Barry's Circus Dynasty - Part 3

written by J.P. Browne

For the last part of the Barry's Circus Dynasty we will be focusing on the family of Minnie Barry and her ambitious husband Jack Delino. Delino performed with Barry’s Circus for several years and had married Minnie Barry in 1925. They had at this stage invented their own “drunk on the wire” routine which was immensely popular in the day. Delino seems to have been an ambitious individual who was also quite capable.

In 1928, Jack Delino persuaded his friend ‘The Great Carmo’, to go into partnership with the Barry’s to promote one of the biggest circuses to ever tour Ireland the Carmo and Barry Circus. The Great Carmo (real name Harry Cameron) was the premier illusionist of his day rivaling the other top magicians of the Variety scene such as Chung Ling Soo and Kalanag. Born in Melbourne, Australia he had learned his trade under Astons Circus and had then apprenticed to a well-known magician at the time called Servais Le Roy. Even before coming to Ireland he’d had an eventful life; the ship he left Australia on to come to England sank off Cornwall. When leaving the U.S. after a very successful tour he booked tickets on the Lusitania only for a luggage problem forcing him to take a later ship. The Lusitania was then then sank off the coast of Ireland on the very voyage he missed. Apart from magic and illusion, Carmo was also an accomplished juggler and had used numerous animals in his acts over the years. In fact he was famous for it. Among the animal used were ‘a Bengal tiger, an elephant, a leopard, horses, snakes, and a lion that was featured in The Lion’s Bride illusion, which had been part of Le Roy’s repertoire, and in that of another famous illusionist, The Great Lafayette. Carmo’s version elaborated the original idea to become Thrown To The Lions or The Lion’s Prey, and was considered one of the greatest magic tricks of its time — a richly costumed and staged silent drama replete with music and lighting effects’ (Circopedia. 2025).

Apart from a huge collection of animals, Carmo’s troupe also had around forty performers including ballet dancers and animal trainers to help him with his act. Somewhere along the line Jack Delino and himself had become good friends and when Carmo’s wife Alma died in late 1926 after a period of mourning he was looking for a new challenge. A fresh start in Ireland with a good friend and in the circus where he’d got his first start would be a clean break for him. The 1927 season seems to have been used to get everything ready for the new circus. Carmo didn't want a small show in fact he intended his Circus to be the premier show in Ireland and Britain dominating the landscape for many years to come and by 1928 they were ready.

The Barry's now two new circuses on the road in Ireland with the Royal Italian Circus seemingly to have concentrated on the smaller towns and villages with Evelyn Barry in association with Treherne and Trufelli running that show. The Great Carmo Circus only visited the larger towns and cities of Ireland such as Athlone and Dublin. Mrs. Barry, Minnie and Pauline supervised the Carmo Circus along with Delino and Carmo who was learning the circus ropes with the now named Great Carmo Circus and Menagerie debuting "at the Balmoral Gardens, Belfast for the 1928 summer season with what was considered a large big top, and a good fleet of vehicles and living wagons. Carmo billed it as "the finest touring circus that has ever been seen in Ireland." (Circopedia, 2025)

The first season in Ireland seems to have ran incredibly smoothly with no problems to mention. In fact one could say too smoothly with Carmo now full of ambition and doing well deciding to take the Circus across the sea to the U.K. To some extent this was expected. The sheer size of Carmo's show meant that he would need a large audience year after year and having traveled and performed in the U.K. for years I am sure he was anxious to show off his new show to friends and fans alike.

