May Wirth (6 June 189418 October 1978) was an Australian

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 ...

and

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic compositio ...

performer famous for her ability to do somersaults forwards and backwards on a running horse. She was inducted to the

Circus Hall of Fame The International Circus Hall of Fame is a museum and hall of fame which honors important figures in circus history. It is located in Peru, Indiana on the former grounds of the Wallace Circus and American Circus Corporation Winter Quarters, als ...

as a bareback rider in 1963.

Early life

Wirth was born in

Bundaberg, Queensland Bundaberg is a city in the Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia, and is the tenth largest city in the state. Bundaberg's regional area has a population of 70,921, and is a major centre of the Wide Bay–Burnett geographical region. The Bun ...

on 6 June 1894. She was the daughter of a

Mauritian Mauritians (singular Mauritian; french: Mauricien; Creole: ''Morisien'') are nationals or natives of the Republic of Mauritius and their descendants. Mauritius is a multi-ethnic society, with notable groups of people of South Asian (notably ...

circus artist, John Edward Zinga (Despoges) and Dezeppo Marie, née Beaumont. Wirth was adopted in 1901 by Mary Wirth an equestrienne and the sister of circus proprietors Philip and George Wirth.

Circus troops

Wirth performed with the

Barnum and Bailey The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (also known as the Ringling Bros. Circus, Ringling Bros., the Barnum & Bailey Circus, Barnum & Bailey, or simply Ringling) is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Ear ...

circus in the United States, and was the star of

Wirth's Circus Wirth's Circus, also known as Wirth Brothers' Circus, was Australia's largest and most prestigious circus company for eight decades. Billed as Australia's own 'Greatest show on Earth' (a reference to the slogan of the American P. T. Barnum Ci ...

in 1916, as the "greatest bareback riding star". May Wirth and her step-sister appeared on an

Australia Post Australia Post, formally the Australian Postal Corporation, is the government business enterprise that provides postal services in Australia. The head office of Australia Post is located in Bourke Street, Melbourne, which also serves as a post ...

commemorative

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the ...

issued on 13 March 1997 commemorating 150 years of circus in Australia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wirth, May 1894 births 1978 deaths People from Bundaberg Australian circus performers Australian female equestrians Vaudeville performers Contortionists Australian expatriates in the United States