Ella Bradna

Ella Bradna (February 22, 1879 – November 12, 1957) was a Bohemian-born equestrian circus performer in the United States.

Ella Bradna
Ella Bradna, from a 1907 publication.
BornFebruary 22, 1879
Bohemia
DiedNovember 12, 1957
Sarasota, Florida
Other namesMadame Bradna
OccupationEquestrian performer
RelativesOlympe Bradna (niece)

Early life

Ella Bradna was born into a circus family in Bohemia, the daughter of Johan Bradna. Actress Olympe Bradna was her niece. Ella Bradna toured with her family as a child, eventually replacing her injured older sister Beata at doing equestrian trick riding.[1]

Career

In 1900, Bradna joined the Cirque Nouveau in Paris, and performed at London's Hippodrome in 1902. She moved to the United States in 1903,[2] with her husband, to join the Barnum and Bailey Circus.[3] They also brought their act to vaudeville and toured Cuba and South America.[4] She raised and bred her own horses for the act, on a farm on Long Island.[5] Ella Bradna developed a less physically-demanding act, "the Act Beautiful", involving a white horse, white doves, and a white dog, before she retired from performing in the 1930s.[6] She continued working with horses in the circus, as her husband was the circus ringmaster. She and her husband survived the fatal Hartford Circus Fire in 1944, and retired the following year.[1]

Personal life

Bradna was married to an Alsatian cavalryman, Fred Ferbere (Bradna was her surname from birth; he began using the name when they married).[7][8] Fred Bradna wrote a memoir of their lives in the circus, The Big Top (1952, with Hartzell Spence).[9][10] Ella Bradna was widowed in 1955,[4] and she died in 1957, aged 78 years.[1] (One obituary gave her age at death as 84 years.)[11] There is a historical marker about Ella and Fred Bradna in Sarasota County, near those of other circus notables, in the "Circus Ring of Fame."[12]

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References
  1. "ELLA BRADNA, 78, CIRCUS RIDER, DIES; Noted Equestrienne Long With Ringling's, Is Dead-- Become a Star at 10 Star Here and Abroad Invited by Bailey". The New York Times. 1957-11-13. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  2. "Swiss Woman is Champion". The Richmond Item. 1907-05-08. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Davis, Hartley (July 1907). "The Aristocracy of the Circus". Everybody's Magazine.
  4. "Fred Bradna, 83, Dies in Sarasota". Billboard: 39, 43. March 5, 1955.
  5. "Raises Her Own Act". The Topeka State Journal. 1918-07-10. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Statue Number Big Feature of Ringling Circus". The La Crosse Tribune. 1932-08-15. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Bradley, Hugh. "The Whistling Man". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  8. Kline, Tiny (2008-06-18). Circus Queen and Tinker Bell: The Memoir of Tiny Kline. University of Illinois Press. pp. 155-156. ISBN 978-0-252-07510-0.
  9. Bradna, Fred; Spence, Hartzell (1952). The Big Top: My Forty Years with the Greatest Show on Earth. Simon and Schuster.
  10. "Bradna Story Jammed with Circus Lore". Billboard: 59, 68. October 4, 1952.
  11. "Ella Bradna, 84, Circus Star, Dies". The Bridgeport Post. 1957-11-13. p. 71. Retrieved 2020-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Fred and Ella Bradna Historical Marker". The Historic Marker Database. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
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