The popularity of Bertram Mills’ Circus in the 1930s and
1940s enabled it to continue to expand. Alongside the winter season
at Olympia, Mills mounted a summer season which toured to all the
big seaside resorts in the UK.
When Bertram Mills retired, his sons continued to develop his
circus, bringing new acts from across Europe and America. They
also continued to tour Bertram Mills’ Circus across the UK and
soon other tenting circuses followed: Chipperfields’, Billy
Smart’s, the Robert Brothers’, Bobby Robert’s Circus, Cottle
and Austen’s, Gerry Cottle’s, and more recently, Zippo’s. Circus
in permanent buildings continued to draw the crowds at the Blackpool
Tower Circus and the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow. In the 1950s and
1960s a trip to the circus was still an eagerly anticipated
treat for millions of British schoolchildren.
The Theatre Museum has a large collection of photographs taken
by Baron de Rakoczy, which show the heyday of Mills’ Circus.
Here is a selection.
Read press cuttings from Bertam Mills’ circus
in the 1920s:
The Great International Circus at Olympia
