Pablo Fanque (born William Darby; 30 March 1810 – 4 May 1871) was a British equestrian performer and circus proprietor, becoming the first recorded Black circus owner in Britain. His circus was popular in Victorian Britain for 30 years, a period that is regarded as the golden age of the circus.
Since the 1960s, Pablo Fanque has been best known for being mentioned in the Beatles song "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" on their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Early life Little is known about Pablo Fanque's early life. Church records suggest that he was born in Norwich in 1810 and was one of at least five children, born to John and Mary Darby ( Stamp). They were believed to have resided in Ber Street. When Fanque married in 1848, he said his late father's occupation was "butler" on his marriage certificate.
Dr. John M. Turner speculates in his 2003 biography of Fanque that "his father was African born and had been brought to the port of Norwich and trained as a house servant." Fanque was reportedly orphaned at a young age. Another account has Fanque born in a workhouse to a family with seven children.
Since shortly after Fanque's death in 1871, biographers have disputed his date of birth. Since 2003 biographer Turner has popularized the belief Fanque was born in 1796.Gretchen Holrook Gerzina, Editor, "Black Victorians-Black Victoriana" (Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, NJ, 2003) The newspaper Era records on 14 May 1871 that Fanque's coffin bore the inscription; "AGED 75 YEARS".Era, 14 May 1871. Fanque's gravestone, located at the base of his late wife Susannah Darby's grave in Woodhouse Cemetery, Leeds (now St George's Field, part of the University of Leeds), reads; "Also the above named William Darby Pablo Fanque who died May 4th 1871 Aged 75 Years".
But Fanque's age was recorded in the 1841, 1851 and 1871 censuses of England as indicating he was born in 1810. A birth register at St. Andrew's Workhouse in Norwich reports the birth of a William Darby to John Darby and Mary Stamp at the workhouse on 1 April 1810. This is the birth year on a blue plaque commemorating Fanque's birth, which was installed by the city of Norwich near the purported location of his childhood residence.Norwich Eastern Daily Press 18 February 2010 "-Blue plaque for Norwich man immortalised by the Beatles"
Genealogists have noted a marriage record of John Darby and Mary Stamp on 27 March 1791 at St. Stephen's, Norwich. Records of children born to Darby and Stamp include John Richard on 4 July 1792, Robert on 27 July 1794, William on 28 February 1796, Mary Elizabeth on 18 March 1798, and William on 30 March 1810. The family has two burial records, William on 30 April 1797 and Mary Elizabeth on 10 February 1801. These indicate that the subject William was born in 1810, the second boy to have been given that name after his late brother died in 1797.
Career
Based on the 1810 birth year, the young William Darby was apprenticed at age 11 to circus proprietor William Batty and made his first known appearance in a sawdust ring in Norwich on 26 December 1821, as "Young Darby." His acts included equestrian stunts and rope walking. Thomas Frost, in Circus Life and Circus Celebrities, wrote, "We find Batty in 1836 at Nottingham, with a company which included Pablo Fanque, a negro rope-dancer, whose real name was William Darby ..." Once established as a young adult, William Darby changed his professional name to Pablo Fanque. It appears that Fanque or his contemporaries often considered "Pablo" to be his surname.
Fanque made a highly successful London debut in 1847. Describing Fanque and his performance, The Illustrated London News wrote:
The Illustrated London News reporting on perhaps an earlier performance during Fanque's 1847 run at London's Astley's Amphitheatre, fills in many biographical details regarding Fanque:
This same edition of The Illustrated London News provides an example of how contemporaries regarded his performance:
Sounding almost as grand as the boasts of Fanque's own broadside posters, the paper said, "Mr. Pablo has trained [his black mare] to do the most extraordinary feats of the 'manège' [note, related to dressage], an art hitherto considered to belong only to the French and German professors of equitation, and her style certainly far exceeds anything that has ever yet been brought from the Continent."
An illustration closely resembling the one appearing in the 20 March 1847 edition of The Illustrated London News appears on an 1850s poster advertising Fanque's appearance in Leeds, with the headline, "M. Pablo Fanque, as he performed, by royal command, at Astley's Amphitheatre, before her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen." The Hampshire Advertiser documents one instance when Fanque performed before the royal family in Brighton, as part of William Batty's troupe on 3 January 1834."The Hampshire Advertiser", 15 February 1834.
While Turner cites Fanque's 1847 performance at Astley's as his London debut, the historical record documents an 1834 performance at The Lawns in Croydon, now a borough of metropolitan London but at the time in Surrey. A history of The Lawns records an advertisement that read, "16th September 1834 – A Grand Scottish Fete with a tightrope performance by Pablo Fanque, gymnastics, a leopardess with dogs, military bands, illuminations and fireworks." Also, newspapers from London and Ryde in 1839 and 1840 describe him as already a fixture at Astley's, as part of William Batty's Circus.The Bell's New Weekly Messenger, 14 April 1839.
