Reddest Show on Earth

"Bee-eep, bee-eep, bee-eep," piped the loudspeakers of Rio's Little Maracana sport stadium one evening last week. From overhead, a glittering crystal Sputnik twirled down, antennas spinning, lights blinking. Spotlights glared as it landed, picked out a sequin-spangled man and woman dangling from it. The couple waved, the crowd applauded, and a troupe of animal trainers, tumblers, clowns and acrobats raced into the arena to applaud back. As the Sputnik beeped back into orbit among the rafters, the famed Moscow circus cut loose with its spectacular show for the first time in the Western Hemisphere.

On came Karandash, Russia's greatest clown, lost in a flapping green suit, grotesque beneath a scarlet wig, riding a donkey fitted with handle bars. He tumbled off, pulled out a hammer and a plate and began a flurry of legerdemain that ended in a sidesplitting snarl of chaos and shattered crockery. In blue tights flashing with gold, the three blonde Balakin sisters spun aluminum hoops in a shimmering blur. To the frantic rhythms of Khachaturian's Saber Dance, the three Gratchevs flung whole tribes of Indian clubs at one another while wobbling on a rope strung between two swaying wooden poles.

Then animals ran away with the show. In a bedlam of barking, two packs of boxer dogs hurtled into the ring wearing gaily striped T shirts. Using balloons for balls, they played a frantic game of soccer that brought futebol-mad Brazilians screaming to their feet. Gosha, the Russian bear, came on for the finale to ride a bicycle, toss a few somersaults, wrestle gently with his trainer and balance ponderously on parallel bars. Then the lights went out, and Gosha steered a sputtering motorcycle around the arena by the glow of the headlight alone. As the Brazilians stamped, jumped, clapped and screamed "Bravo!" for a full three minutes, Gosha modestly waved a paw.

To get this kind of laughing, guard-down approval, the U.S.S.R. is footing the circus' whole $150,000 South American travel bill. The weekly 0 Cruzeiro announced it was well aware that the show was an "instrument of Soviet penetration," but added that "a circus is always welcome anywhere on earth, and the Moscow circus is certainly welcome here.'' Next targets: Argentina, Chile, Peru.

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