the newly established television networks when he agreed for Billy Smart's Circus to be broadcast live by the BBC in 1947. Over the years, Billy Smart's Christmas Spectacular became a BBC holiday tradition, which ITV took over in 1979 and carried on until 1982. A large part of the success of the circus was the showmanship that Billy brought to the operation of the circus, the large family he could draw upon to run the shows and his ability as a showman to market and capture opportunities to advertise. Whilst other circus proprietors were threatened by the rise in popularity of television and shunned the cameras, Billy Smart embraced them. Smart's Circus grew to be one of the largest in the world, touring every part of the British Isles, and with permanent quarters and an associated zoo at Winkfield, Berkshire, not far from where Billy Smart began his fairground career. His success took the circus through twenty-six tenting tours, winter seasons, frequent TV appearances and the provision of animal acts to other circuses. He died in his caravan on 25 September 1966, shortly after conducting the Romford Boys' Band in front of his mammoth circus tent at Ipswich, which had been set up that morning for a two-week stand. With his large Stetson hat, inevitable cigar and unique flair for self-promotion and publicity, Billy Smart was a showman of the highest order. One of his greatest stunts was when he rode an elephant through the streets of Mayfair and parked it at a meter before inserting a shilling! Billy Smart was such a colourful character that on his death his lifelong friend Sir Billy Butlin described him as the greatest showman of our time and probably the last of the great showmen. I remember Billy Smart coming to the King George V he playing fields at Cosham. This was proceed by a mesmerising circus parade with the Governor sat on the back seat of his Rolls Royce in his Stetson hat and smoking a large cigar. Cosham Memories from Peter B:- My father owned the Chemist business in Cosham High Street. “BAKERS OF COSHAM” during the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. In the 40’s and 50’s, we were a family of 5 living above the shop, which incidentally was originally Cosham Post Office. But there goes another story of the History of Cosham. Once a week, my mother, often with me, would go into Threadinghams to order our weeks groceries. Mr and Mrs Threadingham worked in the shop. They would weigh out things like sugar and flour etc; into cones that they made up from sugar paper. They had a huge bacon slicer which was worked with a big handle. Mr Threadingham would pack it all into one box and then deliver it to us. We got our meat from Pinks further up the street where I remember Miss Rickman sat in a kiosk to take the money after the butchers had prepared the meat. Our fish came from Mr Mays fish shop. We got our Green Groceries from Wilton’s where Mr and Mrs Wilton would serve us. Our bread was delivered twice a week from Campions up the High Street. Our Gold Top Channel Island milk was delivered every day from Gauntlets Dairy in Stakes Road, Waterlooville. We had a big long garden behind the shop and we kept 24 chickens. 12 Rhode Island Reds and 12 Black Leghorns. They were fed on a mixture of waste vegetables mixed with what was called balancer meal and a couple of handfuls of corn which we got from Curtis’s the corn and coal merchants next door to our shop. Once a week, I was sent down to the food office in the High Street to collect our ration of orange juice and cod liver oil. Twice a week I had to take the accumulator from our Wireless across the road to Seals to get it charged up. In my fathers chemist shop, there were no proprietary medicines. He had to make up all the prescriptions from the individual ingredients. He also had to count all the pills and tablets out from bulk bottles into small individual bottles. People often would not go to the doctor and they would rely on my father, John Barlow for his advice. Miss Bartlett was in charge of the Cosmetics side of the business. I hope you may find this interesting. I could go on and tell you a lot more about our life in Cosham High Street Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com