“The Ballyhoo,” Sid Grauman’s Prologue to Charlie Chaplin’s Motion Picture “The Circus” (1928)

January 31, 1928

Rare footage and screen captures of the Hollywood premiere of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Circus” are collected here from multiple sources.  Each showing of the motion picture was accompanied by a live pre-show, called a “prologue”  in the parlance of the day when vaudeville commonly shared the same stage with films.  This live pre-show was named “Sid Grauman’s Ballyhoo,” and was an adapted stage version of a three-ring circus.  Pepito appears briefly in this clip, but actually he and all the other acts were onstage for several minutes each.  See the movie program below for more details. 

Production note: iSpecial thanks to Cheryl Taylor for the scans of the original Ballyhoo program.

Production note: insert video here.

4 thoughts on ““The Ballyhoo,” Sid Grauman’s Prologue to Charlie Chaplin’s Motion Picture “The Circus” (1928)

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