St. John Terrell (ne George Clinton Eccles, Jr.) was born December 12, 1916, in Chicago. His parents were George C. Eccles, Sr., a lumber broker, and Reta Terrell Eccles. St. John Terrell attended Columbia University, New York University, York Collegiate Institute, Washington and Lee University, and Northwestern University. During World War II he served with the U.S. Army Air Force (1942-1945) as a Flight Officer until he was injured. In 1952 he married Elrita Bartholomew.
Terrell's profession and greatest love was performing. During school summer vacations in Chicago he learned the art of fire-eating and performed as a carnival side-show attraction. Later, he played the part of Jack Armstrong, the All-American boy, on a radio serial before making his Broadway debut with a small part in Judgment Day (Belasco Theatre, September 12, 1934). In 1935 he played in Small Miracle and Winterset (Martin Beck Theatre, September 25, 1935) and toured with the Walter Hampden's Shakespearean Repertory Company. While acting in Winterset, Terrell met actor Richard Bennett; subsequently, the two went into business together, operating the Players Theater in Clinton, Connecticut, in 1938, and the Bucks County Playhouse, New Hope, Pennsylvania, in 1939.
While touring the South Pacific with a USO troupe in 1945, Terrell first conceived the idea of a music circus, where live shows could be presented on a round stage under a protective, yet movable, circus tent. After the war Terrell joined his family's perfume business, but soon purchased land in New Jersey for a music circus. On July 4, 1949, St. Johyn Terrell's Music Circus opened at Lambertville, New Jersey, then the only theater of its kind in the country. After a summer at Lambertville, the Circus moved to Miami Beach, Florida, for a winter season. Terrell also secured a trademark on the term “music circus,” and patented his design for a tent. Then, he established affiliate circuses at Hyannis, Massachusetts; Brandywine, Pennsylvania; Rye, New York; and Neptune, New Jersey. Terrell also started a Motor Music Circus, which traveled to Palm Beach, Florida, Sacramento, California, and various cities in Texas. He was an organizer of the Music Circus Company of America, designed to sell “packaged” music circuses to individuals and communities and then to act as a booking organization to supply shows, acts, and technical personnel. Eventually, Terrell co-founded the Musical Arena Theatres' Association.
Terrell's music circuses combined features of a circus, with its large tent and typical live circus and animal acts and a carnival atmosphere, and a legitimate theater, with some permanent facilities (heating, cooling, and lighting systems) and Broadway shows. As an added benefit, production costs for shows in a music circus were lower than for a standard theatrical performance. These features allowed the Music Circus to operate for a 16-week season, about six weeks longer than most summer theaters. In its first season, the Lambertville Music Circus played to 55,000 people in an 11-week season; the following year the audience numbered 150,000, many of whom were drawn from Philadelphia, New York City, and the surrounding area.
Following a per-season method of casting for the entire summer schedule of shows, Terrell produced a new show every week or two throughout the summer. The music circus maintained a year-round professional theater staff, with a chorus, orchestra, and ballet company employed for an entire summer season. Generally a star was hired to carry each show, and supporting cast members employed as needed from New York or the surrounding area. Apprentices, usually college students, were also employed to learn about and help with production. Not all Broadway shows were adaptable to the music circus setting, and Terrell's productions concentrated on light musicals and operettas. Among the shows produced most successfully during the 1950's were The Merry Widow, Naughty Marietta, Rose Marie, The Desert Song, Annie Get Your Gun, Brigadoon, and Finian's Rainbow.