In the 30 years that Fanque operated his own circus (sometimes in partnership with others), he toured England, Scotland, and Ireland, but he performed mostly in the Midlands and the Northern England counties of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and what is now Greater Manchester. Among the many cities he visited were Birmingham, Bolton, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Chester, Chesterfield, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Norwich, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale, Rotherham, Ryde, Sheffield, Shrewsbury, Wakefield, Wigan, Wolverhampton, and Worcester. In Scotland, his circus visited Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Paisley. In Edinburgh, in 1853, there was a Pablo Fanque's Amphitheatre on Nicolson Street at the current site of Edinburgh Festival Theatre. In Ireland, Fanque's circus performed at Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Galway, Ballinasloe, Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, and Clonmel, among other places. In Cork, in 1850, Fanque built an amphitheatre on the site of the former Theatre Royal, where the current General Post Office stands (built in 1877). His circus also performed at the Donnybrook Fair in 1850,Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, 21 August 1850 five years before the centuries' old fair was discontinued.
"Fanque's children joined his circus. One of his sons performed under the name Ted Pablo ..." They performed with the most popular acts of the business, including Young Hernandez (1832–1861), the great American rider, and the clown Henry Brown (1814–1902)." In the autumn of 1861, famous English prizefighter Jem Mace toured with Fanque's circus.
In 1869, the front cover of Illustrated London News reported on a near-tragedy at a performance of Pablo Fanque's Circus in Bolton. Tightrope walker Madame Caroline stumbled on the rope, and hung suspended by her hands in the air. The rope was lowered a few feet and, at the exhortation of men who had amassed below, Madame Caroline let go to fall safely into the hands of the crowd.
While some contemporary reports did not refer to Fanque's African ancestry, other reports noted that he was "a man of colour," or "a coloured gentleman," or "an artiste of colour." (These suggest he was of mixed race, with partial European ancestry as well.) In 1905, many years after Fanque's death, the chaplain of the Showmen's Guild wrote, "In the great brotherhood of the equestrian world there is no colour-line." He was commenting on Fanque's success in Victorian England despite being of mixed race.
Beatles fame
In 1967, John Lennon, in composing The Beatles' "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!," borrowed liberally from an 1843 playbill for Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal. Lennon bought the poster from an antique shop in Sevenoaks, Kent, while shooting a promotional film for the song, "Strawberry Fields Forever", in Knole Park. Tony Bramwell, a former Apple Records employee, recalled, "There was an antique shop close to the hotel we were using in Sevenoaks. John and I wandered in and John spotted this Victorian circus poster and bought it."Steve Turner, A Hard Days Write (Harper Collins: New York, 1994). The poster advertises a performance in Rochdale and announces the appearance of "Mr. J. Henderson, the celebrated somerset thrower" and "Mr. Kite" who is described as "late of Wells's Circus." Lennon modifies the language, singing instead, "The Hendersons will all be there/Late of Pablo Fanque's Fair/What a scene!"
The title "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" is taken verbatim from the poster. The Mr. Kite referenced in the poster was William Kite, who is believed to have performed in Fanque's circus from 1843 to 1845.
The full text of the original poster is:
"Mr. J. Henderson" was John Henderson, a wire-walker, equestrian, trampoline artist, and clown. While the poster made no mention of "Hendersons" plural, as Lennon sings, John Henderson did perform with his wife Agnes, the daughter of circus owner Henry Hengler. The Hendersons performed throughout Europe and Russia during the 1840s and 1850s.
A few years later, he was mentioned again in song in the lyrics of Ritz by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel on their album The Psychomodo. The verse lyrics read "Couch my disease in chintz-covered kisses, Glazed calico cloth, my costume this is, Come to Pablo Fanque is in Indigo, We'll show you pastel shades of rhyme".
Beneficence The "Benefit for Mr. Kite" was one of many benefits that Pablo Fanque held for performers in his circus, for others in the profession (who had no regular retirement or health benefits), and for community organizations. Fanque was a member of the Order of Ancient Shepherds, a fraternal organization affiliated with the Freemasons. It assisted families in times of illness or death with burial costs and other expenses. For example, an 1845 show in Blackburn benefitted the Blackburn Mechanics Institution and the Independent Order of Odd-fellows, offering a bonus to the Widows and Orphans Fund. Fanque held a similar benefit in Bury the following year. Writing in 2003, Turner could find nothing in the historical record regarding Fanque's circus activities in 1857 and 1858.
But Fanque was active during those years, holding at least two benefits among other performances. In 1857, in Bradford, he held a benefit for the family of the late Tom Barry, a clown. Brenda Assael, in The Circus and Victorian Society, writes that in March 1857, "Pablo Fanque extended the hand of friendship to Barry's widow and held a benefit in her husband's name at his Allied Circus in Bradford. Using the Era offices to transmit the money he earned from this event, Fanque enclosed 10 pounds worth of 'post office orders...being the profits of the benefit. I should have been better pleased had it been more, but this was the close of a very dull season.'" On 24 October 1858, The Herald of Scotland reported: "IN GLASGOW, 'Pablo Fanque's Cirrque Nationale' offered 'A Masonic Benefit.'"