The Circus Test — The Profession Honors Its Act, Not Its Founder, by Name

The town's signature profession run against its own top honors: International Circus Hall of Fame and Circus Ring of Fame class rolls, for a Risley line

Lead: The town's signature profession is the circus, through its founder, Richard Risley Carlisle — born in New Jersey in 1814, purchaser in 1835 of the 160 acres from Lazarus Bourissa that became New Carlisle, and, as Professor Risley, originator of the Risley act, the foot-juggling act in which a performer lying on his back juggles a partner with his feet. Run against the profession's top honors, the result is exact and two-sided. His own name: NO LINE FOUND — neither the International Circus Hall of Fame at Peru, Indiana, whose prominent inductee rolls run from Lillian Leitzel (1958) and P. T. Barnum (1960) forward, nor the Circus Ring of Fame at Sarasota, created 1988, carries Richard Risley Carlisle as an inductee in the rolls as published. His act: HONORED, repeatedly — the Ring of Fame's inductee rolls carry Risley-act performers in their own right, the Fredonias (class of 2018, described on the Ring's own roll as famous Risley performers) and the Nelson Family, and the Ring's glosses define the Risley act itself as named after Richard Risley Carlisle, who developed this type of act. That is the true size of the line: the profession's hall honors the form he created and the families who performed it; a personal induction for the founder himself is not on either roll as published, and none is claimed here. No modern professional line for a performer born, raised or seated in present-day New Carlisle was found on either roll.

Sources:

1. International Circus Hall of Fame, Peru, Indiana — prominent inductees roll, 1958–2016 as published, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circus_Hall_of_Fame
2. Circus Ring of Fame Foundation — Individual Inductees and Inductees rolls, including the Fredonias entry, https://www.circusringoffame.org/individual-inductees/ and https://www.circusringoffame.org/inductees/
3. Circopedia — Circus Ring of Fame inductee list, glossing the Fredonias and the Nelson Family as Risley-act performers and the act as named after Richard Risley Carlisle, https://www.circopedia.org/index.php?title=Circus_Ring_of_Fame&oldid=38844
4. Frederik L. Schodt, Professor Risley and the Imperial Japanese Troupe (Stone Bridge Press, 2012), reviewed by the Japan Society — Risley's New Jersey birth c. 1814 and circus career, https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=385