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Look up showman in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Showman can have a variety of meanings, usually by context and depending on the country.
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| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2009) |
Showman can have a variety of meanings, usually by context and depending on the country.
Travelling showmen are people who run amusement and side show equipment at regional shows, state capital shows, events and festivals throughout Australia. In the past, the term has also been used for the people who organized freak shows, sideshows, circuses, travelling theatre troupes and boxing tents.
In Australia, there are around 500 travelling show families, Australian travelling show families in the Eastern states have a travelling School that has approximately 90 children.
Family names associated with funfairs in Ireland include Fox-McFadden, Cassells, Cullen, McFadden, Murray, Bird, Perks and Bell. Turbetts, Hudsons, McCormacks, McGurk, Wilmots and Grahams are associated with coastal amusements, particularly in the west of the country. [1]
"Showman" (şovmen in Turkish) refers to a talk show host in Turkey.
In the United Kingdom, showmen are a community intrinsically linked to the businesses they operate, such as funfairs and circuses. The Showmen's Guild of Great Britain is the most dominant trade association, with a membership of around 4,700 and a total collective of 25,000 showmen and -women in the industry. The head of the family is the President. [2] For example, the Guild co-organizes St Giles' Fair in Oxford with Oxford City Council each September, alongside a number of other fairs and events across the UK. A large amount of major events in the UK have a fairground element incorporated, such as the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, Leeds Festival and Edinburgh's Festive offering, to name a few.
Whilst the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain (SGGB) stands as the largest trade association, there are other, smaller industry bodies such as the Association of Independent Showmen (AIS) and Society of Independent Roundabout Proprietors (SIRPS).
Those of the traveling circus (traveling carnival)— carnies are comparable to Showmen but in the United States, the term showman primarily refers to male dancers (showgirls being the female equivalent).
The term showman or show people, can also be meant as a superlative or complimentary term, sometimes as an accolade or quasi-title, such as in the documentary name Harry Saltzman: Showman .
A fair is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of goods, products, and services, and often include competitions, exhibitions, and educational activities. Fairs can be thematic, focusing on specific industries or interests.
Carny, also spelled carnie, is an informal term used in North America for a traveling carnival employee, and the language they use, particularly when the employee operates a game ("joint"), food stand, or ride at a carnival. The term "showie" is used synonymously in Australia, while "showman" is used in the United Kingdom.
The Hoppings is an annual travelling funfair held on the Town Moor in Newcastle upon Tyne, during the last week in June. It is one of Europe's largest travelling funfairs. In recent years, over the course of the nine days it is held, it regularly attracts around 300,000 visitors.
A mobile cinema is a cinema on wheels.
St Giles' Fair is an annual fair held in St Giles', a wide thoroughfare in central north Oxford, England. The origins of the fair can be traced back to medieval times where it became one of England's dynamic trading centers. The fair has survived medieval times and is organised for a two-day duration in September each year by the Oxford City Council with the London and Home Counties section of the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain.
A traveling carnival, usually simply called a carnival, travelling funfair or travelling show, is an amusement show that may be made up of amusement rides, food vendors, merchandise vendors, games of chance and skill, thrill acts, and animal acts. A traveling carnival is not set up at a permanent location, like an amusement park or funfair, but is moved from place to place. Its roots are similar to the 19th century circus with both being fitted-up in open fields near or in town and moving to a new location after a period of time. In fact, many carnivals have circuses while others have a clown aesthetic in their decor. Unlike traditional Carnival celebrations, the North American traveling carnival is not tied to a religious observance.
Carters Steam Fair was a travelling vintage fair. Founded in 1977 by John Carter (1942–2000), this family business is now managed by the second generation of Carters.
Scottish Travellers, or the people in Scotland loosely termed Romani persons or travellers, consist of a number of diverse, unrelated communities that speak a variety of different languages and dialects that pertain to distinct customs, histories, and traditions.
Patrick Collins was a Liberal MP for Walsall (1922–1924) and Mayor of Walsall (1938), but he is chiefly remembered for his involvement in the fairgrounds industry; in fact, the "Pat Collins Funfairs" company still bears his name. He was also an early presenter of moving pictures, both in travelling shows and in cinemas. At one point, he was running four separate fairs a week and owned thirteen cinemas and several skating rinks.
A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to in popular culture as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with intersex variations, those with extraordinary diseases and conditions, and others with performances expected to be shocking to viewers. Heavily tattooed or pierced people have sometimes been seen in freak shows, as have attention-getting physical performers such as fire-eating and sword-swallowing acts.
The Showmen's Guild of Great Britain exists to protect the interests of Travelling Showmen in Great Britain.
Tom Norman, born Thomas Noakes, was an English businessman, showman and the last exhibitor of Joseph Merrick who was otherwise known as the "Elephant Man". Among his later exhibits were a troupe of little people, a "Man in a Trance", "John Chambers, the armless Carpenter", and the "World's Ugliest Woman".
Tavistock Goose Fair, known locally as the Goosey, or Goosie, Fair, is the annual fair in the stannary town of Tavistock in the west of Devon, England. It has been held on the second Wednesday of October since 1823 and it is one of only three historically established traditional fairs in the UK to carry the name, the other being the larger Nottingham Goose Fair, and the smaller Michaelmas Goose Fayre in Colyford, also in Devon.
'Lord' George Sanger was an English showman and circus proprietor. Born to a showman father, he grew up working in travelling peep shows. He successfully ran shows and circuses throughout much of the nineteenth century with his brother John. He retired in 1905 and was murdered by a disgruntled employee in 1911.
The Sloe Fair is a travelling funfair that is held annually on 20 October at Northgate carpark in Chichester, West Sussex. The fair was first held in 1107 or 1108 after King Henry I of the Kingdom of England granted Ralph de Luffa, Bishop of Chichester, the right to hold a fair for a period of eight days from a date of de Luffa's choosing. The fair was originally chosen to coincide with the Feast of Saint Faith the Virgin on 6 October, a Gallo-Romano saint with a strong following in the area, but in 1207 a license was awarded for the fair to be held several days later, on the Vigil of the Feast of the Holy Trinity and the eight days thereafter. It is, however, unclear whether the date of the fair was actually changed, and according to records held in the library of Chichester Cathedral, as late as the 18th Century the Court of Piepowders that was held on the occasion of the fair took place between the Feast of Saint Faith and the Eve of Saint Edward the Confessor, on 12 October. The name "Sloe Fair" is believed to be a reference to a sloe tree that grew on the original site of the fair, in a field just outside Chichester's North Gate.
There are a number of traditionally itinerant or travelling groups in Europe who are known as Travellers or Gypsies.
William George Smart Sr. was a British showman, fairground proprietor and circus proprietor, the founder and owner of Billy Smart's Circus.
Randall Kay Williams was a Victorian showman noted for popularising moving pictures on British fairgrounds. The first known reference to a cinematograph exhibition in Williams' show was at Rotherham Statute Fair on 2 November 1896.
Royal American Shows (RAS) was a leading American traveling carnival company that operated from the 1920s to the 1990s in the United States and, until the 1970s, in Canada. The company promoted itself as the "Most Beautiful Show on Earth", with the "World's Largest Midway."
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