William George Smart Sr. (25 April 1894 – 25 September 1966) was a British showman, fairground proprietor and

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and uni ...

proprietor, the founder and owner of Billy Smart's Circus.

Biography

Born in London, Billy Smart was one of 23 children in a family that worked on fairgrounds in London and

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...

. After marrying in 1925, he and his brothers set up their own fair, which became a regular attraction in the region. Billy Smart's Fun Fair featured alongside Bertram Mills' Circus at Olympia in 1939 and, during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Smart ran several Holiday at Home Fairs, to boost morale. "Billy Smart: The Guv'nor", National Fairground and Circus Archive
Retrieved 14 February 2017 In 1946, he purchased the big top of Cody's Circus, and opened his own New World Circus. Its first show was in

Southall Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divid ...

on 5 April 1946. At first, the circus ran in conjunction with the existing funfair, but the latter was phased out by 1952, and Smart's circus toured with a full

menagerie A menagerie is a collection of captive animals, frequently exotic, kept for display; or the place where such a collection is kept, a precursor to the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in 17th-century France, in reference to the ...

of animals. In 1954, the existing big top was replaced by one with a capacity of 6,000 seats, a

hippodrome The hippodrome ( el, ἱππόδρομος) was an ancient Greek stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. The name is derived from the Greek words ''hippos'' (ἵππος; "horse") and ''dromos'' (δρόμος; "course"). The term is used ...

track around the ring, and a grand entrance hall allowing spectacular parades to take place. Smart pioneered centrally-heated dark blue rather than light coloured tents, which had compromised lighting effects. Smart arranged for the televising of his circus from 1947, as the first BBC location live TV show. This led to regular

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

shows on the BBC, including the 1977 Royal Jubilee Big Top Show, organised by his son David Smart, which was attended by Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

and the Duke of Edinburgh, and raised several million pounds for charity. In the 1960s, the Billy Smart's TV show was the first UK TV programme to attract more than 20 million viewers in the UK. Between 1979 and 1982, the circus was broadcast on ITV. The circus grew to become one of the largest in the world. It was the world's largest travelling circus under canvas in the 1960s, according to ''King Pole'' magazine, with a permanent base at Winkfield,

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Be ...

. Smart himself took part in his shows, and led many stunts to publicise the circus. Around 1961, Smart offered £1 million to buy

Blackpool Tower Blackpool Tower is a tourist attraction in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which was opened to the public on 14 May 1894. When it opened, Blackpool Tower was the tallest man made structure in the British Empire. Inspired by the Eiffel Tower in ...

, and also headed a consortium hoping to involve

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

in what would have become the first Disney amusement park in Europe; however, the venture did not proceed. Gary S. Cross, John K. Walton, ''The Playful Crowd: Pleasure Places in the Twentieth Century'', Columbia University Press, 2005
/ref> Smart then decided upon a novel concept, a safari park, and, after years of searching for a suitable site, bought a property near Windsor for this purpose. The Windsor Safari Park was brought to fruition by his sons, Ronald, David and Stanley (known as Billy Jr), after his death, and grew to attract up to 2.5 million visitors per year. He was the subject of ''

This Is Your Life This Is Your Life may refer to: Television * ''This Is Your Life'' (American franchise), an American radio and television documentary biography series hosted by Ralph Edwards * ''This Is Your Life'' (Australian TV series), the Australian versio ...

'' in 1956 when he was surprised by

Eamonn Andrews Eamonn Andrews, (19 December 1922 – 5 November 1987) was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1980s. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the Radio Éireann Authority (now the RTÉ A ...

at the King's Theatre,

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

, London. Billy Smart died in 1966, in his caravan shortly after conducting a band in front of his circus tent at

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

. His friend Sir Billy Butlin described him as "the greatest showman of our time and probably the last of the great showmen."

Family

* Billy Smart Jr., son, circus performer and circus director * David Smart, son, circus performer and circus director

References

*David Jamieson, ''Billy Smart's Circus, A Pictorial History''. Buntingford, Aardvark Publishing, 2004. () *"Spinners of the Big Top" by Pamela Macgregor-Morris

External links

Kate Dodd, "50 years since final curtain came down on legendary showman Billy Smart’s life", ''Ipswich Star'', 27 September 2016 Billy Smart's Circus in Glasgow, 1954
''British Pathé'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Smart, Billy Sr. 1894 births 1966 deaths Circus owners 20th-century British businesspeople