So in later 1928 the Great Carmo Circus and Menagerie moved to England. It seems most of the Barry's didn't go with him apart from Jack Delino so Carmo decided to join up with another Circus individual to help him put on his show in Britain. That individual was Bertram Mills. Bertram Mills was not the household name he would later become at this stage of his life he was only in the Circus business for a mere nine years although he was very successful. An undertaker by trade he was also owned a successful coaching company. He had set up his own circus company to win a bet against a good friend of his Sir Gilbert Greenhall which he did by putting on a spectacular Christmas Circus each year in the London Olympia. After World War I seeing the writing on the wall for coaches with the rise of the motor car he had decided to set up his own tenting circus to travel around Britain but having no experience he had cut a deal with the The Great Carmo to amalgamate with his traveling show for the first year so as to get first-hand experience. There were other even more practical reasons. Carmo’s new tent hadn’t arrived yet and while he still had his tent from his time in Ireland (I am assuming it was the old Barry's one from their previous show) it didn’t have the capacity which he needed to make a profit with his larger outfit as he had expanded again over the summer. Mills did have a tent, in fact it was the biggest ever in Britain holding between two to three thousand people. What he didn’t have was transport or a program booked for the 1929 summer tour of Britain. The Great Carmo Circus had an extremely strong programme including Togare (Georg Kulovits) with 12 Lions; Captain Emmerich Ankner with a large group of horses, and Baby June the cycling elephant (renamed Baby Carmo). Fred Martin who was publicist for both men negotiated a deal and Mills and Carmo went into business together.

As for his year in Ireland the “Great Carmo Circus tour in Ireland proved a success, both artistically and financially" (Circopedia, 2025). Regardless of how well he did with the Barry's the decision was made with the Great Carmo Circus moving to tour Britain in 1929. It would turn out to be an unqualified disaster.

Arriving in Britain for the 1928 winter season Carmo had once again increased the size of his show making it the biggest circus in Britain since Lord Sanger's Circus. It started off with the 198/29 Christmas show at the Olympia with Bertram Mills featuring two acts of the Great Carmo Circus, Togare with his lion act and "Captain" Emmerich Ankner with a horse act.  Two further parts of the Great Carmo Circus called ‘Carmo’s Gallery of Illusion’s and the ‘Australian Menagerie’ were also featured in the Fun Fair next to the Christmas Circus. The proper Circus opened in May 1929 at Gatford in London and was called the ‘Great Carmo Circus and Menagerie’ (Bertram Mills declined to have his name on the marquee) and got good reviews from critic and fan alike. The press described it as ‘the beginning of a new era in the history of British circuses’.

It had a strong programme that year with the following acts involved. “Togare and Carmo’s lions, Emmerich Ankner with four groups of horses, and the cycling elephant Baby Carmo,but also attractions like the British rider Mona Connor; the Belgian clowns, The Bentos; Ruth Owens’s jumping horse, "Courage"; The Hansens’ perch pole act; the four Bonellys from Australia with a looping-the-loop aerial act; The Nonsens aerial ladder act; The Costellos’ hand balancing act; The 5 Balaguers, acrobatic jugglers; Los Gabriels, hat jugglers in clown costumes; a group of dancers plus a "skating ballet on real ice"; and the great acrobats on horseback, The Carolis” (Circopedia, 2025). It also had a press agent in Lady Elenor Smith whom with her contacts in the press and flair for advertising; the Carmo Circus gained huge publicity wherever it went. Smith who would later go on to write a book about her experiences in the circus called ‘Life’s a Circus’ in which she recalls meeting Togare for the first time.

"Now," said Fred Martin, "we'll go and see the lions. They're not working today - it's too cold. They're in the stables."

He threw open a great door, and there I saw an amazing sight.

In a straw-filled den eight huge golden-brown lions lay sleeping. On top of the lions, using them as a careless sofa, sprawled a tawny half-naked man.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"That's Togare."

"Who's he?"

"Their trainer."

"Can I speak to him?"

"Can you speak German?"

"No."

"I don't think he speaks any other civilized language. He's a Serb - half-Turkish."

"I'd like to try," I persisted.

Whereupon Togare was summoned, and appeared with ill-grace. He was a big, handsome man with slanting eyes and high cheek-bones. He made an indifferent, Eastern salaam, and looked extremely bored.

I did not know that I was meeting for the first time one who was to be a faithful friend. Togare was monosyllabic. I finally discovered that he understood Spanish, and we conducted a halting conversation in this language. Months afterwards, Togare would learn English, and we were to have some interesting experiences tenting, but that was not to be for some time.

