News came this past month that Corcaita “Corky” Cristiani has died. She was the youngest and last of the Cristiani generation Lax knew. I haven’t been able to find an obituary for her, but the following is from a Facebook post (written by Chris Berry):
“Corky Cristiani–the last of the original family members who came to the United States from Italy in 1934–has passed away.
Over the years she appeared not only as a graceful “ballerina on horseback,” but also as an aerialist.
Corky Cristiani was the youngest member of the original act, which eventually grew to at least 39 performers–all of whom traveled with the family’s Cristiani Bros. Circus in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The family appeared with Hagenbeck Wallace and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey and Al G. Barnes Sells-Floto along with the Cole Bros. railroad circus prior to starting their own show.
She appeared with the family act for many years, and in 1962 she doubled for Doris Day in the film JUMBO.
She was 94.”
Lax came to know Corky better after she and her husband, the abstract painter Dave Budd, moved in 1954 from Florida to New York City, where Lax was living at the time.
Corky appeared in a second film, too: “Unstrap Me” (1968) by the underground filmmaker George Kuchar.
Click here to learn more about Billy Rose’s circus film “Jumbo” and watch a trailer.
If you’d like your own Glen Tracy painting of a clown handing a rose to Corky in her circus outfit and you have $3,500-5,000 to bid at auction–or you’d just like to look at the painting–click here.
And if you’d like to see more pictures of the Cristianis and learn a bit more about them, click here.
