- November 18, 2024
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Actors have the Academy Awards, musicians have the Grammy Awards and circus greats have the Circus Ring of Fame.
That’s how Brian Liddicoat, president of the Circus Ring of Fame Foundation, Inc., sees it anyway.
“Along with all the other [past] inductees, each year, when we come up with a group like this, it’s significant in circus history and a legacy to the greatest form of entertainment,” he said.
On Jan. 14, six inductees were officially awarded their spot in the Circus Ring of Fame. The inductees were Dora Foster, “Rogana”, the “Baroness of Balance;” Allen Bloom, a previous top executive of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey and Feld Entertainment; Reggie Armor, who was known as one of the greatest trapeze flyers of the 60s and 70s; The Pedrolas, a group that performed a complete show with a contortionist, musical clowns, high and low wires, an aerial cradle act, slide for life, a wire comedy act and a loop-de-loop; Henry Ringling North, a co-owner of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1936-1967; and Starless Night, a black American saddlebred mare who was owned and trained by Capt. William Heyer.
Dagmar Mootz-Beavers who made up The Pedrolas with her parents, Rudolf and Gerda, said being inducted into the Circus Ring of Fame was out of this world.
“This is something I’ve been hoping for for many years,” she said.
Inductees are chosen after the Circus Ring of Fame Foundation, Inc., board of directors goes through online submissions and passes those on to those currently in the circus ring. Current performers, owners and others in the industry then vote on the chosen submissions.