Agency through Otherness: Portraits of Performers in Circus Route Books, 1875-1925Main MenuIntroductionIntroduction to the book and information about ways to navigate the content.The American Experiment: Circus in ContextCircus performers and American history timelineRouting the Circus: The Things They CarriedCircus Routes Map, 1875-1925Ethnological Congresses and the Spectacleby Rebecca FitzsimmonsOutsiders in Demand: Chinese and Japanese Immigrant Performersby Angela Yon and Mariah WahlShattering Gender Roles: Women in the Circusby Elizabeth HarmanSide Show Sounds: Black Bandleaders Respond to ExoticismAnnexed Circus Musicians by Elizabeth C. HartmanNative Performance and Identity in The Wild West Showby Mariah WahlShowmen's Rests: The Final CurtainCircus Cemetery Plots by Elizabeth C. HartmanList of PerformersPerformers covered in this exhibitBibliography & Further ReadingsBibliography and readings for each chapterAcknowledgementsAngela Yon72f2fd7a28c88ceeba2adcf2c04fee469904c6f1
“In the United States as in England, there was special power in the sight of a vulnerable young woman thus launched,” (Women of the American Circus 149).
Born in London, Rosa Richter (known under her stage name of Zazel) was the star of a unique act, being the first human cannonball. Starting at the very young age of fourteen, Zazel first performed her act in Europe, working under the man who mad ethe contraption that would shoot her through the sky. She made her way to the United States in 1880 to perform with Barnum and Bailey. After her performances, she was plastered in newspapers with illustrations of her flying, the audiences amazed by the feats this small yet fearless woman accomplished.
Zazel eventually married the circus manager George Starr, entering into the American Circus family, but she had made a name for herself in her own right. Her act was so popular that many copycats appeared in both act and name, attempting to take some of the fame that was associated with her.