
"...since I was a kid I was like
a cat on hot rocks. I danced, played music and
sang...
I was greatly bent to the variety theatre... and
then I loved to make people laugh... "




Grock was born in Reconvilier - Bernese Canton -
on the 10th of January 1880. From his father, a
watchmaker and a musician and acrobat in his spare
time, he learned the basics of his art. Still a
young boy he showed his artistic vocation, putting
on with his sister Jeanne a variety show presented
in hotels and public theaters. Very soon he joined
a caravan of gypsies, where he familiarised with
every kind of musical instruments (he played
skillfully fourteen of them, among which a very
small violin) and with every specialty of the
circus art.
He made his debut in the Fiame Wetzel circus in
1894 and from 1906 to 1913 he worked with the
clown Antonet getting everywhere the favor of the
public. In 1930 he settles in Imperia with his
Italian wife Ines Ospiri. In 1951 he creates his
own mobile circus and works in all European cities.
On the 31st of October 1954 in Hamburg he ends his
circus career with a show in front of about sixty
special envoys from all the main countries of the
world. Giving up his circus and musical shows, he
retired in his villa in Imperia limiting his
public appearances to some television shows in
1956.
He died in Imperia on July the 14t 1959.