When I wrote my first article for the Carmo Circus, I christened Togare, "The Valentino of the Ring," and this title still stuck when Valentino was even more a memory than in those days.

The Great Carmo Circus travelled from May until the middle of November. At the end of November Carmo’s own tent (up to this stage they had been using Bertram Mills’s tent) was ready and Mills’s and Carmo departed amicably. Carmo had ordered an innovative (for the time) and extremely expensive new tent supported by four poles in a square. The Penrose Company making it had already delayed the order several times and even when it arrived it caused a hassle been put up. As Cyril Mills recalls "after a three-day struggle to get the new-type tent up…he telephoned and from the sound of his voice, I suspected he was on the verge of tears. Could we lend him our tentmaster? Of course, we could […]. The tentmaster was rushed to Wembley, and within two days, tent and seating had been built up and the circus was able to open" (Circopedia, 2025). The Wembley show did well but didn’t do fantastic business. It was an extremely cold winter and once again reinforced the reason why circuses closed down or went indoors for the winter period. There were huge difficulties traveling because of ice and snow, not just for the circus but also for the customer going to it. There were also other difficulties such as muddy fields and that no customer wanted to sit in a freezing tent for 3 hours of a show (circus tents weren’t noted for their heat retention). To combat this Carmo had purchased a vastly expensive heating apparatus to fill the tent with hot air. As for the muddy fields there wasn’t much he could do about it except lay down some straw.

Carmo’s circus after tenting at Wembley for Christmas began traveling again on January 6^th, 1930 firstly going to Harringay Greyhound Track in North London which was a successful venture for them. Unfortunately the weather took an even worse turn and custom started to shrink leading sometimes to empty houses. By March the circus had reached Birmingham and the weather still hadn’t broken with snow and sleet still been a feature of what would be a miserable spring.

On the night of March 14^th disaster struck; heavy snowfall brought down his allegedly super-strong tent tearing it to pieces under the snow’s weight. What was even worse was the seating was destroyed as well by the falling poles adding to the overall destruction. A new big top and seating was obtained (at vast expense) and the show re-opened to large crowds with the destruction of the first tent having attracted great publicity.

Tragically worse was to follow; on March 20^th a fire broke out in the accommodation of George Baker, Togare’s assistant. Panicking, Baker threw out the Primus stove that had started the fire; it was still alight though and in seconds, the fire caught the walling of the main tent and burned it to the ground. Luckily apart from some livestock having to be put down due to their injuries there was no loss of human life. That would be the only comfort. 

Carmo, recuperating at his home following the trauma of the snowfall disaster, hastened to Birmingham to find his entire circus gone. In the aftermath, it was said that after having done all he could, Carmo collapsed from nervous exhaustion and had to spend some days in bed in a hotel. It was unknown if he had insurance or if he was adequately insured. Nevertheless he kept his entire company on salary, reorganized the show, and he resumed performances at the West Bromwich Skating Rink on March 27^th. Unfortunately with assets destroyed following a bad season that was the winter showing Carmo’s debts were too much and he had to dissolve his circus so ending the Great Carmo’s Circus and Menagerie.

As for the Barry’s they seemed to remained in Ireland and with the end of Carmo's Circus seemed to have left the Circus life behind, going permanently into amusements. Ernest Barry ran a funfair at the corner of Fisherwick Place and Grosvenor Road in Belfast better known as Blitz Square. He died in 1935.  Jack and Minnie Delino ran Barry's Amusements in Bangor were in the back sat an old showman's caravan as a reminder of their days on the road.

Pauline ran her own amusements at Bellevue Zoo in Belfast. As for the Great Carmo against all odds he had managed to get another circus up and running although of a humbler scale than before although it was grandly titled Carmo’s Colossal Circus this was unfortunately another financial loser.

Carmo died of natural causes in 1944 while serving in ENSA (Entertainment National Service Association) during World War II.  His wife Rita continued on his legacy under the name ‘La Petite Carmo’ until retiring herself in 1951.

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