«Клоун Карандаш» / "Pencil" the clown

«Клоун Карандаш» Заслуженный артист РСФСР Михаил Румянцев Фотографии Семен Мишин-Моргенштерн 1945 - 1950 "Pencil" the Clown RSFSR Honoured Artist Mikhail Rumyantsev Photographs by Semen Mishin-Morgenstein 1945 - 1950 Pencil. whose real name was Mikhail Rumyantsev was a Soviet Circus performer, actor, Hero of Socialist Labour and People's Artist of the USSR. He was born in St. Petersburg in 1901 and died in Moscow in 1983. In 1914 he entered the Art and craft school Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts (now the St. Petersburg Art College named after NK Roerich). In 1922 he moved to Staritsa in Tver Oblast and wrote posters for the City Theatre. In 1926 he joined the School of Circus, having seen movies with Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks and in 1928 appeared on stage in the form of the clown "Charlie Chaplin" which he played until 1932. In 1936, he was transferred to the Moscow Circus and thus began a long career as "Pencil the Clown", which spanned some 55 years....... Music: "The Soviet Circus" by Isaac Dunaevsky