Rosa Bouglione
Matriarch of a famous circus dynasty who performed a snake dance surrounded by prowling lions
ROSA BOUGLIONE, who has died aged 107, was the matriarch of the Bouglione circus dynasty and undisputed queen of the French circus world. She was born Rosalie van Been in a horse-drawn wagon in Ixelles, a suburb of Brussels, on December 21 1910. Her family owned a small circus and menagerie, and she performed from an early age as they toured Belgium, Holland and France.
Her father, Jules, was a celebrated animal trainer and she began to specialise in “la danse serpentine”, the snake dance, performed in a large cage as her father controlled the lions which prowled around her.
In 1928 she married Joseph Bouglione, scion of a French circus family. Cleaving to circus tradition, they were wed in a cage as the wild animals looked on. The priest performed the ceremony from outside the cage: Rosa, she recalled, “advised the pastor against entering the den for fear he would be eaten by the big cats and not finish the service.”
Joseph Bouglione was one of four brothers, the third generation of a Sinti Romani family of animal trainers who had opened their own circus in 1924, going on to become France’s pre-eminent circus dynasty. They made their name and fortune working with the Wild West Show that had starred Buffalo Bill Cody, and in 1934 they bought the renowned Cirque d’hiver, or
Winter Circus, the former Cirque Napoleon. During the Second World War the Cirque was allowed to operate under Nazi occupation, although for a time it was given to the Circus Busch, whose Berlin home had been demolished as part of Albert Speer’s largely unrealised plans to redesign the German capital.
The Bouglione family were able to hide their Romany origins behind their Italian name (originally Buglione), and on several occasions they outwitted the Nazi machine by allowing their producer, George Sandry, to insert subversive political allusions into their acts. They also sheltered Jewish
performers and let the Resistance use the circus to hide caches of weapons.
After the war, as the Cirque enjoyed continued success, the sons eventually took over the operation, presided over by their mother. A panoply of stars made guest appearances, including Jerry Lewis, Juliette Greco, Mistinguett, Maurice Chevalier, Marlene Dietrich and Salvador Dali, and through the circus’s charity shows, Rosa Bouglione became friends with the likes of Josephine Baker, Maria Callas, Ingrid Bergman and Rita Hayworth.
She liked to recall the occasion Maria Callas was nearly knocked over by a young
elephant apparently jealous of the great diva’s friendship with Joseph Bouglione. And she would chuckle at the memory of smuggling a baby gorilla, Jackie, into a posh hotel in a hatbox and keeping it there for a month undetected. Jackie would only drink Perrier water, and liked to make hammocks out of the hotel curtains.
Rosa Bouglione also had a foul-mouthed parrot, Coco, who lived to the age of 45, uttering obscenities whenever he was ignored. “I cannot tell you what he would call me,” she told an interviewer. “He could speak very fluently.”
On one trip to Brazil in the 1950s their ship was hit by a freak storm. They were carrying 30 horses, 10 lions, six tigers and a polar bear – as well as 12 elephants, which the captain resolved to throw overboard to save his ship from sinking. Fortunately the storm subsided and the animals were saved.
In 1955 the Cirque d’hiver was the setting for the circus film Trapeze, directed by Carol Reed and starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida, who all became friends.
Members of the public paid their last respects at the Cirque d’hiver building in Paris before Rosa Bouglione was buried alongside her husband Joseph, who had died in 1987, and other members of the Bouglione dynasty. They had seven children.
Rosa Bouglione, born December 21 1910, died August 26 2018