Arthur Konyot (1888-1966), who became famous in America as “The White Rider,” was the fourth son of Hungarian circus performer Lipot Konyot and Henrietta Blumenfeld. Lipot’s original surname was Cohen, and Henrietta, too, was Jewish, a daughter of the Blumenfeld circus dynasty. The name change, of course, was to disguise the family heritage as anti-Jewish sentiment grew along with Nazism during the first third of the 20th century.
Arthur and his 11 siblings were trained from childhood as bareback riders, and each also had another specialty, such as wire-walking, tumbling, juggling, music—or horse training. At 15, Arthur got his first paying job with the German Circus Busch headquartered in Berlin. American producer John Ringling saw Arthur and his brothers in Vienna in 1907 and subsequently hired the entire Konyot clan. They sailed for far-off America in 1909 and toured with Ringling Bros. for three
