Elephants, Clowns, Cotton Candy & Bearded Ladies.
Long before anyone ever even heard the now ubiquitous term “ADHD”…
like many other kids, my daily demeanor could be fairly accurately described as…
“wired”, “performing”, “jumping from thing to thing without much focus”, “wild”.
But then there were certain things that took me to a whole other level of frenzy.
One of the biggies was…
Don’t know about you, but I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED THE CIRCUS!!
Even today, just the memories of my circus experiences immediately makes my heart race,
taking me back to being a manic 7 year-old !
I can vividly recall the exhilaration, the images, the sounds, the tastes…
and maybe even the smells.
For me, going to the circus was a highly anticipated annual event.
Each year a different family member – Mom & Dad, Aunts & Uncles, Grandma & Grandpa –
was given the dubious “honor” of taking me and my sister Ellen to…
“The Greatest Show on Earth”.
We’d head to the old Madison Square Garden.
Coming from the Bronx, that meant going “downtown”.
(Which in itself was exciting).
As we emerged from the subway and began walking towards the Garden,
still blocks away from 8th & 50th…
the hawkers were out en masse,
with balloons, lights on strings, pinwheels, shirts, hats, banners,noisemakers, programs, clown make up.
Of course, I wanted it ALL!
Now, like most circus-goers, I appreciated the “circus spectacles”…
clowns, lion tamers, tightrope walkers , trapeze artists, jumping dogs, dancing elephants,
bears on bikes, the occasional camel or giraffe, jugglers, unicyclists, the Human Cannonball….
and , even at my tender age…
I did have an early appreciation of foreign ladies in skimpy outfits!
3 Rings of Action!!!
C’mon what could be better for a 7 year-old with attention deficit??
I dreamed of growing up to be a ringmaster.
(I’ve always been a bit of a control freak).
Besides what was going on in the 3 rings…
I loved the vendors circulating the stands, offering…
humongous buckets of popcorn,
undercooked hot dogs,
caramel corn,
and the sublime, manna from heaven:
Cotton Candy.
(Which stayed on my fingers for at least 3-4 days).
BUT more than any of that…
(although today I do feel strangely ashamed to admit it)…
there is no question of what was my favorite thing about the circus…
It was the seamy, dark side of the circus…
In today’s politically correct/socially acceptable,/”cancel culture” times,
I’ll admit it is a bit embarrassing to delve into my dark passion for being transfixed by
… “the Freaks”.
As we entered the “Garden”,
before going to the Main Rotunda for the big show…
we’d foray downstairs to a subterranean hideaway….
The Garden “basement”.
Away from the cheerful bright lights and balloons,
we were immediately assaulted by an otherworldly odor…
a confusing blend of freshly-popped popcorn,
mixed with the smell of elephant manure
and the stench of…
who knows what creatures???
Through the odors and dim lighting,
with curiosity and trepidation,
I joined the wide-eyed crowd to make my way up and down the rows of …
ummm…“oddities”.
These oddities fell into two broad categories:
There were the "Born Freaks”…such as midgets, giants or persons with other deformities, or…
the "Created Freaks"…
like tattooed people, obesely fat people or "human skeletons”,
(extremely thin men often "married" to the fat lady).
There were horrifying mutants…
half-human/half-creature, human pin-cushions, pygmy animals.
There were knife throwers, snake charmers, sword swallowers.
Fascinating, mesmerizing, spellbinding, thrilling, spine-tingling.
And while terrifying enough to give me bad dreams for weeks…
I could not wait to explore!!
The images remain transfixed in my mind today.
So let’s start with “The Tattooed Lady”…
every inch of her curvy body, astonishingly covered with inked design.
(Of course, today, you can see that in most any bar in the East Village).
Moving on to the Midgets and Giants.
Not only were the “little people” put on display to the rather sadistic glee of the crowd…
but they were forced to wear costumes…
like Lederhosen or tiny capes and crowns…
and often sat atop a pygmy horse or goat.
(And not a protester in sight!?)
The giants were huge,
(especially to a little 7 year-old boy).
One of my greatest “treasures” was the purchase of a giant’s gold finger ring
that was the size of a small bracelet.
(I still have it!)
Then there was “The Human Pin Cushion” ,
(early acupuncture?)
and his buddy the “fakir”, who walked on a bed of nails.
Both made me squirm with chilling delight.
“The Bearded Lady”…
basically an extreme version of my Italian neighbor Marie,
(she could always use a bit of a shave and she always scared me).
“The Sword Swallower” was frightening.
(I remember worrying what would happen if she sneezed!?)
And of course…
(in the ultimate example of body-shaming)…
“The World’s Fattest Man”.
Notably, he was not referred to as “the World’s Heaviest Man”
or “the World’s Largest Man”…
No. No soft-sell here…the guy was FAT!
And there he sat, shirtless no less.
Layer after layer after layer of rippling lard.
(Hey buddy, may want to consider a salad now and then!)
And perhaps the most terrifying was…
“Jocko the Half-Man/Half –Monkey”,
(Tail included). I tried to turn my gaze away…but I just couldn’t!
Oh yeah, I was set for a good two weeks of nightmares!
What was most disturbing about it all…
was that I remember these poor “unique” folks often just sat there.
Unsmiling. Not performing. Hardly acknowledging the crowds.
Just sitting there as kids and their parents pointed, stared and laughed.
Not exactly like the innocent joy of watching a smiling clown
getting hit in the face with a cream pie.
As a sensitive kid, the plight of these poor people bothered me…
BUT…
I’d excitedly show up at the circus the following year…
and head straight down to the basement.
While I awaited the seasonal return of the circus… I tried to fill the void by watching “circus TV shows”.
There was Super Circus, with ringmaster Claude Kirchner, (eventually replaced by the mustachioed Jerry Colona), plus clowns Cliffy, Scampy and Nicky… and Mike Wallace (yes, THAT Mike Wallace) as peanut vendor. And I’ll never forget the sexy Mary Hartline as band leader.
NOTE: For some unanswered reason, we had a life-size cardboard figure of Mary in our basement?
Big Top featured Ed McMahon as “Ed the Clown”, Dan Lurie as “the World’s Most Muscular Man” and Jack Sterling as the ringmaster. ANOTHER NOTE: I went to summer camp with Dan Lurie’s son!!?
Finally there was Bozo the Clown. Actually there were multiple Bozo’s. It was like a franchise…with different Bozo’s on local stations… including Willard Scott, Larry Harmon, Gordon Ramsey (No, not that Gordon Ramsey!) and my local NY Bozo, Bill Britten.
But the circus just wasn’t the same on TV. (missed that manure smell).
Sadly, on May 21, 2017,
Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Circus announced…
that day would be their last show.
Did you go to the circus as a kid? I’d love to hear about it.
