WIRTH, MAY, Australian bareback rider, Hollywood screen test (USA, 1917)

Описание: ARCHIVAL FILM [KLEINE COLLECTION, LC NO 2880420-3-1]
FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON DC, USA
REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Background

In 1917, Australian-born May Wirth, a sensational bareback rider, was a "center ring" attraction of America's largest circus, Ringling Bros. That year, May undertook a four-minute long screen test for a Hollywood Studio for the title role of Polly in the silent film, "Polly of the Circus". May was not given the role - or, in view of her starring Ringling commitment, may have chosen not to accept it.

The role was given to an established film star, Mae Marsh. We have nevertheless been left with this priceless legacy, the earliest footage we have of May Wirth, indeed of any Australian circus artist.

Unfortunately, the screen test did not capture May performing but, at least, we see her wearing her trade mark bow and turning a few "flips" that show her diminutive 4' 11" figure to advantage.

00:01 Profile shots
00:51 May in circus costume
02:09 May in acting scenes with her stepmother, Mrs Marizles Wirth Martin, and unknown male
03:39 May, in circus costume, performs some demonstration "flips"

May Wirth
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 12, (MUP), 1990

May Emmeline Wirth (1894-1978), circus rider, was born on 6 June 1894 at Bundaberg, Queensland, daughter of John Edward Zinga, a circus artist from Mauritius whose real name was Despoges, and his native-born second wife Dezeppo Marie, née Beaumont. After her parents separated, May was adopted in 1901 by Mary Elizabeth Victoria ('Marizles') Wirth (1868-1948), equestrienne and sister of Philip and George Wirth. Born on 7 December 1868 at Dalby, Queensland, Marizles had married John Augustin Martin (d.1907), circus musician, on 9 February 1891 at St Andrew's Anglican Cathedral, Sydney. With their only daughter Stella (b.1892), they toured overseas with Wirth Brothers' Circus in 1893-1900.

Having been taught by her father to do the 'flip-flap', May soon featured in balancing and tumbling acts, and as a tightwire performer and contortionist. From Philip and Marizles she learned equestrian skills and from ringmaster John Cooke the feet-to-feet forward somersault on a bareback horse. At the age of 10 she was a 'real trick rider' and began appearing in acts with Stella and Marizles. In Melbourne in 1906 she was billed as 'May Ringling', the 'American fearless hurricane hurdle rider'. A 'remarkably pretty girl', she grew to only 4 ft 11 ins (150 cm) tall.

After starring in Sydney in April 1911, when she 'rode and drove eight ponies, and turned somersaults on a cantering grey', May visited the United States of America with her mother and sister. Engaged by John Ringling for two seasons to tour with his Barnum & Bailey circus, she was billed as 'the world's greatest bareback rider' and given a conspicuous place on the programme at their opening show in New York on 21 March 1912. . An immediate success, May developed her act by somersaulting backwards through rings and by leaping from the ground to the back of her galloping horse with her feet encased in baskets. Although seriously injured in a fall during a performance in April 1913, she appeared with Carl Hagenbeck's Wonder Zoo and Circus at London's Olympia next December.

As the 'Royal Wirth Family', the troupe toured Australasia with Wirth Bros Ltd Circus in 1915-16, performing vaudeville, burlesque and equestrian items. May was dainty, 'like a butterfly in flight … alive, alert' and delighted Sydney audiences. In 1917 the troupe toured North America with Ringling Brothers. As the 'May Wirth Troupe', they were joined by Philip Vincent Jones, known as St Leon, who later married Stella. May remained the star equestrienne when the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circuses amalgamated in 1919. At the Church of the Transfiguration ('The Little Church around the Corner'), New York, on 27 November that year, she married her manager Frank White who also adopted the professional name of Wirth; they were to remain childless.

May and her troupe toured with the Walter L. Main circus in the 1921 and 1923 seasons, performing in 1922 at the Coliseum, London; in the winter months they played in vaudeville in Europe. She again starred in Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey combined shows in 1924, but left in 1927 to tour country fairs and indoor circuses. In the winter of 1931 her troupe was featured as the St Leon Indoor Circus and in March next year she performed the live circus scenes in the operetta, The Blue Mask, at Chicago.

Predeceased by her husband, she died on 18 October 1978 at Sarasota and was cremated.

Citation details

Mark Valentine St Leon, 'Wirth, May Emmeline (1894–1978)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wirt..., published first in hardcopy 1990, accessed online 31 May 2024.