Paolino, extrovert artist, married twice and had 5 sons from his first wife (Ersilia Rizzoli, singer and comic actress, puppeteer Aldo Rizzoli’s sister).
His sons became famous: Riccardo (called Bigdon), 1908-1942, comic actor, jumper and player, Paolo II’s, Mauro’s and Miranda’s father (Miranda is the name of well-known Moira who goes on directing in an important circus with his husband Walter Nones); Paride (called Pippo),1909-1956, clown and jumper, famous Ferdinando’s (Nando), Liana’s and Rinaldo’s father; Miranda, 1913-1988, Massimo Manfredini’s and Daniele Orfei’s mother; Irma, born in 1916, who stopped her circus activity after her marriage. In 1968 Orlando, born in 1920 and former director of the National Orfei Circus, well known as a hyena and lion tamer, settled in Brazil where founded the National Italian Circus with his sons Alberto, Liana, Mario and Maurizio and where he owns the famous Tivoli Park in Copacabana.
So, in the first half of the past century, various circuses named Orfei already existed, some of them were just little open arenas, but maybe the most famous was the National Orfei Circus, famed to have definitely fixed the name Orfei in the Italian scene in the 50s.
This circus, first directed by Miranda, Paride and Orlando, was the structure that effectively merged the former Orfeo Orfei Circus, closed during the II World War (later clown Fiacca, three brothers’ cousin and Orfeo Orfei Circus’ director, worked as an artist in the National Orfei Circus for a long period).