This has been bugging me for a while - what’s the name and origin of that standard circus tune, as heard in any cartoon or film depicting a big top, usually with some top-hatted characters shouting “Roll up, roll up!” over the top.
You know the one, quite upbeat, lots of little trills and rolls…
Rrrrddda-da-dada-dada-da-da-rrrdaaa-da…
Any ideas? It must be a famous tune but nobody I know has a clue where it comes from.
That was quick! Thanks. 
I found this MIDI file of it, and that’s the one.
[Beavis]
Heh-heh… Julius Fučík…
[/Beavis]
I can’t really see how it would be appropriate for gladiators. Strange to think that was the intent.
After reading the OP but before listening to the MIDI, I was going to hijack and ask which song was the one that’s always played that goes |:doo-doo-doody-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doody-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo DOO-doody-doo-doo DOO-doody-doo-doo doo (x16-ascending (chromatic?) scale)
But I see that it’s just after the intro of the same song. :smack:
Are you not entertained?
I was disappointed they didn’t use that in “Gladiator”, actually.
That’s what I was thinking, too. Then I realized that that’s WHY it was (originally) used by clowns - it was ironic and funny. Think about if today’s clowns entered into the ring to…I don’t know…“We Are the Champions” or something anthemy and bad ass. It’d be funny, right? 'Cause they’re capering clowns dancing to incongruous music. So, if at one point this tune said “gladiators!” upon hearing, it’d be funny when capering clowns co-opted it.
WhyNot,
who always heard that gen-x didn’t invent irony, but never really believed it. 
You know, you start reading a thread. You see the potential for a joke coming a mile away - clown intro music is actually called “Entrance of the Gladiators” ? Someone’s definitely going to take that and run. Yet do I put down my coffee mug while reading the rest of the thread? I do not. Damn you.
It was perfectly appropriate for those occasions when twenty gladiators piled out of a Volkswagen.
That was the theme song for my division when I was stationed onboard the USS Eisenhower in the mid-90s. Circus, clowns, the folks that worked for me - it all fit far too well.
Me, I’d pay big money to see an arena full of clowns with spiked helmets and big pointy tridents hacking and stabbing each other to death.
Or conversely, an arena full of bad-ass dudes in gladiator regalia blowing up balloons and stepping on air horns.
I just down-loaded both versions of this tune, the original “Entrance of the Gladiators” played straight by a marching band, and the “circus adaptation” called “Thunder and Blazes”.
The original isn’t half bad. It consists of a ten-second introduction, one riff of the “clown music” lasting 15 seconds, and a minute and 45 seconds of a more conventional march. I don’t know if it’s butch enough for gladiators, but it wouldn’t scream “clowns” to anyone who didn’t know the association.
The circus version was brassier, tinnier, faster, and repeated the “clown music” twice. Still, it had its moments of “thunder”. I guess my point is, don’t judge this song by the tinkly clown music that you hear over and over coming out of the ice cream truck.