I was watching the CSPAN book tv presentation of the book ‘the circus fire’ tonight.
That make me remember that in 1984 a tent based circus came to my small town, and set up their tent circus on an empty field. They billed themselves as the last tent based circus in the USA. So my question is… Are there any more tent circus events or have they all goe out of business?
Also, after watching all the people tell their stories of the circus fire it occured to me that many (all?) small towns have a tragic event that sticks in people minds for years afterwards. In my town it was hurricane Audrey in 1957. Hurricane Audrey killed about 400 people. My father has told me the story of how during the hurricane he was picked up by the winds and then dropped on top of a parked car. So my question is… What tragic event is prominent in the history of your town?
According to one page I found, there are about 10 tent circuses left, including the Sterling and Reid circus. See this site
The disaster remembered in the small town where I grew up in upstate N.Y. was a fire that destroyed about half of the downtown business district in the late 1800s. Ironically it happened on Firemen’s Day. Fire departments from miles around came to march in the Firemen’s Day Parade. It was after they all went home that some kid started the fire by setting off fireworks. Besides the local fire department, only one other was close enough to be caught on their way home. They pumped the creek dry, and several wells too, until they tapped into one well a quarter mile away that finally provided enough water.
The Clyde Beatty/Cole Bros. circus comes here every year or so, and its tent based. They set-up in the mall parking lot, since we don’t have much in the way of open fields.
It’s not a P.T. Barnum type of thing, but rather a french acrobatic circus, but they’ve got a big-ass tent they travel around with. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a look.
There’s a big tent circus that comes to one of the Bay Area cities every year. Always raises a fuss from PETA, and a greeting and promises of help from both mayor Browns.