--- title: "The circus song was supposed to be a badass military marching theme" date: "2019-01-28" modified: "2025-12-19" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake/" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/this-circus-song-was-supposed-to-be-a-badass-military-marching-theme/" categories: - "Entertainment" - "History" - "Music" tags: - "Military History" --- # The circus song was supposed to be a badass military marching theme ![circus song bozo clown band]() Czech-born composer Julius Fucik was known for his love of military marches. Also known as the "Bohemian Sousa," Fucik was raised in formal conservatory study, serious instrumental training, and the day-to-day rigor of military band life, which is basically musical boot camp with better hats. Not many Americans are going to be familiar with him (unless "late 19th-century Austro-Hungarian waltz composers" started trending on TikTok recently), but every one of them would instantly recognize at least one of his works. And that work is "[Entry of the Gladiators]()." Go ahead and listen to that song. It's important that you know which one we're talking about for the rest of this piece. Trust us. You know it. You just don't think it could ever be called "Entry of the Gladiators." You think of it as "The Circus Song" or some kind of clown music. Julius Fucik did not. ![the circus song gladiators jean leon gerome]() *What Julius Fucik thinks of when he hears his song. ("Pollice Verso" by Jean-Léon Gérôme)* This one is not on Julius Fucik, to be clear. He was probably one of the most skilled and capable composers of his day. At the Prague Conservatory, he studied bassoon with the famed pedagogue Ludwig Milde and composition with Antonín Dvořák, while also taking violin lessons with Antonín Bennewitz and working on percussion. So he came up fluent in melody, harmony, and the nuts-and-bolts of rhythm section discipline. If that wasn't enough of a pedigree, he also served in the Austro-Hungarian regimental band, where “training” meant learning to write so wind and brass parts could work outdoors, rehearsing with drill sergeant precision, and conducting music built to synchronize crowds, parades, and morale. He started as a military musician in 1891 and later became a bandmaster. ![]() *Julius Fucik in Imperial Army uniform.* As we mentioned, Fucik was a Sousa fan who loved composing marches, and he pretty much served in the Austrian military just to do that. By 1897, he had joined the Austro-Hungarian army *twice* in order to play music. It was that same year, while in [the 86th Infantry Regiment in Sarajevo](), that he composed what was initially called "Grande Marche Chromatique," but later changed to "Einzug der Gladiatoren," or "Entrance of the Gladiators." Becuase he apparently [had a thing for Romans](). No matter what his intentions were for the future of his music may have been, no one really gets to dictate what history does with... well, anything. More than 120 years later, the cultural meaning of the song has sure changed. No longer associated with martial might or sword duels in the blood and sand of the Colosseum, the song is now more easily teamed up with clowns, lions, and everything else in a modern three-ring circus. ![the circus song ballet homer simpson 20th century studios]() *What the rest of us think of when we hear Fucik's song. (20th Century Studios)* Fucik was a serious composer who studied at a legendary music conservatory and even served under the baton [of another musical legend](), Josef Wagner, the "Austrian March King." He played in the military bands for decades, performing for tens of thousands of people, and even started his own orchestra and publishing company. So how did his theme, intended as gladiator entrance music on a WWE level, become a joke? It became clown bait when Canadian Louis-Philippe Laurendeau rearranged the song for a smaller band in 1910. Laurendeau reworked it for American wind groups, and publisher Carl Fischer put it out in 1901 under the snappier title “Thunder and Blazes,” as if "Entry of the Gladiators" was somehow a tad understated. It soon became [the best-known clown theme in the world]() (and has pretty much stayed there). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tYu6MH8KXs This was the same time when circuses like PT Barnum's and the Ringling Brothers' were becoming a strong cultural phenomenon in the United States, according to the website "[The Sound and the Foley]()," which also does a pretty great job of explaining the science and musicality behind that kind of spread. Though no one knows exactly when or how the song first became inextricably linked with the circus, or which circus used it first, the two are now culturally linked. Both men, Laurendeau and Fucik, died in 1916, never knowing their work would become synonymous with the circus rather than as battle anthems. ### Don’t Miss the Best of We Are The Mighty ##### • [7 of the most realistic military games available]() ##### • [6 military spouses who grabbed a weapon and joined the fight]() ##### • [The 8 reincarnations of General George S. Patton]() ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()